The Gas City Kiwanis Centre is located in the old Elizabeth Street School. The club sits at 27 members and is actually growing and looking to expand its programming.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
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Operating for more than 60 years, the Gas City Kiwanis Club is still thriving and looking to expand programming in the coming months.
One of three Kiwanis clubs in the city, the Gas City Kiwanis hosts and facilitates a vast number of programs throughout the year, said treasurer Ron Pennington. He was quick to highlight the building he was calling from as one of these offerings.
“The Gas City Kiwanis centre, formerly the Elizabeth Street School, was converted in the mid-90s,” said Pennington. “Now it’s more of a community-based building, where various groups rent space here, The criteria is that they can’t be a for-profit business. So we have organizations like the Boxing Club, Judo Club, there’s some yoga groups, the Medicine Hat Chess Club.”
Currently, the centre has 22 tenants, and is still managed by the club. Pennington was also eager to highlight one of the club’s other major projects, the local Safety City.
“Safety City started in 1981 and is still active today,” said Pennington.
He explained that it’s a one-acre property at the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede. The area consists of eight simulated city streets, where the club has young people come and learn about safe bike riding and get fitted for bicycle helmets.
“Then we have educators that go out to the schools and run various programs, like anti-bullying, cyber safety, farm safety, there’s a number of programs that go with it,” said Pennington.
Pennington continued that they plan to put significant energy into the Safety City in the near future, alongside works such as the Kiwanis kitchen, a portable commercial kitchen often seen at various sites, serving as the food option for many events. This allows the club to both help out and fundraise.
The kitchen has seen significant use and positive reception at the Elkwater Rodeo and events at the Dunmore Equestrian Centre, such as the Heritage Gather or the upcoming Little Britches Rodeo Sweetheart competition.
With so much on their hands, the club is thankfully thriving, said Pennington, with a current total of 27 members and a drive to recruit more.
“We’re very blessed and fortunate that we’re a club that is growing and expanding and taking on new projects, all of which are pretty well youth oriented,” said Pennington. He attributes this recent success to a modern approach to volunteerism.
“I think there are people who do want to volunteer, but there has to be realistic expectations,” said Pennington. “We have members that might participate in two or three projects in a year, and we’re fine with that. People, especially younger people, who we need for the club, are busy.”
Because of this, said Pennington, they’re able to somewhat “buck the trend” that many clubs have seen with a struggle to attract members, and have been able to grow and expand. The one struggle is finding people willing to take on executive roles.
Currently, the club’s activities are a but quieter for the late summer, but they expect to pick back up in the fall, with school partnerships, a trivia night and the Norm Payne Awards in collaboration with local 4H clubs.
“We’re in a good place as a club. Our morale is very high, our members are engaged and we’re at a good spot. We have a good culture within our organization, which we’re very thankful for,” said Pennington.
