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Our Founding History
The Kiwanis Organization was organized on December 14, 1920, just five years after the first Kiwanis Club was launched in Detroit, Michigan. The club had 53 charter members, with the official charter being presented at a dinner meeting at the Clarke Hotel on January 12, 1921, by A. R. Edmiston, the District Governor from Lincoln, Nebraska.
Kiwanians from Omaha, Lincoln, and Fremont, Nebraska, arrived on trains from to be present at the ceremony, with visitors forming a parade to the Clarke Hotel headed by the Hastings High School band. The banquet and charter ceremonies were in the banquet room of the hotel, where tables were set for more than 200 people. That was the beginning of an army of volunteers ready to work for their communities, the needy, and our children.
