I am humbled to be elected president of the University Kiwanis Club of Wichita Falls for the fiscal year October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025. Our club is a member of the Texas-Oklahoma District of Kiwanis International. Kiwanis International is a nonprofit service organization made up of a global community of clubs, members and partners dedicated to "improving the world one child and one community at a time". Presently world-wide there are more than 445,000 members including youth clubs (K-Kids, Builders Clubs, Key Clubs, and Circle K Clubs) and Kiwanis members in 80 countries and geographic areas. Each community has different needs, and Kiwanis empowers members to creatively meet the needs of children in their own community.

Our club is small, with 24 members, but we are mighty. We are diverse economically, religiously, and politically, and in ethnicity, gender, education, and age, yet we have one goal in mind: "improving the world one child and one community at a time".

We currently sponsor and provide scholarships to Legacy High School Key Club, Memorial High School Key Club, and Midwestern State University Circle K Club. In the past we have sponsored BUGS, Bringing Up Grades, in elementary schools where we honor, not the smartest students, but the students who improve the most, with awards. We also have sponsored Terrific Kids (elementary) and Junior High Builders Clubs.

The students in each of these clubs perform volunteer projects of their own choosing as well as assisting with City of Wichita Falls projects such as Halloween in the Park, Christmas-In-the-Park, and the annual Easter Egg Hunt. At Kiwanis Park they work in our concession stand during baseball season, help maintain the mulch at our new toddler playground, and assist at our Kite Day, Drone Event, etc. They help clean and paint displays in storage for the MSU Fantasy of Lights, then brave cold weather collecting money in boots to help fund the costs of the display. They help at the Kiwanis Hotter-Than-Hell Rest Stop, the Pancake Festival, the Home and Garden Show, and the Kemp Center Mystery Art Festival. It is very rewarding and encouraging to work with and supervise these inspiring youth who will be our future.

Our 2024-2025 budgeted programs include ARC Camp Harmony, Wichita County Livestock Show, WF Area Food Bank Youth Program, Café Con Leche, Easter Egg Prizes and eggs, and Children's Miracle Network. We have a Community Services Committee that reviews requests and recommends to the Board how much to donate and to whom. Since 1998, we have given beyond our yearly budgeted programs and scholarships over $575,000 to programs including Camp Fire, the original Wichita Falls Food Bank building and additions, YMCA Softball restrooms at Lake Wichita Park, Airport Hanger for World War 1 Jenny airplane, Wichita Falls Independent School District, and many other worthwhile projects and charitable organizations.

The University Kiwanis WF Pancake Festival is our only fund raiser each year. It is held the last Saturday in January. This year it falls on January 25, 2025 and will be our 69th year. In the past we have served as many as 12,000 people from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Our 24 members could not do this without the hundreds of great volunteers from our community, among them leaders, teachers, baseball teams, our own sponsored youth student clubs, and many from other walks of life. In 2024, members of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club cooked our morning sausage and Sheppard Air Force Base volunteers cooked our afternoon sausage. Supervised Wichita County inmates in good standing volunteer every year to help set up, clean, and take down our 15 pancake grills and 12 sausage grills, roll out and tape down cardboard on their hands and knees, and wash many pots, pans, spatulas, etc. It is truly a community effort.

At the University Kiwanis Park on Southwest Parkway we funded the construction of all current playground equipment and concession stand. Our new toddler playground is so popular that the zip line is currently often used by older kids and adults. Our current signature project this year will be three 66 foot long zip lines which I call "extreme zip lines". They are currently being manufactured and hopefully will be installed by our City of Wichita Falls Parks Department starting in November, 2024. We hope to create something more challenging for bigger kids. Hopefully, a few other extreme additions will appear during my presidency.

We definitely need more members. If this interests you, please give us a try as our guest. We meet each Wednesday at noon in the First Christian Church Fellowship Hall, except when there's a 5th Wednesday of the month, in which case we have a social dinner at a local restaurant. Our website is universitykiwaniswf.org or you can call me at (940)631-7403. We do have quarterly dues which are assessed to meet International and District Kiwanis dues. Additionally, members must pass a background check conducted by Kiwanis International. We would love for you to join our team and share our fellowship "improving the world one child and one community at a time".

Kathy Probst, President