Kiwanis Club of Hammonton, which has roots here back to 1922, was in trouble a few years ago, with only a few people coming out to meetings.
But after Butch Rodio, owner of
Rodio Tractor Sales on the White Horse Pike just over the border from
Hammonton in Winslow Township, Camden County, became president, he
started to reverse the trend by talking to everyone he knew about
joining.
Now membership in the local
branch of the global volunteer and service organization is back up to
more than 40, and meetings bring out a hefty crowd.
Rodio is getting help from
membership and program chair Bob Schenk, the owner of South Jersey
Laundry Co. Schenk’s grandfather started the business in Hammonton in
1921, and was a Kiwanis member, as was his father and uncle.
Rodio’s father and grandfather were also Kiwanis members.
“They get people in a headlock,”
joked Mullica Township committeeman Chris Silva at Tuesday night’s
meeting, where 22 Kiwanis members and 10 farmers came out to hear New
Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher speak.
This year’s goal is to push membership past 50, Rodio said.
It is a laudable goal for the 100th anniversary of Kiwanis, which started in Detroit in 1915.
The club has put on an annual
Halloween parade in town since 1922, and its youth initiatives are doing
particularly well, with 150 members in the high school service club
called Key Club, sponsored by Kiwanis. It is embarking on a new project
to renovate the bandstand and pavillion in Hammonton Lake Park, Rodio
said.
The setting for meetings might have something to do with the club’s growing popularity.
The club meets every Tuesday
evening at Joe Italiano’s Maplewood Inn on the White Horse Pike in
Hammonton, a much loved Italian restaurant well known from the Jersey
Shore to Philadelphia.
Owner Jimmy Italiano, the grandson of the restaurant’s founder, is a Kiwanis member.
“Jimmy treats us great,” said Rodio. For $20 members have a dinner that includes soup, salad, main course, dessert and coffee.
On Tuesday night Fisher talked to
them about the importance of protecting farmland, and developing
value-added local food products like a blueberry yogurt that will soon
be part of school lunches throughout the state.
There were few questions afterward.
“We have a very close
relationship with the farming community . It’s not like they ever have
to sit around waiting for answers,” said Fisher, a former supermarket
owner from Bridgeton. “My style is when a farmer calls, I take it
directly.”
TO JOIN:
The Hammonton Kiwanis Club meets
every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Joe Italiano’s Maplewood Inn, 470 S. White
Horse Pike, Hammonton. Dues are $110 per year, plus $20 per meeting for
dinner. Call Bob Schenk at 609-517-4614.
Contact Michelle Brunetti Post:
609-272-7219
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