Kiwanis charity profile

With membership dwindling and chapters closing, the Kiwanis High Noon chapter of Sterling Heights knew fundraising efforts were more important than ever. That’s why a couple years ago, the chapter decided to shake up their current fundraising system and explore something new. “We used to sell peanuts on a street corner,” Kiwanis historian Joe Komarzec said. “But with all the cars passing by, that became dangerous.”

Taking advantage of the four gaming licenses the state of Michigan allows charities to apply for per year, the High Noon chapter — one of two Kiwanis clubs in Sterling Heights and 8,000 clubs in the world— has raised thousands of dollars for its causes. Some of that money was earned Thursday night at the Sunnybrook poker room in Sterling Heights. “Charity poker has really helped us out during this economic time,” Komarzec said. “We’ve found that it’s a really viable program for us to raise funds.”

Funds raised by the 260,000 Kiwanis members worldwide are funneled to a number of causes, but most of them go indirectly to children, who members urge to lead a healthy and active lifestyle. Their mission statement: “Kiwanis, through guidance and example, works to develop future generations of leaders. Every day, Kiwanians are revitalizing neighborhoods, organizing youth-sports programs, tutoring, building playgrounds, and performing countless other projects to help children and communities.”

By promoting these ideals, Kiwanis aims to foster future generations of leaders. In pursuit of this goal, Kiwanis sponsors roughly 7,000 youth service clubs and 320,000 youth members, according to its website. Some of the activities in which Kiwanis partakes are sheltering the homeless, mentoring the disadvantaged, caring for the sick, and feeding the hungry. For more information about Kiwanis, call 1-800-549-2647 or visit its website at http://www.kiwanis.org/.