MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1997 Regular Session

To: Rules

By: Representative Short

A RESOLUTION COMMENDING THE KIWANIS CLUB OF GULFPORT ON ITS SEVENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY. 

WHEREAS, seventy-five years ago, on February 22, 1922, the Kiwanis Club of Gulfport received its charter, only seven years after the founding of Kiwanis International in Detroit, Michigan; and

WHEREAS, the charter for the Kiwanis Club of Gulfport was presented at a gala function at the Great Southern Hotel where fifty charter members, their spouses, the Kiwanis from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the sponsoring club, Laurel and Jackson and other special guests were in attendance; and

WHEREAS, J. L. Taylor was the first president of the Kiwanis Club of Gulfport, and he was succeeded by J. K. (Jake) Milner who incidently was not one of the charter members because he missed being one by a couple of months as did Eugene Wilkes who became president in 1930; and

WHEREAS, Jake Milner remembered President Taylor's remarks when he was inducted into the club, stating to the new members, "If two men had a dollar and exchanged dollars, they would still only have a dollar; but if each man had an idea and exchanged ideas they would each have two ideas."; and

WHEREAS, around 1930, the Gulfport Exchange Club, with "Choppy" Brandon as president, merged and its members became members of the Kiwanis Club of Gulfport; and

WHEREAS, the Gulfport Kiwanis Club is truly a service club with a proud record of accomplishment, and during the past seventy-five years it has been active in exchanging ideas and developing community projects; and

WHEREAS, in the early years the club sponsored benefit football games and minstrel shows and in the later year the primary fund-raiser has been pancake sales which has supported many activities, projects and programs for the young people of the community including: Key Clubs in local high schools, the construction of Kiwanis Park annual Youth Leadership Conference, Special Olympics, youth golf, soccer, baseball and softball teams, Boys and Girls State, awards for athletic and scholar Students of the Week, and contributions to the support of the School for Exceptional Children, Woman's Center, Salvation Army, Auntie Littie Program, Coast Crime Commission, Feed My Sheep, Coats for Kids, Adopt-A-School Program, Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, Kids Voting, Special Fishing Rodeos and many, many others; and

WHEREAS, the Kiwanis Club of Gulfport also participates in worldwide projects through Kiwanis International, and currently the Kiwanis Club of Gulfport is joined by nearly a third of a million Kiwanis around the world to raise $75 million in a project that will eradicate Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD) worldwide by the year 2000; and

WHEREAS, the Gulfport Kiwanis Club is dedicated to the promotion of higher social, business and professional standards, and to the development, by precept and example, of a most intelligent, aggressive and serviceable citizenship recognizing the Golden Rule as a guide for everyday life as it enters its fourth quarter century of community service:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby commend the Kiwanis Club of Gulfport on their seventy-fifth birthday.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to the Kiwanis Club of Gulfport and the members of the Capitol Press Corps.