Newsletter

APRIL, 2025 NEWSETTER 

Texas Oklahoma District, (TO), Governor’s Project this year is Special Needs Graduates. We are giving $100 from our club to the project. This is in our yearly budget. 

April 10-12th is the Kiwanis TO Key Club Convention. Our own Cathy Dobson, Legacy High School Key Club Sponsor, with Marley Graham & Carl Thomas, Legacy Faculty Sponsors, will be accompanying 20 kids.  

April 12th is also the City of Wichita Falls Annual Easter Egg Hunt. UKWF helps pay for eggs & prizes and sponsors Legacy High School & Memorial High School Key Clubs to help run the event. This year the CWF is moving it to Hamilton Park, 3101 Hamilton Blvd. From 12:15 to 1:00 the Key Clubs help hide eggs and entertain children. The actual hunt is from 1:00 to 3:00. It’s a popular event with hundreds of children divided into age groups. Once the event starts, children & usually parents ravage the eggs in what seems like 5 minutes. Prizes are then given out to prize eggs finders. It’s a thrilling event and I recommend you attend if you can. 

April 24th is Key Forever Day. The International goal is $5,000. You are welcome to give as you can. Mike Lueke and Susan Marrs can take your moneys and forward to international. 

April 30th is our 5th Wednesday that we do a social instead of our general meeting. Saturday, April 26 from 10:30 – 2:00 is District training in Altus, OK. This will be a nice day trip and we can always learn more about our International Kiwanis ever changing information to keep up with today’s world. We have the option to go early and have breakfast together at Araceli’s Restaurant, who has confirmed that they can seat 10-20 of us. A meal will be provided at the training. The cost for training is $20 a person. We could caravan up there via Vernon, TX and return via the Wichita Mountains. Maybe even stop at Meer’s Restaurant in Wichita Mountains for cobbler desert.  This should be a fun outing that could bring us closer together. Let me hear your ideas so we can make it a special time. 

May 15th is Field Day for Cunningham Elementary.  Their Partner In Education (PIE) representative, Jessica Young requested the UKWF be a partner. We hope to have Wichita Falls Independent School District PIE Coordinator for a program this summer. Their immediate request is to have KONA ICE have a truck at their Field Day, May 15, 2025, the last week of school. We have offered to have one of their classes visit our new Zip Line on a field trip and coordinate it with ribbon cutting. Decisions are being made. 

June 25-28th is Kiwanis International Convention in Pittsburg, PA. This is a gathering of Kiwanis from all over the World to meet other Kiwanians, get training, attend workshops, learn what other clubs are doing that are successful. Henry Winkler and other motivational speakers give us encouragement. Personally it is a well-organized, peaceful, pep rally that offers education and friendship. Our own Cathy Dobson and Lt Gov. Keith Rice will be attending and sharing with us new info. 

July 24-27th is the Texas Oklahoma Convention, DECON. It is a more intimate gathering, meeting, sharing, and training in Denton this year. Our own Susan Marrs, secretary; Woody Gossom, president elect, Mary Rhoads, and Lt. Gov. Keith Rice will be attending. 

Thank you to all attendees for taking time off from their busy lives to go to conventions to keep us up to date with new material and to vote on issues that affect everything from dues to rules. 

City Wichita Falls Park Department has finished our new Zip Line at Kiwanis Park that we purchased. Thank you Mary Rhoads for being the bull dozier to keep after everyone to get this completed. UKWF Parks Committee is studying and getting quotes to add to, upkeep, and improve our existing playground. Ribbon cutting for new Zip Line is proposed within the next 2 months. 

Our Kite Day was a success thanks to Cathy Dobson and Mike Lueke. Weather was cooperative but ony half of our 150 kites were given away. Attendance was down so the board is asking the membership committee to take on marketing responsibility. Hopefully, we will learn more ways to let the community know what we have to offer. 

Our board approved the Corporation Membership wording for the literature for our membership drive. Hopefully, we can start recruiting Corporate Members as we did in “the Good Old Days”. This will help spread out the man power of all the responsibilities that we support. 

The Community Service Committee read and evaluated seven Key Club Scholarship Applications. It was hard to narrow it down to three recipients. Georgio Tafolli, Trey Steels and Elizabeth King were selected to be UKWF 2025 scholarships. Each student selected will be given a $2,000 check made out to the student and the school they will be attending. Way to go all who took time to apply. Hopefully, we can invite the 3 students and their family to a regular Wednesday Meeting to present the scholarships. 

Thank you to all Committees for taking the time to meet, study, and present new ideas. You are playing a major part in keeping our club up to date.  

Concession Stand is up and running thankfully to Greg Randolph, Susan Marrs, and all members who have volunteered. Our adventure into the credit card world is helping with sales but we haven’t mastered it yet. Please be patient with us. 

We drew for Baseball Competition teams. The two teams are Blue Devils and Pink Panthers. Our secretary Susan Marrs, is sending out the rules now. Hopefully, this will be a fun way to increase membership. 

Busy, Busy, Busy is what we are.  Outside conventions, playground cleanup, and Hotter Than Hell, it should be a mild summer regarding University Kiwanis. Thank you to all members who volunteer to make our projects and service possible. If we all continue to volunteer little chunks of our time out of our lives we can change the World, One Child, One Community at a Time.  

God Bless, Kathy Probst, President, University Kiwanis WF 

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