Between sets of Americana rock from Danny Click and the Hell Yeahs at the Healdsburg Plaza last Tuesday, Aug. 8, State Sen. Mike McGuire took over the stage and, in his inimical manner, drew attention to a very special birthday.
One of Healdsburg’s most influential, impactful and certainly longest-living service organizations celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, and McGuire presented a proclamation from the California Legislature to Denny Stead, this year’s president of the Healdsburg Kiwanis.
A chapter of the global Kiwanis International, Healdsburg Kiwanis was chartered in 1923. The proclamation read in part, “it is appropriate at this time to highlight its many achievements and underscore the positive impact it has made in the local community.”
The proclamation was passed as a Joint Members Resolution and dated Aug. 8, co-signed by McGuire, a Healdsburg native and perhaps the second most powerful member of the State Senate, and Assemblymember Jim Wood, whose district also includes Healdsburg.
“Having our senator come by and personally present the proclamation was a very nice thing for him to do,” said Stead. “I’m sure as Senate majority leader, Mike has a busy schedule, but he found time for his hometown. Thank you, Sen. McGuire!”
Stead, a 23-year resident of Healdsburg, has been working with the local Kiwanis chapter and other nonprofits since he moved here from New York. Yet he said that despite the age of the organization, the Kiwanis are currently having trouble finding new members.
”It’s just tough to get new people. Our club seems to have older people, so it’s hard for us to get the younger ones. And of course, the younger ones are the guys that can really do the work,” he noted.
The Kiwanis have been running ads letting residents know about the organization and soliciting new members. But they are also taking the personal approach. “We as members try to go out and invite at least one individual to accompany us to a meeting,” said Stead, “to introduce them to Kiwanis Club and what Kiwanis does.”
What Kiwanis does, he said, is all about the children. “Our emphasis on saving the world, one child at a time,” he explained, paraphrasing the official Kiwanis motto, “Serving the children of the world.”
For instance, Stead cited the Kiwanis’ support of Healdsburg Boys and Girls Club, Little League teams, the local Boy Scouts troop, and providing transportation for high school graduates in June “that keeps them from getting hurt the evening that they graduate.”
He also proudly pointed out that every third-grader in town, including in Geyserville, gets a dictionary from the Kiwanis to help with their lifelong education.
Even their fundraisers are done for the kids, as it were. Among them: the winter Steelhead Festival, the Fitch Mountain Footrace and the three-day Future Farmers of America fair held on Memorial Day weekend.
“We get a beat-up old trailer, drag it over to Rec Park, and we sell hot dogs and corn dogs and garlic fries,” said Stead. “We make thousands of dollars on that.”
Scholarships for graduating high school students are one of the more well-known results of the Kiwanis year-round fundraising. But some events they do for the community, such as the recent Fire and Earthquake Safety Expo held in May at the community center.
Later this month, the annual Brandt’s Beach BBQ and Live Auction event will be held, on Aug. 26. Activities include a cornhole contest, wine-bottle ring toss and live auction. There will also be dancing—with Danny Click and the Hell Yeahs, by coincidence—appetizers, steak dinner and wine. Understandably, at just $35, it’s almost sold out.
Stead, whose term as Kiwanis president ends in September, is proud of the success of the club in its centenary year. He also remains effusively grateful to McGuire for showing up and cheerleading the crowd last Tuesday.
“There was nothing political about it at all, surely just to say thanks to us for, you know, doing things for a hundred years,” said Stead. “He’s very easy to work with. He just said, ‘Sure Denny, no problem. I’ll be there. I’ll give you the proclamation, and all that sort of stuff.’
“All we had to do was save him a parking spot,” laughed Stead. On a Tuesday night at the Plaza, that’s no easy task.
Healdsburg Kiwanis (healdsburgkiwanis.org) is accepting applications for membership. Email membership committee chair Loretta Strong at [email protected] for more information.
