HANAMA‘ULU — Kiwanis Club of Kaua‘i member Steven Nishimura said they help the visitor numbers. On Tuesday, the Kiwanis Club of Kaua‘i was visited by 18 members from three different Kiwanis clubs: Escondido, Rancho Bernardo from California and Lake Kiowa
HANAMA‘ULU — Kiwanis Club of Kaua‘i member Steven Nishimura said they help the visitor numbers.
On Tuesday, the Kiwanis Club of Kaua‘i was visited by 18 members from three different Kiwanis clubs: Escondido, Rancho Bernardo from California and Lake Kiowa from Texas.
Helena Cooney, one of the Kiwanis Club of Kaua‘i members, said the group is headed by Len Alton of the Escondido club and comes every other year to visit the Kaua‘i organization.
“It’s called inter-clubbing,” Alton said. “The Kiwanis club do it as part of its program. We got here on Saturday and most of us will be here for two weeks, although some will be leaving after one week.”
Alton said inter-clubbing is a practice where one Kiwanis club visits another club. Those visits are designed to acquaint clubs with each other’s members and projects.
Cooney said the visits started for the first time in 1998 when the Kiwanis Club launched its Web site headed by the efforts of David Haas.
“The Web site is wonderful because it gives visiting Kiwanis somewhere to connect with us,” Cooney said. “They come to visit the island and by connecting to the Web site, they can find us.”
The 18 visiting Kiwanis jumped right into the weekly Tuesday meeting with the Kaua‘i hosts and lost little time exploring the menu of Hanama‘ulu Cafe, the site of the Kiwanis Club of Kaua‘i’s lunchtime meetings.
Cooney said the Escondido Kiwanis Club usually spearheads the visits, bringing along other clubs when it makes its trips to Kaua‘i every other year.
“They’re a very active club,” Cooney said. “They build orphanages and take on these large projects.”
Nishimura said with all the talk of declining visitors, it’s nice to see that there are some people who keep coming back to help the ailing arrival counts.
Visitors don’t need to come here to build orphanages, they make a difference just by visiting.
The guests include Len and Mary Ellen Alton, Jennifer and Bob Davis, Charlie Morgan, Nat Heard, Corky and Michelle Bless, Jim and Nancy McNabb, Joe Heard, Fran and Louise Ronalds, Jim and Marlene Kelley, Jodi Heard, Tom Buchenan, Mary Clary, Woody Souza.
