Governor Delores Lewis

“Passion to Serve, Lead and Excel.”

Fel­low Kiwa­ni­ans, I bring greet­ings to you for a new Kiwan­ian year where we will face chal­lenges like no oth­er year in the his­to­ry of our orga­ni­za­tion, but one in which I am hope­ful that we will con­tin­ue to serve the chil­dren in our com­mu­ni­ties with even greater enthu­si­asm than ever before.

Due to the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic so many new norms had to be estab­lished. We faced the can­cel­la­tion of our May 2020 Dis­trict Con­ven­tion in Fred­er­ic­ton, New Brunswick result­ing in the use of a vir­tu­al plat­form to con­duct the usu­al busi­ness of the dis­trict and the train­ing of our Lieu­tenant Governors.

Our June Inter­na­tion­al Con­ven­tion in Indi­anapo­lis, Indi­ana unfor­tu­nate­ly was also can­celled, the first inter­rup­tion in the annu­al con­ven­tion since a Kiwa­nis Inter­na­tion­al Coun­cil meet­ing was sub­sti­tut­ed for the con­ven­tion dur­ing World War II and resum­ing its reg­u­lar con­ven­tion in 1946.

Nonethe­less, the most impor­tant fac­tor is pro­tect­ing the lives and safe­ty of our mem­bers, and their fam­i­lies at this time. I must applaud all the club lead­ers who con­tin­ued to inspire and moti­vate their mem­bers using the vir­tu­al plat­form dur­ing this pan­dem­ic. Many of our mem­bers con­tin­ued their Kiwa­nis ser­vice which was so nec­es­sary and were able to do so in many inno­v­a­tive ways.

As we look for­ward to the 2020–2021 year, our chil­dren will need Kiwa­nis more now than ever before. The after­math of this pan­dem­ic will have a last­ing effect on our chil­dren and the youth of our com­mu­ni­ties. The areas where they will most be affect­ed are in Edu­ca­tion, Health, Nutri­tion and Safe­ty and I implore you to con­cen­trate your ser­vice this year in those areas. I ask that you be bold, be cre­ative, be imag­i­na­tive and be inno­v­a­tive in your approach to your ser­vice projects as you con­tin­ue to serve the chil­dren in your com­mu­ni­ties. Be ready as Kiwa­ni­ans to lead your com­mu­ni­ty in service.

I do wish even in this time of uncer­tain­ty, the best year ever, for all our Kiwa­nis Clubs. We need more now than ever before to open new clubs, to increase our mem­ber­ship, to advance the image of Kiwa­nis and to expand our SLP and youth Pro­grams , as well as, rec­og­nize and iden­ti­fy new and emerg­ing lead­ers offer­ing them train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties so that our dis­trict can remain healthy and strong.

For 2020–2021, togeth­er, I firm­ly believe that we will suc­ceed and excel in ser­vice and leadership.

We are in this together,
Delores B Lewis, MD
Dis­trict Gov­er­nor 2020–2021