District History and Club Birthdays!

by John Fox, Capital District Historian

Everyone has a birthday. The date you joined Kiwanis is your Kiwanis birthday. The club's birthday is when club organized.  The Capital District's birthday is August 29, 1918. CKI will be celebrating its 50th in January. William M. Eagles was the first District (CKI) Committee Chair in 1960. Divisions 1, 2, 3, and 4 were first organized in 1923.  Well actually they were first called "Zones". The other 18 District Divisions were formed from one of these four.

The District History was first put on the web in 1998. The purpose at that time was to provide all seven Volumes of the Capital District from 1917 to 1955, since few Kiwanians had copies of these books. Each club provided their own information. The District Historians organized the content:

• Harry G. Kimball (Volume 1, 1917-1923, Volume 2, 1924-1927, and Volume 3, 1928-1929).
• Henry A. Converse (Volume 4, 1930-1937, Volume 5, 1938-1943, Volume 6, 1944-1950).
• Miles S. Reifsnyder (Volume 7, 1951-1955).

Now the web site maintains a record of the District.  You can read about the early years, learn of the 400+ clubs, conventions, division expansion, International clubs from 1917 to 2004, LT. Governors, District Chairs, Regions, Club Secretaries, and view the District by years. 

Question - why does Baltimore, Norfolk, and Richmond have a lower key number than the first District club Washington?

As to birthdays this Kiwanis year (Oct 2009 to Sept 2010), clubs celebrating:

• 90 years are Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke, Portsmouth, Lynchburg. (Portsmouth and Lynchburg organized within days of each other.)
• 85 years are Manassas, Crew, Waynesboro, Bassett;
• 75 years are Prince Georges County, Dover, Pikesville, Reisterstown, Georgetown, DE;
• 70 years is Bridgeville;
• 65 years are Parkville, Bethesda, Front Royal;
• 60 years are Eastern Branch, Haysi, Warwick, Mount Airy, Christiansburg, Rockville, Delmar;
• 55 years are Virginia Beach, Annandale, Commodore Mayo;
• 50 years are Towson Timonium, Franklin; 
• 45 years is Orange;
• 35 years are Harbor Front, Churchland, Ocean View Beach, Poquoson, Tappahannock;
• 30 years are Waldorf , Virginia Beach-Combers, Greater Ocean Pines, Big Lick;
• 25 years are Bull Run, Chesapeake;
• 20 years are Northern Neck-Kilmarnock, Greater Millsboro, Blue Ridge, Midlothian;
• 15 years are Mitchellville, North Central Richmond;
• 10 years are St. Mary's County, Southwest Waterfront

To learn more about your Capital District History visit the District web page, select Kiwanis Links, under Capital District select Capital District Kiwanis History.