History
The Kiwanis Club of Christiansburg held its organizational meeting on May 31, 1949 at Goodwin's Tavern (on Route 11 South) with 32 charter members. Our club was built by the Radford and Blacksburg clubs. Charter night was held on July 19, at the Virginia Tech Faculty Center (now the Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center). Early meeting places for Kiwanis included the Do Drop Inn in Cambria, Green Acres (later the Outpost), Silver Lake (now just a hole in a cow pasture), Hornsby's, the Collier House (now Terrific's), and finally Stone's Cafeteria since the late 1960's.
Charter officers were
Albert R. Jones, President
Edward G. Goldsmith, Vice President
Nat Shifflete, Secretary - Treasurer
The first Ladies' Night was on November 29, 1949 at Auburn High School. Entertainment was the Centennial Choir from Salt Lake City.
The first year's budget was the huge sum of $720.00. To help raise that amount, the first project shown in the records was an auction on the Town Square. Items for auction were donated by the members, and about $300 was raised. Other early milestones for our club include the 1953 start of recreation in Christiansburg when Nat Shifflette chaired the program. The first Kiwanis Minstrel was performed in 1953. This later was transmogrified into the Kiwanis Follies in 1964. The annual Kids Christmas Party was started in 1954, and continues each year. In 1959, the Eddie LeBaron Orchestra was brought to town, whether for a concert or a dance is not clear. The Key Club at Christiansburg High School was organized in 1959, and the Kiwanis budget had climbed to $6400.00.
The Sandlot program was operated at the facilities of Christiansburg High School (now Christiansburg Middle School), until the baseball field was upgraded into the football field that now exists. This left the program homeless. In 1962, the club acquired a 5-acre tract of rough land behind what is now Southern States, off Roanoke Street. After the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of manhours, the result is the existing Kiwanis Park, a modern, well-maintained 5.5-acre recreation complex. Facilities include two lighted softball fields, storage buildings, rest room facilities, and a picnic shelter. These facilities are available to the community, Kiwanis makes no charge for their use.
As mentioned, Kiwanis started the sandlot program in 1952. In 1953, the Christiansburg-Cambria Community Center assumed responsibility for the program. When this group disbanded in 1955, Kiwanis again assumed full responsibility for all sandlot activities. From this point until 1970, Kiwanis fully funded and operated the program.
With the urging of Kiwanis and other civic-minded groups, the Christiansburg Town Council in September of 1970 formed the Department of Parks and Recreation. Still with the assistance of Kiwanis, this Department operates the total recreation program of the Town of Christiansburg. It is probably fair to say that without Kiwanis, the Town involvement would have happened much later.
Apropos of nothing, it seems our club newsletter has had at least four incarnations. In 1950, it was named the KiweeK, by a member named Sidney Willis. In 1963, it was called the Kiwanis News. In about 1966, the Kiwanagram was born, but "died" in about 1970. It had a spastic life until 1989, when it was restarted.
The Spring Carnival started in the early 80's, then died in 1988 with a disaster of a carnival at the old Hecht's lot. In 1990, in cooperation with the Blacksburg club, the Carnival was started again, on the lot where Ryan's and the Red Lobster now are. In 1995 the carnival moved to a lot between Heironimus (now Grand Piano) and K-Mart. The 1998 and 1999 carnivals were held on the Merchant’s Mall parking lot, very successfully, and we hope to make that another annual event.
The Kiwanis Casino Night was started in 1996 and is an annual event today, as is our Kid’s Christmas Party, Christmas Tree sales, BBQ sales at Wilderness Trail Day.
In addition to fund-raising projects, we also serve the town. We support Boy's and Girl's State, a Key Club at Christiansburg High School. We are installing a children's playground at Kiwanis Park. We provide a scholarship every year to a CHS senior.
REGULAR MEETING
The Kiwanis Club of Christiansburg meets each Thursday at 6:30 P.M., at Stones Cafeteria on Roanoke Road. Our meeting starts with dinner and the meeting begins at 7:00.
We invite inquiries. If you are interested in learning more about our organization, click the membership info request below or E-mail us at kiwanisc@bburg.bev.net .