Last weekend we held the MidWinter Conference in Portland, ME and it was a blast! One hundred forty five Kiwanians and their guests attended the event. Thirteen educational sessions, four meals, two service projects, one dinner on the town and one hospitality room were held during the weekend. It was such a fantastic weekend filled with learning, making new friends, rekindling old friendships and laughs. I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to making the event a success - especially Judy Barrett, Rob Sherbs and Elisabeth Umpleby - and everyone who joined us. A special thank you to International President Lee Kuan Yong and his wife Czeyan for traveling 30 hours to be with us – it was a pleasure having them there!

If you weren’t able to make it, there will be plenty of other opportunities coming up to get together with your fellow Kiwanians in the coming months. I am hitting the road again for more Official Governor’s visits, including visiting Bermuda in May, as well as Kiwanis International Convention taking place in Pittsburgh, PA June 25 to 28 and District Convention August 14 to 17 at the Sheraton at Bradley Airport in Windsor Locks, CT. I also have a few one off club visits scheduled throughout the next couple of months as well that I am looking forward to too.    

I can’t wait to meet more Kiwanians and learn about what’s happening throughout the District. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Yours in Kiwanis,

Governor Kristin

SPRINGFIELD MA PARTNERS TO

COMBAT FOOD INSECURITY

The Kiwanis Club of Springfield (MA) partners with Open Pantry Community Services, on the last Saturday of every month, serving a full and healthy meal to between 50 and 100 disadvantaged individuals in the Greater Springfield area. This partnership, which has lasted for over 30 years, contributes to the Open Pantry's serving of over 40,000 meals annually.

Club members provide the entrees, salads, milk and snacks; and Springfield's sponsored Key Clubs volunteer alongside Kiwanians to serve the meals. Pictured from this past month are Tammy Accorsi (our Club President's mom!) alongside Kiwanians Nora Lynch and Laura Aiello. The monthly project is chaired by Kiwanian Marcia Haas.

DIVISION 14 DELIVERS!

Lt. Governor Jeff Coburn and the UPV crew, (Paula, Havah, Cortney) delivered safety kits to the Family Place.  They will be using them for Week of the Young Child. Its a week long event with vendors providing services to kids.  They were ecstatic about the safety kits.  They are trying to get 1 or 2 people to become Kiwanians as Kiwanis and the Family Place will be a great team!

MidCoast Maine Begins!

At the close of MidWinter, our intrepid membership team lead by Chair Bob Wiley, Governor Kristin and IP Lee Kuan Yong headed up the coast to do a new club build for the MidCoast Kiwanis club! Even with a snowstorm they were able to bring in 6 new members! A great start! Congratulations and thank you for all the hard work!

MEMBERSHIP

By Laura Nesmith for Division 4, but a great message all around.  

To All Clubs in Our Division,

Have you been in Kiwanis for more than 10 years? Raise your hand—thank you for your dedication to serving our community!

Have you ever said, “We tried that before, and it didn’t work”? Be honest; I bet a few more hands should go up

As I visit clubs throughout our division, I’m hearing a common message from newer members. They want to find their place in the club, but some feel their ideas aren’t being welcomed. We must remember that they joined to serve, just as we did.

Here’s my ask: Support all your fellow Kiwanians—new or seasoned. If someone suggests an idea that didn’t work before, listen with an open mind. Discuss it together. Do you remember why it didn’t succeed, or just that it didn’t? Share what you know, and see if the obstacles from the past still apply. They may even have fresh solutions.

New members want to help, and they want to feel valued. Imagine how lucky we are to have people eager to contribute! Embrace their ideas; let’s keep them engaged and part of the team. After all, everything we do here is for the kids.

Thank you for being part of the change that strengthens our division!

BE SAFE OUT THERE!

Provided by Matt Barrett, District Risk Manager

Did you know that every Club should have a SAFETY COORDINATOR? It's a position within

Kiwanis.

YOUR CLUB’S SAFETY COORDINATOR can also help protect its members by making

safety and risk management a general part of club operations. One key step is the appointment of a member as club safety coordinator. This person would be involved in all of the club’s event planning, specifically to address participant safety.

Many clubs have members with experience in the insurance industry and/or legal profession.

Because of these members’ familiarity with potential club liability, they should receive primary consideration for the position. Kiwanis International suggests the club include the following duties for the safety coordinator:

• Understand the general liability and directors and officers insurance program. 
• Take steps to inform your club about the insurance due to risks existing in all Kiwanis-Family Activities, including:
• The safety coordinator should analyze basic risk factors and determine those that can be managed. 
• Club events and activities that present a higher risk—and therefore should be closely monitored—include those in which an outside individual, firm or organization presents the event, furnishes equipment or sells products or services. (Examples: carnivals, circuses, rodeos, sporting events, air shows, and demolition derbies.) 
• For such events, the outside individual or firm involved should assume all liability arising from their activities. To ensure mutual understanding of this liability, all contracts or agreements should be in writing and include: 
• A hold-harmless provision whereby the operator holds Kiwanis and its members harmless as to any and all claims for injury or death and for damage to the property of others which might arise from the event. 
• Language stipulating that prior to the event, the operator will provide to Kiwanis evidence of insurance coverage via a certificate of insurance, with a limit of at least US$1 million for bodily injury and property damage.

SCENES FROM MIDWINTER!

The New England & Bermuda district had one of the best conventions in recent memory this year, made more special by the attendance of Lee Kwan Yong, our International President and his wife Czeyan. Between service projects, new and different training sessions, and wonderful fellowship, it was a fabulous weekend in Portland!

As we usher in Spring, let us all embrace all the beauty it unfolds during this time of the year. The Human & Spiritual Values Committee, once again, reaches out to the District Clubs to remember our fellow Kiwanians who, through their outstanding lifetime of service, have enhanced their communities. To do so, recognize these individuals by filling out the Memorial Form https://forms.gle/xNQ2zWq7EMR1cqjt8 that we have created and respectfully submit their names, a photo and some words of honor to be celebrated at our 2025 District’s Annual Memorial Breakfast – 14-17 August 2025, Sheraton at Bradley Airport, Windsor Locks, CT.

For those who have questions, please reach out to us via email at values@newenglandkiwanis.org. We have also provided additional information located in the bio of the form. We thank you for your time and consideration.

To have the time to put together a proper display, we ask that all information be sent by Friday, August 1st. We thank you for your time and consideration.

May the New England and Bermuda District of Kiwanis International come together in remembrance, honoring the lives and service of those who have recently passed:

Ted Bryant – Kiwanis Club of Dexter-Sunrise

Donald L. Cleary – Kiwanis Club of Taunton

Timothy F. Daly - Kiwanis Club of Rockland

William T. Dempsey - Kiwanis Club of Malden

George P. Dunn - Kiwanis Club of Middletown

Howard L. “Doc” Harper - Kiwanis Club of Natick

Sharyn Kelley - Kiwanis Club of Manchester

Michael A. Martin, Sr. - Kiwanis Club of Augusta

William j. Nye - Kiwanis Club of Greater Waterville

R. Joanne Odoli - Kiwanis Club of St. George’s

Agatha Forbes Pearman – Kiwanis Club of St. George’s

Charles E. Rouleau, Sr. - Kiwanis Club of Taunton

Elmo A. Sassorossi – Kiwanis Club of Barre

Katherine ‘Kathy’ Ann Schieber – Kiwanis Club of Caribou

F. Sherman Thompson – Kiwanis Club of Hamilton

Tana Tselepis - Kiwanis Club of Malden

2025 KIWANIS CONVENTION • JUNE 25-28 • PITTSBURGH 

Join us in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., for the 2025 Kiwanis International Convention.



You’ll be a part of an event that can help you transform your club and its impact in your community. Education. Fellowship. Decision-making. Explore all the ways the Kiwanis International convention can help you forge the future — for your club and for our worldwide organization. 

COLEBROOK K KIDS GET INVOLVED

DIVISION 16/17 GOVERNORS VISIT

Connecticut Kiwanis Club Annual Food Packing Event was extra special as it was my Governor's Visit to Divisions 16 and 17. Seventeen clubs donated funds and 15 were able to participate in the event itself. The attendees packaged roughly 13,500 meals that will go back to the clubs' own communities. Also thank you to the Kiwanis Foundation of New England for the grant that assisted us in being able to pack even more meals.

A special thank you to Lt. Governors Bob Poirer and Patrick Tokarz for coordinating the event and getting everyone together

-Governor Kristin

CHELSEA SHOWS ITS LUV!

Congratulations to the Chelsea Club on their successful 2025 Diaper Drive. Donations were delivered from: Chelsea Teachers Union, Lourdes Alvarez from City Hall and Spencer Lofts. Plus random people leaving monetary donations or clothes. Adding those to what we collected all month long we are so excited to give back to our Chelsea High School families

A WORD FROM OUR

NED CIRCLE K GOVERNOR

Hello New England Kiwanis!

My name is Jasper Makowski, and I am finishing the end of my term as the New England District Governor of Circle K International. While I did not serve a full term in this role, it was still an incredibly rewarding experience, and highlighted many of the aspects that I love about CKI. 

The year started off with our Fall Conference, which was held at Camp Sunshine this year. Camp Sunshine provides hope, joy and community through unique experiences for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families at their pristine campus on Sebago Lake in Casco, Maine, which we were fortunate enough to stay at.

Fall Conference was a weekend-long event where members had the opportunity to participate in service, leadership training and development, and in my opinion, the most important part, s’mores by the fire. Much of Fall Conference was dedicated to learning essential team-building and communication skills, and our service projects involved setting up Halloween lights for the upcoming campers, creating hand decorated envelopes to send to the donors who support the camp, and creating hand-made blankets for campers who attend. Additionally, we were able to raise 250 dollars in support of Camp Sunshine through our polar plunge, emphasis on the polar.

Speaking of fundraising, this year our district raised over $14,150 dollars for many philanthropic organizations including UNICEF’s Brick x Brick, St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Camp Sunshine, End Hunger NE, and more!

Our clubs have also been hard at work completing service projects both on their campuses and throughout their communities. Our district has completed over 1,500 service hours, despite all of our busy schedules in college.

Now, for the stat I am most inclined to brag about, is our membership. This year, our district grew by 86 members, bringing us to 199 CKI members in our New England family. This increase in membership includes the welcoming of two new clubs to our ranks, Merrimack and Suffolk.

We rounded out our service year by celebrating all of our success at our annual district convention in Westfield, Massachusetts. This year’s DCON was action packed with speakers, workshops, and service events. We had Matthew Martin of End Hunger NE serve as our keynote speaker, articulating all the ways we can make a difference in our community and world. After the speaker, we had blocks of incredible workshops ranging from financial literacy for college students to the work of End Hunger NE. But, you cannot have a DCON without good food, which was kicked off with our K-Family Luncheon, where we were able to hear about all of the amazing things the different branches of the K-Family are up to, and honoring deserving individuals with awards.

Fueled by the fajitas at lunch, we joined Matthew Martin again to pack over 10,000 meals for communities all over New England (I used some of those meals to start a food pantry at my school for at-risk college students)! Food beckoned once again, we had our President’s banquet where we honored clubs for all of their hard work throughout the year, presenting awards to so many incredible people. For dessert, we had a pie-in-the-face fundraiser of our district board, raising over $100 for Camp Sunshine! Finally, we wrapped up a fantastic weekend by electing our new district board and endorsing candidates for international office.



I am so proud of all of the accomplishments of our district over this past year. Our year has been defined by adaptability, perseverance, and growth. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to serve as district governor, and I am so grateful for everything our CKI family has done.

READING IS FUNDAMENTAL!

Kiwanis Club of Methuen partnering with the Salem Kiwanis Club, delivered over 500 books to all the 2nd Graders in the Methuen Schools today. Kiwanis is all about Literacy & our kids!!

SKI IN FOR KIDS!

Congrats to the Kiwanis Club of Mount Washington Valley and KHS Key Club for raising over $12,000 for Camp Sunshine with their 2025 Ski for Sunshine event!

DANVERS HOPS TO IT!

Congrats to the Danvers Club with help from Peabody, making 78 Easter baskets for the Citizen's Inn.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE!

Lt. Governor Bill Francis, member of the Caribou Club, called for a joint Division Council meeting between the Caribou and Presque Isle Kiwanis Clubs. Discussed among the two clubs were the joint meal project of 10,000 meals for Division 1 Clubs to take place at the Caribou Wellness Center in April. Also, the voting of Dave Silsbee as the Lt. Governor for 2025- 2026. In attendance were Caribou member Roy Alden, Presque Isle member Geroge Watson, immediate Past President, Sue Watson, Secretary, Deirdre McMahon, Treasurer, Caribou member Bill Francis, Lt. Governor and Presque Isle Current President Dan Amero.

Dan Amero, President, Presque Isle Club

Bill Francis, Lt Governor, Caribou Club

Deirdre McMahon, Treasurer, Presque Isle Club

Sue Watson, Secretary, Presque Isle Club

George Watson, Immediate Past President, Presque Isle Club

Roy Alden, Caribou Club