Du Quoin Kiwanis to Dissolve; Will Gift $20,000 to Local Youth Club

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The name Kiwanis comes from an Otchpew Indian expression "Nunc Kee-Wanis"--shorted to Kiwanis--and meaning "We build."

Founded May 29, 1969, the 32 charter members of the Du Quoin Kiwanis certainly did that.

Four decades later, the Du Quoin chapter is dissolving, and in the coming days will gift an estimated $20,000 or more to one of its first charities--the Du Quoin Youth Club.

Longtime Du Quoin pharmacist and founding member Robert "Bob" Heape told the newspaper Monday, "I'll be 86-years old. We all got old. There are only two or three of us left. I am the only remaining active member," he said.

The Kiwanis have gifted tens of thousands of dollars to local charities over the span of its 40 years.

The remaining $20,000 being gifted to the Du Quoin Youth Club is largely the residue from the sale of the old Midwest Dairy, Inc. repair shop the Kiwanis purchased decades ago on East Olive Street to K & H automotive. The property was later sold to Burke Tool Co.

While the Kiwanis Club was chartered on May 29, 1969 during a meeting at the First E & R Church and sponsored by the Carbondale club, it was incorporated in Illinois as a not-for-profit organization on March 11, 1970 by Jim Elkins, A.T. Atwood, Larry Hodge and Ralph Krazer.

The late A.T. Atwood, owner of the Egyptian Music Co and music director of the First Baptist Church, saw the need for a club of this type in the community.

Among those were Carl G. Bauer, Rev. William T. Branon, Larry Bullock, Rev. Wayne Dinkns, Rev. Larry Hodge, Robert Karnes, Ralph Krazer, James C. Neal, junior high music director Vern Rager, James Striklin, Wilburn Swetland, Jim Elkins, Charles W. Wilson and Robert Heape.

The Kiwanis attained an enviable record for aiding individuals, organizations and other youth and senior citizen programs.

In short, the club raised money to donate. They sold to buy.

The organization sold brooms and light bulbs year around. They were the very best brooms available anywhere. The Kiwanis also held an annual Peanut Day, the sale of sno-cones and giant coloring books.

The Kiwanis donated to both individual causes and community projects including the Kiwanis Spastic Research Foundation, the Boy Scouts, the American Cancer Society, the Du Quoin Boys Club, the Khoury League and its successor Du Quoin Baseball, Inc., the Magnavox newspaper and "Flashlight" yearbook, Booster Club and American Heart Association.

The Kiwanis also sponsored the monthly Five Star Industries employee of the month. Every June, the Kiwanis sponsored two Du Quoin High School speech students for a one-week communications camp at Eastern Illinois University.

The club has awarded three $500 scholarships for students entering college.

The Kiwanis was founded by Detroit, Michigan businessman Allen S. Browne for the purpose of helping people within the community. The first club was chartered in Michigan in January 1915 and spread to all 50 states and 79 countries.

Heape said he is working with accountant Harold Emling, CPA and David Haner to accomplish the dissolution of the club and the distribution of the residue of the Kiwanis treasury to the Du Quoin Youth Club before the end of the 2009 calendar year.