Kiwanis History:
The first Kiwanis club was organized in Detroit, Michigan, USA, on January 21, 1915. A year later the Kiwanis Club of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, was chartered, and Kiwanis International grew rapidly into a leading service club in these two founding nations. In 1962, worldwide expansion was approved, and today Kiwanis clubs are active in every part of the world.
The name "Kiwanis" was coined from an expression in an American Indian language of the Detroit area, Nunc Kee-wanis, which means, "we trade" or "we have a good time."
Membership was opened to women in 1987. There are now more than 51,000 women members, and one in seven club presidents is a woman.