Join Us!

An Invitation from

The Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos


What is Kiwanis?

The Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos was founded in January 1948. It is the oldest service organization in Los Alamos.

The club is affiliated with Kiwanis International, a worldwide organization that started in Detroit, Mich., in 1915.

Local members take seriously the Kiwanis International Vision, which states, “Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.”

The objectives of Kiwanis International spell out in greater detail the ideals that all Kiwanians seek to uphold:

To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than to the material values of life.

To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships.

To promote the adoption and the application of higher social, business, and professional standards.

To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive, and serviceable citizenship.

To provide, through Kiwanis clubs, a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic service, and to build better communities.

To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and higher idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism, and good will.

Six Decades of Community Service

A partial list of projects shows the wide range of Kiwanis accomplishments in Los Alamos in the club’s first 60 years:

  • Kiwanis sponsored Pierotti’s Clowns, a five-man softball team that raised more than $200,000 for charity and won so many games that Sports Illustrated once featured the team on its front page.
  • Kiwanis started Little League in Los Alamos.
  • Kiwanis sponsored the organization of Los Alamos County’s Chamber of Commerce.
  • Kiwanians played the major role in building Entry Park (at the eastern edge of Los Alamos) and Dinosaur Park (on Barranca Mesa). They were also leaders in the renovation of Rover Park in White Rock.
  • Kiwanis organized and continues to support Los Alamos High School’s Key Club, Los Alamos Middle School’s Builders Club, and Barranca Mesa Elementary School’s K-Kids. All three of these organizations are youth groups affiliated with Los Alamos Kiwanis.
  • Kiwanis actively supports Explorer Post 20, famous for its white water rafting trips for young people.
  • Kiwanis helped sponsor establishment of the YMCA in Los Alamos.
  • Kiwanis provides thousands of dollars in college scholarships to graduating seniors every year.
  • Kiwanis has recycled thousands of pounds of aluminum brought to Sullivan Field on collection days.
  • Kiwanis helps to sponsor and run a Christmas party for foster children in the Española Valley each year.
  • Kiwanis awards hundreds of dollars in prizes to outstanding Los Alamos Science Fair projects every year.
  • Kiwanis donates to both the Family Council and the Family Strengths Network in Los Alamos.
  • Kiwanis provides household smoke detectors to Los Alamos Medical Center as safety-oriented gifts for new parents.
  • Kiwanis cooks a free breakfast for Senior Appreciation Night every year.
  • Kiwanis conducts “Breakfast with Santa,” a pancake breakfast that kicks off the downtown Christmas season in Los Alamos each year. Families at this free breakfast are treated to a visit from Santa and an opportunity for their tiny tots to have their photographs taken with the aging elf. In return, they are asked to donate canned goods for the needy.
  • And Kiwanians runs the Fourth of July festivities in Los Alamos County—festivities which now draw more than 8,000 people to Overlook Park in White Rock every year.

Kiwanis has many faces. The public is probably most familiar with Kiwanis as a collection of people in yellow or blue vests and aprons who have conducted hundreds of pancake breakfasts over the years, but Kiwanians also put on protective clothing and staff the firing line for the fireworks each Fourth of July.

Kiwanis has a well-deserved reputation as a group of dedicated people who can move fast when the need is great. For example: In 2006, when floods ravaged orphanages in Juarez, Mexico, Los Alamos Kiwanians kicked in $600 in a matter of days to help. In 2007, when tornados struck Southeastern New Mexico, Los Alamos Kiwanians handed in more than $300 in just one hour to help the people there.

For the last several years, Los Alamos Kiwanis giving has totaled more than $20,000 annually. For example, in Kiwanis Year 2010-2011, “Kiwanis Giving” came to $24,090.The money went to a long list of excellent projects. In addition, each year, $15,000 to $20,000 is used to purchase fireworks. Every penny that the Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos raises from the public goes back into service!

Kiwanis Organization

Los Alamos Kiwanis holds weekly luncheon meetings that provide the “glue” holding the club together. The noon meetings feature reports on completed activities, announcements of future activities, and sharing of “happy dollars” to mark major events in individual members’ lives. Details of these meetings, related service activities, and upcoming events are provided in a weekly newsletter that goes to all members.

Three meetings each month feature speakers on topics important to Kiwanis. Recent topics have included the renovation of Los Alamos High School, the Trinity Development Project, the activities of Los Alamos Little Theatre, and prize-winning exhibits at the Los Alamos Science Fair. Kiwanis regularly invites all candidates for local offices to speak on their reasons for running and what they see as the major issues facing the community. All of these meetings are open to the public.

The fourth meeting of each month is devoted to committee sessions that plan for and carry out Kiwanis service. Among the club’s many important committees are: “Boys and Girls,” which provides thousands of dollars in funding each year for youth-oriented organizations from Little League to the Sister Cities Program, from YMCA to Special Olympics; the Scholarship Committee, which awards thousands to graduating high school seniors each year; the Science Fair Committee, which gave prizes totaling $1,500 to outstanding exhibits at the Los Alamos Science Fair in 2012; and the Fourth of July Committee, which prepares fireworks and festivities that draw an estimated 8,000 people to Overlook Park each Independence Day.

Kiwanis is run by a president, first and second vice president, secretary, treasurer, and board of directors. Members of the local group attend twice-a-year meetings of the Southwest District of Kiwanis, which includes clubs in three states. They also sometimes attend meetings of Kiwanis International, which has thousands of members in countries all over the world.

Both men and women are welcome in Kiwanis, and the Los Alamos club is evenly divided between the two. Both men and women have served in all offices of the club.

Picture Yourself as One of Us

Kiwanis provides its members with information, inspiration, fellowship, and meaningful service activities.

If you want to serve your community, if you want to make things better—both for children and for the community, if you would like to work with people who share your own idealism, then Kiwanis is the place for you.

Call any officer or board member for more information. You might end up wearing one of those blue or yellow vests while you flip pancakes—and loving it.

(Charmian Schaller, February 2012)