Kiwanis dedicated to community's youth

By DAVID GUNTER

Feature correspondent

SANDPOINT — Through economic ups and downs and the vagaries of time, the Sandpoint Kiwanis Club has managed to remain as a relevant as ever. The achievement is all the more impressive when you take into account the age of the organization, which celebrates its 90th birthday on Nov. 28.

According to Dick Vail, president of the Sandpoint chapter, the word Kiwanis has Native American roots and means, “We gather, we serve.” The local club has its own motto: “Serving the youth of Bonner County.”

Membership these days averages about 25 Kiwanians — a number that has fluctuated with the times. When the group held its inaugural banquet meeting in late November of 1926, the event attracted about 75 people. A newspaper account from that period recounts the election of officers, with names that still resonate strongly in the community.

“C.J. Shoemaker was elected president; T.L. Greer, vice president; D. Roy Johnson, secretary; M.W. Foster, treasurer; R.L. Jones, A.P. Asher, E.D. Farmin, J.G. Parsons, Dr. J.H. Phinley and J.A. Foster, trustees,” the unidentified press clipping reads.

From the start, the club selected Mondays as its meeting day — a choice Vail said had more to do with domestic necessity than anything else.

“The story I heard was that Monday was wash day back then, so it was a good time for the men to be out of the house,” he said.

The gender-specific reference points to just how much has changed over the years, as women now play key roles in all of the civic groups that once were the sole domain of men, Kiwanis included.

“Women originally were not allowed in these organizations,” he said. “Today, they probably dominate the membership in them.”

The first Monday meetings took place at the Ponderay Hotel, with lunch priced at 50 cents and dues costing eight dollars a year. The stated objective for Year One, according to a Sandpoint Kiwanis historical timeline, was the “Betterment of Schools.”

Within a year, the Sandpoint Kiwanis already were making positive headlines. A brief news item in the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported that the club was directly responsible for beginning the Bonner County Fair — long before there was a piece of land to host the annual event.

“The first fair was held in 1927 at the Methodist Community Hall under the sponsorship of the Sandpoint Kiwanis Club, which solicited the funds to defray expenses,” the article stated.

The 1927 fair booklet carried this announcement: “For the past two or three years, farmers throughout the county have been asking the question, ‘Why can’t we have a Bonner County Fair, where the best farm products can be seen and compared?’ Realizing that a fair would help develop agriculture in Bonner County, the Kiwanis club of Sandpoint decided to foster such activity with the hope that the fair would develop into a permanent institution.”

A photo dated Sept. 17, 1934, shows nearly 40 club members gathered in front of the Silver Grill Café for a group photo. The collection includes a roll call of the business and professional community of the era, with Ross Hall, O.B. Parker, Dr. C.C. Wendle, Bruce and Oliver Turnbull and Dr. O.P. Stackhouse among the gathered minions.

By the time Ross Hall was elected president in 1938, the group’s charter had been expanded to read, “Betterment of schools, classes for underprivileged kids, assisting in the county fair and the Clark Fork Hatchery acquisition.”

There are two ways to chronicle the history of the organization, one of which is to scan the names of those who served as president over the past 90 years.

“You can go down that list and find a Who’s-Who of the people who lived here,” Vail said.

To his point, the roster is made up of names such as Earl Farmin, Charles Selle, Ward Tifft, Bob Klatt, Tom Robideaux, John Porter, Bob Camp, Dale Wile and a few dozen more men — and by the late 1990s, women — whose leadership helped define the organization.

Another way to approach the story — maybe even the best way — is to revisit the good works that took place during various administrations.

In 1940, the group started the Kiwanis Club Nursery as a place where kids could learn more about plants and trees, and also aided the formation of local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops the following year.

By 1947, Panida Theater manager Floyd Gray was trying out the administrative chops he would soon use as the town’s mayor.

“He must have really cracked the whip,” the club’s historical timeline reads, adding that, under Gray, the club “had a nearly 100 percent perfect attendance record and sponsored the formation of two Kiwanis Clubs on the international level — one at Bonners Ferry and the other at Creston (British Columbia, Canada).”

It wasn’t until the 1960s that Sandpoint Kiwanis latched onto the cause they are primarily known for to this day. Dissatisfied with the “Multi Civic Club Committee” that had been appointed to manage Camp Stidwell on Mirror Lake, the Bonner County Commissioners began discussions on how to find a replacement to take over the job.

Over the next few years, county concerns about vandalism and the reputation the camp was getting as an unsupervised teen hangout reached a peak, leading to an overture to the Kiwanis to take over management of the 160-acre property.

“There was a longtime desire by the county to preserve that property and protect Camp Stidwell with the youth in mind,” said Vail. “They turned to Kiwanis in 1964 to make that happen. The catalyst was having a closely knit organization to make decisions.”

Savvy management decisions made since that time have turned Camp Stidwell into a popular group camping spot, well used by scouting troops, families and church groups alike. Recent improvements to the docks and camping areas have only accelerated that trend.

“Five years ago, we had a total of 1,440 user days at the camp,” Vail said. “This year, we had 3,500 — that’s a huge increase.”

The Sandpoint Kiwanis were formed during the halcyon days of charitable clubs and organizations, as shown by the thriving membership numbers in the early years. Steadily, over time, the changing face of the workplace and the community at large has chipped away at membership.

That said, would a group photo of the club at 100 years of age have much resemblance to the one taken in 1934, in terms of overall involvement?

“No,” Vail said, “and that’s the thing that bothers me. The folks who are devoting the majority of the time are about to retire.

“It’s not tough to keep the group together, because we have a commonality of goals,” he continued. “But it is difficult to get new people to join because of how much time you need to devote to something like this. Today, there are so many areas where people can put their time and money. When this club was formed in 1926, that wasn’t the case.”

All the same, the club hasn’t lost momentum or effectiveness — Camp Stidwell being a prime example — and the current president believes that’s just one more good reason to call attention to the group’s upcoming birthday.

“Ninety years is a long time to be in service,” he said. “And it’s worth celebrating.”

The Sandpoint Kiwanis Club will mark its 90-year anniversary with a lunch buffet on Mon., Nov. 28, at noon in the community meeting room in the Columbia Bank atrium, adjacent to Tango Café. Along with several past presidents and current members, Kiwanis Northwest District Lt. Gov. Doug Eastwood will be in attendance.

For information on the anniversary celebration or to learn more about becoming a Kiwanis member, call 208-255-6642.