Welcome to the Kiwanis Club of Corvallis!

The Kiwanis Club of Corvallis meets every Wednesday at Noon at the Elks Club

Welcome to the website home page of the Kiwanis Club of Corvallis, Oregon. We are a community service organization dedicated to helping youth and seniors and making the place we live in as good as it can be.

The Kiwanis Club of Corvallis meets every Wednesday from noon to 1:00 p.m. at the Elks Lodge, 9th and Grant Streets in Corvallis, Oregon. The cost of lunch is $10.00. If you're new to Corvallis or have an interest in becoming active in the community, please consider this as your personal invitation to come to a meeting as our guest.

If you will take a few minutes to look over this website you'll see that we are involved in many diverse community service activities. We are proud of what we accomplish, but good things happen only because of the efforts of many individual members - people like you. Please consider joining us in these efforts!

Annual Fundraising Events

History courtesy of Les Whittle.

Kiwanis was founded in Detroit, Michigan, on January 21, 1915. The first Kiwanian was a merchant tailor named Joseph Prance. The original name was "The Benevolent Order of Brothers" and its purpose was the mutual exchange of preferred treatment in professional and business dealings.

Within a year, the name had been changed to "Kiwanis", taken from an American Indian term "Nun Keewanis", which roughly means "self-expression" or "to make oneself known." It was shortened and modified to become Kiwanis. It had also become obvious that the original purpose lacked the power to attract and hold members. The purpose of the organization thus became community service, a concept from which Kiwanis has never deviated. A short time later Kiwanis incorporated itself and began following a growth pattern that continues today. Kiwanis establish itself in Canada in 1916, thus becoming "International". Kiwanis now serves the needs of over 71 countries around the world.