A Message from Immediate Past Governor Melford Clarke

Anoth­er Kiwa­nis admin­is­tra­tive year has end­ed and a new one has start­ed. It has been a plea­sure to have served as the 2018–2019 Dis­trict Gov­er­nor of the East­ern Cana­da & Caribbean Dis­trict. Our Kiwa­nis jour­ney and jobs are com­plet­ed, and we will be ana­lyzed, crit­i­cized and judged as to what we have done. To our mem­bers, I say con­grat­u­la­tions for stay­ing the course and best wish­es for your future activ­i­ties in Kiwa­nis.

To the 2018–2019 offi­cers, am appre­cia­tive of your ded­i­ca­tion and per­for­mance while you served as your clubs’ offi­cers. I had asked the Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nors for results. The pres­i­dents of the Clubs of the Dis­trict respond­ed with new mem­bers, more projects, indi­vid­ual sig­na­ture projects and eleven new clubs.  I con­grat­u­late all of you for a job well done. You have done your best giv­en your cur­rent envi­ron­ment and sit­u­a­tion.  You have done it your way.

To the 2019–2020 offi­cers, you are now in charge of the clubs in the Dis­trict. You have been giv­en eleven new clubs to mon­i­tor and grow into healthy and pro­duc­tive clubs. They await your nur­tur­ing and ded­i­ca­tion to the ten spon­sor­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties.  Sup­port your Lieu­tenant Governor’s and Dis­trict Governor’s goals and con­tin­ue to grow East­ern Cana­da and Caribbean Dis­trict.  The more we grow, the more hands we will have to serve the chil­dren of our com­mu­ni­ties.  I wish you a suc­cess­ful and fruit­ful year.

Our Dis­trict goals were few. We have added eleven (11) new Clubs to the Dis­trict. The Dis­trict cur­rent­ly has a net growth of 382 mem­bers with a grand total of 7187members (9/27/2019). These fig­ures will change based on addi­tions and dele­tion at the end of the admin­is­tra­tive year.

Many thanks to all Trustees, Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nors, Com­mit­tee Chair­per­sons, Dis­trict Admin­is­tra­tors, Dis­trict Exec­u­tives, Dis­trict Secretary/Treasurer and advi­sors for play­ing your part.  The Board of Trustees has accom­plished much. Two new divi­sions were formed, two divi­sions were com­bined as one, and amend­ments to the Poli­cies and Pro­ce­dures were numer­ous.  The Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nors have encour­aged clubs to com­plete month­ly reports and assist­ed in mak­ing the goals of the Dis­trict a real­i­ty. Dur­ing the year, Clubs build secu­ri­ty booths to pro­tect our young chil­dren, while oth­ers either refur­bished or cre­at­ed play­grounds in schools or com­mu­ni­ties. We wit­ness clubs deal­ing with dis­abil­i­ty per­sons by way of projects, food banks or vis­i­ta­tion. A nation­al day of ser­vice for per­sons with dis­abil­i­ty was pro­claimed in a Divi­sion. Anoth­er Divi­sions focused on blind per­sons and yet oth­er con­cen­trate on per­sons with HIV.  Our Ser­vice Lead­er­ship Pro­gram have grown. Today there are more Cir­cle K clubs, Key clubs, Builders clubs, K‑Kids clubs and Aktion clubs for the chil­dren and dis­able per­sons to join.

This year like oth­er years we had our chal­lenges.  Kiwa­nis Inter­na­tion­al Pres­i­dent Poly lost his bat­tle with can­cer approx­i­mate­ly two weeks short of com­plet­ing his admin­is­tra­tive year. Two of our Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nors had lim­it­ed duties due to ill­ness, a few of our senior Kiwa­ni­ans from the Gold­en K Club died and more than four Kiwa­nis Clubs will close their doors by 10^th Octo­ber 2019.  Hur­ri­cane Dori­an left dev­as­ta­tion in its wake on the Bahami­an islands of Aba­co and Grand Bahama, tem­porar­i­ly dis­plac­ing three of our Kiwa­nis Clubs mem­bers.

Final­ly, we extend Best Wish­es to Gov­er­nor Robert Spellen and his 2019–2020 admin­is­tra­tive TEAM.  The Dis­trict focus remains the chil­dren of the world. We encour­age all clubs to sup­port the goals of our Gov­er­nor.

Again, thank you for all you have done to Inspired Kiwa­ni­ans to Com­mit, Serve and Grow our clubs, divi­sions and dis­trict there­by pro­vid­ing us with more per­sons and hands to helped achieve our goals.

Yours in ser­vice.

Melford Clarke
Dis­trict Gov­er­nor 2018–2019
East­ern Cana­da & Caribbean Dis­trict
Inspire to Com­mit, Serve & Grow

 #Kid­sNeed­sKi­wa­nis,  #Inspire­to­Com­mit­Serve­Grow