OSFR Spreads Word to Kiwanis Club International

On Thursday July 23 2015, OSFR Policy Director and outreach person Merrillee Malwitz Jipson, at the invitation of attorney Tom Weller, joined the local Santa Fe group of Kiwanis International for their weekly breakfast meeting in Alachua.  She was the featured speaker and gave a PowerPoint presentation on the springs and rivers of our area and the dangers thereto.

This is another example of the busy schedule of our policy director who is much in demand by all sorts of groups.  As the Kiwanis Club  is composed of leaders in the community, it is beneficial to disseminate information regarding the precarious situation of our water resources.  The more we get the word out, the more we can help our river.

Kiwanis International  is an international, coeducational service club founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana,  and is found in more than 80 nations and geographic areas. Membership in Kiwanis and its family of clubs is nearly 600,000 members strong, annually raise more than US$100 million, and report over 18 million volunteer hours to strengthen communities and serve children.

The name “Kiwanis” was coined from the Ojibwe language expression derived from the word giiwanizi,  ningiiwaniz, which is found in the Baraga Dictionary as “nin Kiwanis”, meaning “I make noise; I am foolish and wanton” or “I play with noise.” However, Random House Dictionary claims that it comes from one of the Algonquian languages to mean “to make oneself known” but in Ojibwe and other related Algonquian languages, this expression would be gikendami’idizo. The organization’s founders translated it as “We build”, which became the original motto of Kiwanis. In 2005 the organization chose a new motto, “Serving the Children of the World”.Members of the club are called Kiwanians ·

OSFR is pleased to be offered the opportunity to speak on issues regarding the rivers and springs, and also commends the Santa Fe Kiwanis Club K17090 (club ID number) for its continued good work to better our community and world.