Our History
The History of The Kiwanis In Holt
Birth of Kiwanis In Holt
by Ernest and Virgilene Hunt
In the early part of April 1949, two Kiwanians from the Lansing club, Mr. Walter Patenge and Mr. Bruce Calkins came to my office and approached me with the idea of starting a club in Holt. Having never heard of Kiwanis. my first question was, “Why Kiwanis?” They stated that Kiwanis was a group of local citizens who gathered together to promote ideas that could be of service to our local community.
The basis of a Kiwanis club was to have a minimum of 25 men who would accept the challenge of starting a club in our local area. Our motto would be “We Serve”. We called on Ed Clever and Orville Hitchens and found them to be interested in the formation of a club. We established a committee to call on the local businessmen to see if there was an interest in the community.
There was much interest, so the Lansing club organized a meeting where questions and ideas could be discussed. The results were very gratifying and within 2 weeks we had 29 men willing to sign up to start the Holt Club.* The Methodist women accepted the job of providing our meals and the church allowed us to meet weekly there. at our organizational meeting, we elected officers, Board of Directors, and established committees
The Lansing Club suggested the name of Dr. J. W. Sexton for the charter night speaker, along with Dr. Clarence Loesell. We found that Dr. Sexton was very pleased, but had to put off our charter night until September because he was going to be in Europe, lecturing for the summer. Our charter night was held in the basement of the old Methodist church.
As I review the passing years, there are many outstanding things that come to mind. We have so many members who have taken the time to go the extra mile by being officers and outstanding committee members. Our club has been one of a few who have never had to recycle old officers because there was always someone ready to step in and make our club better each year. Virgilene and I want all to know how proud we are to have had the opportunity to be part of all of you.
Sincerelv.
Earnest and Virgilene Hunt
Highlights from our History
The charter membership of the Holt Kiwanis Club included an elected government official, as well as representatives from finance, farming, publishing, and manufacturing. Meeting Places have been Holt Methodist Church, Holt Bakery and Grill, the Township Hall, later the VFW Hall. It returned to the Holt United Methodist Church in 1980 and currently meets at Charlar Place. There were no other service clubs in Holt in 1949 , so the Kiwanis Club of Holt was the first service club to be organized in the Holt Community.
An early community and youth service project, beginning in 1949 was to provide eyeglasses for visually handicapped and needy children. This project continued into the late 1970’s. Since 1950, the club has been a regular contributor to the Forney Clement Memorial Foundation (now known as the Kiwanis of Michigan Foundation), for the benefit of seriously ill children hospitalized in regional hospitals in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Petoskey.
In 1954 the club organized a Key Club at Holt High School, and in March of 1955, the club was chartered. The Key Club eventually became inactive, but in 1963, a Key Club was again chartered at the High School, and The Kiwanis Club and the Key Club cooperated in sponsoring a series of street dances. Two members of that club, Pat Brown and Tom Brower, Later became members of the Kiwanis Club, and both served terms as President of our club.
in 1961, the club first made public recognition of the “Top Ten Academic Students” of Holt High School. The students were guests of the club at a meeting in their honor, and ten books were donated to the school library in their names. This program has been repeated every year since.
In 1977, the club established a new program for youth: a bowling league for the mentally impaired and other handicapped. The league continues to the present time. It has 20-30 bowers, and they bowl at Spare Time on Saturdays, October through April. An additional feature of the bowling program is that the bowlers have a Bowling Banquet each season and every bowler gets a trophy. There is a traveling trophy for the winner of the two-day home and home series.
During a period of several years, including 1977, the club sponsored one or two high school students each year at the Law Enforcement Career Camp, run by Michigan State Police, local police agencies, attorneys, and judges in the state. The objective was for the students to learn something about law enforcement careers. The Project continued through 2014.
In 1979, we held our first June Golden Wedding Anniversary Celebration. The Club invited for dinner and special recognition, couples who had been married for 50 years or more. About 10 couples attended. The celebration was so well-liked by all that it was repeated the following year. It continues to be held every year, with more couples attending each year.
In 1987 Kiwanis International voted to admit women into membership and in 1989 the first two female members of the Holt club were Judy Furrow and Marilyn Schafer. In 1992-93 the first woman president of the Holt Club was Judy Furrow.
The Kiwanis Club of Holt’s Famous Chicken Bar B Q
Our oldest event, The Famous Chicken Bar B Q, has changed a lot to meet the times. In the 1950’s and 60’s the Chicken BBQ was a family event, a sit-down meal at a church, or high school. All of the food was prepared by Kiwanis families: we had homemade pies, corn on the cob, potatoes, salad, and chicken all prepared and cooked by us. Our customers came to our Bar B Q and sat at the table with us and were for a few hours an extended family with the whole town. About 1000 meals were sold, almost all of them eaten in the dining room. Then changes in lifestyle, state health rules, and costs, eliminated the homemade pies and homemade salad and added some difficult steps to the chicken cooking process.
Then, the customer base withered and the sale of meals dropped to half the peak. Difficulty with the cooking process and the high cost of chicken triggered a search for a better way. In 1997-99, a new chicken Bar B Q was put into place: the chicken was supplied by and cooked by a professional caterer who also cooked the baked potatoes that we supplied. Meal delivery was also revolutionized, a drive-thru pick-up was introduced. With the new success of the revolutionized Bar B Q a second fall, Bar B Q was also added.
