Service clubs give uncountable hours to our communities but sometimes still seem to be invisible. Most in service clubs suffer from what Garrison Keillor calls Minnesota reticence to brag.
It’s time to brag – modesty be darned.
All together, the clubs in Moorhead have a membership of 230 people. Every club welcomes members to make more service possible to make our communities better educated, healthier, diverse and vibrant.
One club has a district governor and one has a governor-elect. All clubs have opportunities for local, area, national and international service.
FM Cosmopolitan Club
Some clubs have close links to Fargo or Dilworth clubs. One such club is FM Cosmopolitan – which even has an honorary canine member, Charlie. Charlie was a service-dog-in-training from Service Dogs for America in Jud, N.D. Cosmo member Jay Titus helped Charlie learn about new environments before his placement as a diabetic alert dog. Titus currently hosts a dog trained to help someone with PTSD.
About a third of its members are from Moorhead. Fighting diabetes is the local and international goal. The club’s big events are the Cherries for Charity in July, collaborating with all Hornbacher’s stores. They have helped raise more than a million dollars for the YWCA, and the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center. The club donates for February’s Giving Hearts Day to support diabetes education and healthy living; serves lunch at the Salvation Army every month; supports Camp Sioux for kids with Type 1 diabetes and works with the American Diabetes Run and Walk in the fall and bike ride in the spring.
The club meets at noon each Thursday at the Fry’n Pan Restaurant in Fargo. The meeting is for one hour and consists of lunch, business meeting and guest speaker from the community. A monthly mingle night provides an opportunity for members, spouses and friends to get to know each other better.
You can visit its website at fmcosmoclub@yahoo.com and the International Organization at cosmopolitan.org. Jane Wiedewitsch is the president and governor-elect – contact her at missjane45@cableone.net.
Moorhead Kiwanis Club
The Moorhead Kiwanis Club delivers trauma dolls to the Children’s Miracle Network at Sanford Hospital. The dolls demonstrate what procedures may happen to the child or to prepare them for meeting a loved one who has bandages or tubes. The dolls are therapeutic, helping children deal with difficult situations.
Its primary mission is to impact local children providing books to local elementary schools and leadership development opportunities through the Builders Club at Horizon Middle School and Key Club at Moorhead High School. Leah Spotts is the faculty adviser and Peter Larson is the club adviser for the high school service leadership program. The Key Club has a record number of members.
Its fundraising projects include an annual chili feed that is held in conjunction with the Jan. 28 Frostival. It also holds an ice cream social in connection with the River Arts Festival.
The Moorhead Kiwanis Clubwas established in 1921. Paulette Frith, 701.671.6701, is the president. The club meets every Thursday noon at Usher’s House. Its website is www.moorheadnoonkiwanis.org or on Facebook, Moorhead Noon Kiwanis.
Peter Larson became governor of the Minnesota Dakotas Kiwanis District Oct. 1. He will be actively involved with the 140 Kiwanis clubs and more than 4,000 Kiwanis members in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. His phone number is 701.261.7012 and his email is phlarson@midco.net.
Vikingland Kiwanis Club
If you hope to be a member of the Vikingland Kiwanis Club, you will be an early bird. The club, established in 1971, meets every Wednesday at 6:45 a.m. at the Moorhead Country Club.
Locally the club concentrates on changing the world, one child and one community at a time. As part of an international organization, the two Kiwanis clubs in Moorhead are part of a $110 million effort to rid the world of maternal and neonatal tetanus.
Among the projects they have with children are Junior Achievement, K-Kids Ellen Hopkins and S.G. Reinertsen Elementary Schools, co-sponsor of the MHS Builder Club and Circle K at Concordia College. Any and all of them relax at the Kiwanis Park in south Moorhead.
One of the members presented achievement certificates at a local school. As the children were dismissed, one little boy gave him a hug, then another and another and another – then it became a group hug.
Each month the club serves at Churches United for the Homeless and volunteers at the Dorothy Day Food Pantry.
Its major fundraiser is the September Pancakes Galore during Greater Moorhead Days.
The club’s president is Jane Amble, 218.236.8698, email address is kiwanisvikingland@yahoo.com and the website is moorheadvikinglandkiwanis.org.
Moorhead Lions
Both the Moorhead Lions Club and the Midday Lions Club are part of the world’s largest service organization with clubs in 213 countries and 1.4 million members. Clubs began in 1917 in Chicago. In 1925, Helen Keller challenged Lions Club to be “knights of the blind in the fight against darkness.” That is the focus of all Lions Clubs to this day.
Because of the focus on helping the vision impaired, many businesses, opticians and ophthalmologists have eyeglass collection sites. The boxes can also be used for hearing aids.
The Fargo Lions Club has done several vision-screening days at Moorhead daycares and Clay Wilkin Head Start.
Lions Clubs International will celebrate its 100th birthday at the International Convention in Chicago in 2017.
The Moorhead Lions Club focuses on mostly local service while tying in to broader Lion projects.
A local organization asked the club if they could help a large homeless family with items for the apartment they would be moving into – soon. In less than a week, they gathered two sets of bunk beds, mattresses, sheets and pillows so that none of the children would have to sleep on the floor in their new home. The club takes pride in being able to provide comfort, practical assistance and dignity to people.
Serving meals at Churches United for the Homeless, as well as refurbishing its play area, are regulars on their agenda. They help with other fundraisers, clean ditches, participate in community events, and, as all Lions clubs, do provide eyeglasses for children, veterans, the elderly and others who may need eyeglasses.
Its major fundraiser is face painting and crazy hair booths at local events like River Arts, Loco Days in Dilworth and Potato Days in Barnesville. March 4 is the club annual bowling tournament, open to all service clubs.
The club meets the fourth Tuesday of each month, 6 p.m., at CCRI, 2903 16th Ave. S., Moorhead.
Moorhead Lions president is Sheila Maus, 701.200.1825 or sheilam1965@yahoo.com.
Moorhead Midday-Central Lions
The Moorhead Midday-Central Lions Club, like all the clubs in this story, does fundraisers to earn money to help people. Having a full treasury is not the goal of service clubs.
When this club does fundraising, it supports local, regional, national and international needs. The just held Mid-Winter 5M-11 Lions Convention Parade of Green supported the Minnesota Lions Foundation, Children’s Eye Clinic and, the Hearing and Research Foundation at the University of Minnesota; Minnesota Lions Diabetes Foundation; Can Do Canines; Leader Dogs for the Blind; Project New Hope for Veterans and Families, and youth activities.
So what is a parade of green? At district and state events, many clubs give financial gifts that are then tallied so the Lions (and other clubs, too) know at the end of the parade how much has been shared.
Locally, they do projects at Alm Park, Emergency Food Pantry, the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County to provide audio experiences at the Hjemkomst Center, Fill the Dome, Honor Flight and Apollo Strings at Moorhead High School.
For five Tuesday evenings, June through August, the club sells brats, hot dogs, chips, pop and water for Red River Arts in Davy Park, and the last two weeks before Easter each year they serve a ham dinner at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
Chartered December 10, 1958, Moorhead Midday Central Lions Club meets at the Moorhead Fry’n Pan restaurant, 2920 Highway 10 East, at noon on the first and third Thursdays of every month. Please call 701.412.3845 for more information. Club president is Erik S. Jones.
Moorhead Rotary Club
The Moorhead Rotary Club and its dictionaries for third-grade students program is quite a pair. What started as distribution in Moorhead only has spread throughout Clay County. The dictionaries have a label with each student’s name.
They also began English-as-a-Second Language programs for adults at public schools in the city.
In the spring, they sponsor a concert for youth symphony and other music contest winners.
Moorhead’s club works with the three clubs in Fargo as likely the only dual city, dual county, dual state club to do projects no one club could afford. Among the projects is a baseball field for children with handicaps in north Moorhead and a play area for children with handicaps at Fargo’s Lindenwood Park.
Internationally, the goal is to eliminate polio.
Each year the club sponsors one youth in an international exchange and provides grants to a youth group.
One Moorhead club member took her daughter on an international service trip. The daughter later spoke to the club about what she learned and how she changed because of the trip. She learned about the world, helped children and grew as a person.
Not surprisingly, the main fundraiser for the club is a travel program.
Moorhead Rotary meets at the Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center, 2102 1st Ave. N., Moorhead every Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. Concordia College Dining Services caters the meal.
The club’s president is Lynne Kovash. Contact her at lkovash6@gmail.com or 218.339.9467.
F-M Altrusa Club
Until this spring, Moorhead had an Altrusa Club. Now local members are all part of the Fargo Altrusa Club. The goal for all clubs is to enrich the lives of women and children by promoting literacy, education and leadership.
The Fargo Altrusa Club meets the first Thursday of the month at the Fargo Holiday Inn at 6 p.m.
For further information, contact Dawn Kaiser at 612.708.1206.
