Michael Carpanzano, president of the Kiwanis Club of Bolingbrook & Romeoville, submitted this article:

Although Kiwanis International was founded back in 1915, our local club wasn’t chartered until 2002 and this year we are celebrating 10 years of service in Bolingbrook and Romeoville. 

We are an organization of members of every age who are dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time. Our club members act under the following mission: “Serving the Children of the World.”  

Service is at the heart of every Kiwanis International club, no matter where in the world it’s located. Kiwanis members stage nearly 150,000 service projects, devote more than 6 million hours of service and raise nearly US$107 million every year for communities, families and projects.

The Kiwanis Club of Bolingbrook & Romeoville isn’t just made up of our 30 members; it expands into our Kiwanis family of Service Leadership Programs (SLPs). Just like us Kiwanians, our SLPs are volunteer-based and service-focused.

We are in each of the five middle schools of the Valley View School District through our “Builders Club” program. We have two “Key Clubs” – one at Bolingbrook High School and one at Romeoville High School. We sponsor one “Aktion Club” which is a club for adults with disabilities. We just recently chartered a “Circle K” college level service club out of Rasmussen College in Romeoville. 

In addition to all of our Service Leadership Programs, we also provide over 3,000 B.U.G. (Bring Up Grades) Awards to students attending elementary schools within the Valley View School District. The B.U.G. Award is a recognition certificate we issue to those students who were able to bring up one grade while not letting any others fall. 

We also fund scholarship programs for Key Club students at our two high schools. We typically distribute over $4,000 worth of scholarships each year. We are funded solely on donations. In the spring and fall of each year, you will see Kiwanians outside your local grocery store giving bags of Kiwanis peanuts to anyone who makes a donation to our club.

We hope residents, business owners, and community leaders join us in celebrating our club’s 10-year anniversary. Our anniversary dinner, being held at Ashbury’s at Boughton Ridge in Bolingbrook, is scheduled for Saturday, October 13, 2012 at 5:30pm. Tickets can be purchased online via credit card, in advance, and are $30 for adults for $10 for children under 12. 

The evening will focus on where we’ve come from as well as where our club intends to go in the future. We have several guests attending and speaking that evening, including Valley View Supt. Dr. James Mitchem Jr.

Full event details can be found at http://tiny.cc/10YearAnniversaryDinner. Tickets can be purchased at the following links: (Adult Ticket) http://tinyurl.com/KDAdult2012  /  (Child Ticket) http://tinyurl.com/KDChild2012

We have been dedicated to serving the local youth for 10 years. We are always looking for more members to join our club because new members bring fresh energy and ideas to Kiwanis clubs all across the world. Our local club meets twice a month, typically at noon on the first and third Wednesday of the month at the Bolingbrook Golf Club. 

Please keep in touch with us on our social media channels for complete updates on service events, fundraising and upcoming meetings. Please ‘like’ us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/KiwanisClub) or follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/KiwanisTweets).