Newton Kiwanis Club Comes to an end after nearly 90 years

Past president Robert Tennant has been involved in the Kiwanis Club for 35 years, and his brother Walter, who is still active, and father Robert have both been members of the club for over 40 years.

“It’s been coming for years,” said Tennant on the club's sudden closing. “Membership has been just dwindling over the years.”

Tennant said he recalls 40 to 50 people showing up to the club's weekly meetings in the 1980’s. Now, he said the club is lucky to see five or six of the club’s current, 16 committed members.

“In the old days an employer would say to go out and get involved in the community. Now they are saying, ’stay here and make me money,’ Tennant laughed. “Because of the mobility of society now-a-days and the labor employment conditions of this point, the interest is dwindling and it is harder to get people to meetings.”

The lack of members has made the club’s fund-raising attempts difficult. “It is tough to maintain and it was like pulling teeth when we tried to run a fundraiser,” he said. “What would happen, two or three of us would do all the work, if we could even get it together. I will say at this point the club is basically defunct.”

Tennant said the loss of the Kiwanis Club ends not just a long family legacy, but the hard work of hundreds of past members, many who have passed away. “You put your heart and soul into something and it’s almost like going to a funeral,” he said. However, Tennant said this will not end his personal community involvement and he will continue to help other organizations where he can.

The Kiwanis Club will distribute their remaining funds to organizations which they have supported over the years including the John M. Barry Boys and Girls Club of Newton, The West Suburban YMCA, The Knox Trail Council Boy Scouts of America, The Newton Girl Scouts, and ’The Second Step’, which is a battered woman’s shelter.

The group will also distribute funds raised by former Kiwanis member Brian Miller, who raised money for the club’s Blackington Fund, by running the Boston Marathon for the past 22- years. The money he raised will go to his two favorite local charities, the Eagle Awards Program of the Knox Trail Council Boy Scouts of America and the Newton Community Service Center, Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting Program for Child Abuse Prevention.

“The local groups are going to miss our small donations every year,” he said. “It is a lot of charitable work and a chance for people to stay involved in the community.”

The final meeting Wednesday will recognize the winner of the annual Hamill Award, which gives money to the best male high school baseball athlete in Newton. Tennant said there may be one more final wrap up meeting in early September. They will invite all the charities they have supported over the years, for a final last hurrah.