Kiwanis International chartered the Kiwanis Club of Weston on November 30, 1974. As we complete our first 50 years of service to the children of Weston, the region, the world, and other populations in our area, Kiwaniscope takes this opportunity to share our early history with its readers, as told by the club’s founder.
By Warren P. Joblin
The genesis of the Kiwanis Club of Weston, Connecticut, was in 1974. The club’s founder, Warren P. Joblin, was a Kiwanis Club of Westport-Weston member. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Division 1 of the New England District. At the time, Weston had no men’s civic club, and he felt Weston needed a men’s organization for civic and social action. Weston was primarily a bedroom town with no substantial commercial or professional activity, and it was traditionally the membership base for a Kiwanis Club. With few potential members present in the town during lunch or dinner, the regular meeting times for Kiwanis Clubs, he decided to build the Club as a Saturday morning breakfast club. It is believed that Weston Kiwanis was the first club in Kiwanis International to have its regular meetings on Saturday morning for breakfast.
The Westport-Weston Kiwanis Club initially opposed the idea of a Kiwanis Club in Weston. However, on November 5, 1974, at the urging of the Lieutenant Governor, the Club’s President, John Bradshaw, appointed a New Club Building Committee of members Harry Freedman, Fran Pastorelli, and Edward Heirtzler to work with the Lieutenant Governor to build a new club in Weston. The [Kiwanis New England and Bermuda District] Lieutenant Governor published a notice in the Weston Forum announcing a meeting to form a new club in the Parish Hall of St. Francis Church on Saturday, November 23, 1974. Meanwhile, he asked many of his neighbors and friends to join the new club. The organizational meeting was held on November 30, 1974, with 27 members joining Kiwanis. Officers were elected in the next week, with John Perkins as the club’s first president, and the club moved its meeting place to Norfield Congregational Church parish hall.
Club membership grew quickly. When the club held its charter night on Saturday, March 1, 1975, at Cobbs Mill Inn, its membership reached 60. One of the first official acts of the club was to assume sponsorship of the Weston High School Key Club, which had been founded several years earlier by Mr. Joblin. The club’s initial fundraising events were the sale of discount merchant booklets to support the construction of the Leavitt Pavilion and the pancake breakfasts held initially on Palm Sunday. For many years, the club managed the Weston Little League Snack Shack as its principal fundraising activity.
The club’s great success can be attributed to the quality of its membership. New members continually add vitality to the Club, which averaged ten new members yearly in the first decade of the 21st Century. In 2009, Kiwanis Magazine recognized the club as one of the premier Kiwanis clubs in the world.
Last Updated: November 27, 2024 by Robert Uzenoff
Weston Kiwanis Completes 50 Years of Service
Kiwanis International chartered the Kiwanis Club of Weston on November 30, 1974. As we complete our first 50 years of service to the children of Weston, the region, the world, and other populations in our area, Kiwaniscope takes this opportunity to share our early history with its readers, as told by the club’s founder.
By Warren P. Joblin
The genesis of the Kiwanis Club of Weston, Connecticut, was in 1974. The club’s founder, Warren P. Joblin, was a Kiwanis Club of Westport-Weston member. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Division 1 of the New England District. At the time, Weston had no men’s civic club, and he felt Weston needed a men’s organization for civic and social action. Weston was primarily a bedroom town with no substantial commercial or professional activity, and it was traditionally the membership base for a Kiwanis Club. With few potential members present in the town during lunch or dinner, the regular meeting times for Kiwanis Clubs, he decided to build the Club as a Saturday morning breakfast club. It is believed that Weston Kiwanis was the first club in Kiwanis International to have its regular meetings on Saturday morning for breakfast.
The Westport-Weston Kiwanis Club initially opposed the idea of a Kiwanis Club in Weston. However, on November 5, 1974, at the urging of the Lieutenant Governor, the Club’s President, John Bradshaw, appointed a New Club Building Committee of members Harry Freedman, Fran Pastorelli, and Edward Heirtzler to work with the Lieutenant Governor to build a new club in Weston. The [Kiwanis New England and Bermuda District] Lieutenant Governor published a notice in the Weston Forum announcing a meeting to form a new club in the Parish Hall of St. Francis Church on Saturday, November 23, 1974. Meanwhile, he asked many of his neighbors and friends to join the new club. The organizational meeting was held on November 30, 1974, with 27 members joining Kiwanis. Officers were elected in the next week, with John Perkins as the club’s first president, and the club moved its meeting place to Norfield Congregational Church parish hall.
Club membership grew quickly. When the club held its charter night on Saturday, March 1, 1975, at Cobbs Mill Inn, its membership reached 60. One of the first official acts of the club was to assume sponsorship of the Weston High School Key Club, which had been founded several years earlier by Mr. Joblin. The club’s initial fundraising events were the sale of discount merchant booklets to support the construction of the Leavitt Pavilion and the pancake breakfasts held initially on Palm Sunday. For many years, the club managed the Weston Little League Snack Shack as its principal fundraising activity.
The club’s great success can be attributed to the quality of its membership. New members continually add vitality to the Club, which averaged ten new members yearly in the first decade of the 21st Century. In 2009, Kiwanis Magazine recognized the club as one of the premier Kiwanis clubs in the world.
Category: Blog Post
Upcoming events
Valentine's breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Breakfast meeting. Program: Faces of Freedom, Walter Schuppe
Before launching this project, Schuppe had a 30-year career in banking and finance, most recently serving as a Senior Vice President/Managing Director at Pacific Western Bank until his retirement in early 2024. In addition to his work with Faces of Freedom, he serves as the treasurer for SEALKIDS, a charity that supports the children of U.S. Navy SEALs.
Weston Kiwanis meets most Saturdays from September through June at Norfield Congregational Church parish hall. Doors open at 8 a.m. for coffee and conversation, with the breakfast meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending no later than 10 a.m. After breakfast, we have a speaker or community service activity.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting with speaker Toni Boucher, entrepreneur, philanthropist, politician
In the private sector, Boucher has been a trailblazing business leader, managing billion-dollar budgets for major corporations and recently retiring as director of a $30 billion asset management company. A serial entrepreneur, she has founded multiple start-ups and held Series 7, 63, and 31 investment licenses.
As a philanthropist and education advocate, Boucher is transforming entrepreneurship programs at the University of Connecticut School of Business and serves on numerous nonprofit boards funding groundbreaking research and initiatives. She is the author of The Husky Effect: How UConn Is Creating the Entrepreneurs of the Future and has been inducted into Marquis Who’s Who.
Boucher holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut and has called Wilton home for forty years, where she raised three children and now enjoys six grandchildren. Her life’s work continues to focus on creating opportunities for others to achieve their own American Dream.
Weston Kiwanis meets most Saturdays from September through June at Norfield Congregational Church parish hall. Doors open at 8 a.m. for coffee and conversation, with the breakfast meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending no later than 10 a.m. After breakfast, we have a speaker or a community service activity.
Stone Doll
An Immigrant’s Memoir from War-Torn Italy to the American Dream
From a dirt floor in Italy to the halls of American power, this is one woman’s incredible journey.
In 1955, five-year-old Toni Boucher and her family left their primitive stone farmhouse in war-torn Italy and boarded a ship for America with nothing in their pockets and no understanding of the English language. But they had hope.
Stone Doll is the stirring memoir of an immigrant girl who turned away hardships, determined not to let challenges place limits on what she could achieve. She arrived in a country that promised everything but guaranteed nothing, and Toni grew up seeing her illiterate parents battle to create a new life when tragedies seemed destined to rip the family apart. Instead, through heartbreak and obstacles, she found her indomitable spirit—first nurtured by her father and brother, and later elevated through her loving partnership with her husband.
From those meager beginnings, Toni found herself to be a leader who exceled in all she took on: entrepreneur, politician, philanthropist. Boucher has run seventeen political campaigns and won fifteen. She reached the highest levels of Connecticut state government. With her husband, she rode the entrepreneur’s roller coaster—complete with devastating failures and formidable achievements, never losing faith in the power of an idea worth fighting for.
Today, Toni is a benefactor of the University of Connecticut and voice for society’s most vulnerable, She shows that the American Dream isn’t just about where you end up—it’s about lifting others as you climb.
This is her American story.
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Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
St. Patricks's breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Passover breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Green Up Day breakfast meeting. Program: Millie Best Environmental Award
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Community Service - Green Up Day
Annual Club Meeting for Elections Breakfast Meeting
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Mother's Day breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Memorial Day Weekend Fair
Memorial Day Weekend Fair
Memorial Day Weekend Fair
Memorial Day Weekend Fair
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Youth Service and Leadership Award and breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
High School Awards and Father's Day breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Weston Celebrates America 250 Field Day
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
NO MEETING
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Installation breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Board Meetings with Committee Chairs
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.
Club Meeting. Breakfast meeting.
Meetings are open to all, drop-ins are welcome, and your first breakfast, normally $10 for a full breakfast or $5 for a continental, is on us.