In April, my wife and I had the opportunity to attend the 85^th Anniversary celebration for the Kiwanis Club of Longview. It was a big event, and there were a number of people that I recognized from different Kiwanis clubs.
My wife and I found a table. We visited with people and enjoyed a great meal.
Longview President, Charles Angelico opened the meeting, and made a number of formal introductions. Charles mentioned that the City of Longview honored the club by proclaiming the day as "Kiwanis Day."
President Charles then introduced club historian Holly Bishop. Holly shared numerous facts about his club. The Kiwanis club of Kelso started the Longview Club in April 1926.  Bishop, a former band member related: "We used to have a marching band. Our club organized the first Longview Community band and they were good. The band became regular winners at the Portland Rose festival."
From Holly, I learned that the Longview Kiwanis club helped start Lower Columbia College. In addition to the college they started the Cities Annual Kids Day parade. They also started bus service for handicapped and senior citizens. In addition to a band, they used to sponsor an annual talent contest. According to Bishop this contest used to be one of the Communities top entertainment events.
The club now purchases police dogs for the city, they sponsor a Key club at R.A. Long High, and they sponsor several High School scholarships. They have built parks, playgrounds and camps and have done much for the children and adults in their local community.
Kiwanis International President Sylvestor Neal was the celebrations Keynote speaker.
Sylvestor is not a big man, but he has a big smile, and the ability to radiate love wherever he goes. 
Sylvestor spoke about the fifth object of Kiwanis; "Altruistic Service." "Altruism is caring about others. It is one of the reasons why Kiwanis exists." 
He told everyone a short parable about an airplane that crashed in Alaska. The weather was below freezing and the survivors managed to start a small fire. They foraged for more wood to keep the fire burning and managed to each carry back a log.
The survivors looked across the fire and some of their thoughts went "Why should I share my log and warm that guy? I don't like him." All the people had reasons not to share their logs. Some didn't like a co passenger's religion, others objected to another person's color or politics.  It didn't matter their reason, the only thing that mattered was that they disliked each other enough so that they weren't about to give up their logs.
The end result was that they all froze to death.
They didn't die of the cold; they died because they were all too hard hearted to share with each other.
Kiwanis believes in altruistic service. They believe in sharing their skills, their talents and their love with others. They know that they can do things together that they cannot do by ourselves. 
Sylvester touched all of our hearts with his message.
My wife and I were glad that we attended Longview Kiwanis's 85^th Anniversary celebration. I felt privileged and proud to be a part of an organization that really cares for people.
Longview Kiwanis is looking for new members and if you are interested why don't you have lunch with them? They meet at JT's Steak and Fishhouse 1203 14th Ave at 1:00 PM every Thursday. They would welcome your visit
and if you visit, you might even want to stay.