Kiwanians, families, and friends celebrated the season with a special breakfast on Saturday, December 14, 2024, our last meeting of 2024.

Party organizers Frank Ferrara and Harry Spencer, with help from a talented elf (named Amy Jenner), decorated Norfield Congregational Church parish hall for the occasion and greeted us, serving mimosas during gathering time. Reverend Dr. Bernard Wilson engaged us in his invocation, reminding us how Christmas was no “ordinary” night. The Honorable Lisa Wexler explained the meaning of Hannukah. If we didn’t before, now we know the difference between a menorah and a hanukkiah with a demonstration of the latter.

Chef Bill laid out a spectacular breakfast spread. Dr. David H. Connell, Director of Music and Worship at Norfield, on the grand piano, joined by professional soprano Jennifer Barron, performed Christmas and holiday favorites after breakfast, leading to the arrival of St. Nicholas himself (sounded a little like Bill Brady) and one of his elves, who bore somewhat of a resemblance to Roy Marsh. Santa received requests from the children before departing.

By Dan Gilbert

Each December, the Kiwanis Club of Weston wishes everyone happy holidays with a wreath constructed with greens donated by Weston Gardens, decorated and hung by Kiwanis members on Weston’s historic onion barn on Weston Road, opposite Weston Shopping Center.

Weston’s historic onion barn photograph by Jim McMorris.

The 2024 wreath was constructed with boughs from Weston Gardens by Steve Thomas. Karen Chrisley created the decorative bow.

Kiwanis serves the children of the world. The Kiwanis Club of Weston also serves families and our larger community. Through a combination of community service and philanthropic fundraising, the club supports worthy causes in our community and surrounding area. The club meets each Saturday from September through June at the Norfield Congregational Church parish hall, 64 Norfield Road, Weston, Connecticut. Meetings begin with breakfast ($10) and run from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Doors open at 8 for coffee and conversation. All are welcome.

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.

By Dan Gilbert

Last Saturday (November 23, 2024), Weston’s Kiwanis Club and the Weston High School Key Club members reached out to customers at Lily’s Weston Market and the Weston Pharmacy to stock the Weston Food Pantry with nutritious and hearty shelf-stable food and personal care products. Weston residents were very generous.  It was wonderful seeing parents and their children donating food and personal care products to help their Weston neighbors.

Anne Bigin, the Food Pantry president, noted, “This past weekend’s food drive brought in over 65 bags of shelf-stable foods and toiletries. In addition to the items purchased or dropped off, we $454 outside of Lily’s, and an additional $340 was donated through Venmo for a total of $794! The food and toiletries drive helps over 70 Weston families with food insecurity. It’s important and necessary to help our neighbors in need, and the Weston Food Pantry appreciates all that Kiwanis does to help our town.”

A good many wonderful volunteers made the drive happen.  Reed Ameden provided the Kiwanis certificate of insurance to Weston Shopping Center Manager Josh Tolk.  Harry Falber submitted information regarding the drive to Ted Craft (Weston Today) and First Selectman Samantha Nestor.  The publicity the drive received was superb.  Anne Bigin brought food bins, a cash jar, lists of needed food and personal care products, and a food drive sign.  Key Club Advisor Dawn Egan coordinated with the Weston High School Key Club for volunteer support.  Allison Lisbon recruited two student volunteers.  Reed Ameden, Dave Burns, and Tom Failla set up and took down Kiwanis branding material (tent, feather flag, food drive sign). 

The Kiwanis volunteers who interacted with shoppers were Karen Chrisley, Bill Flanagan, Dallas Kersey, Carl Urbania, Dave Burns, Tom Failla, Harvey Luft, and Judy Stripp.  Steve Thomas provided invaluable guidance. Allison Lisbon’s son Justin and his friend Skyler Cole moved the food and personal care products to the pantry’s storage area. 

Pictured in the Kiwanis group photograph by Dan Gilbert, left to right: Bill Flanagan, Reed Ameden, Dallas Kersey, Carl Urbania Anne Bigin (President Weston Food Pantry), Annabel Gill, Emily Kreger, India Kreger, Lily Fournier, Paige Macnicki, Antonina Chmiel, Clarice Braun, Grant Mattinson, and Liam Rothlein.

Click or touch the button below to see over twenty pictures of the food drive from Dan Gilbert, Jim McMorris, and Reed Ameden.

Kristin Holden, governor of the Kiwanis New England and Bermuda District, visited the Kiwanis Club of Weston at the club meeting on Saturday, November 9, 2024. Accompanying Kristin to the meeting were the Kiwanis Foundation of New England (KFNE) president and her husband Chris Holden and Ned, the plush New England lobster she’s holding in the nearby photograph.

Kiwanis photograph by Jim McMorris.

Paul Piorek, a New York Emmy award-winning television and radio meteorologist is the guest speaker at the Kiwanis Club of Weston meeting this coming Saturday, November 16, 2024 at 8:30 a.m..

Mr. Piorek is the chief meteorologist at WICC 600 AM and 95.9 FM seven days a week.

Mr. Piorek is the former longtime 25-year morning meteorologist at News 12 Connecticut, where he won four Connecticut Associated Press Broadcasters’ Association awards for “Best Television Weathercast,” five Emmy nominations, and two Communicator Awards of Distinction.

Mr. Piorek is a Fairfield Earth Science and Mathematics teacher and a former Connecticut Teacher of the Year.

Mr. Piorek resides in Fairfield and has two sons, one of whom is a United States Marine.

The public is welcome to attend the weekly meetings of the Kiwanis Club of Weston at Norfield Congregational Church parish hall, 64 Norfield Road, in Weston, Connecticut. All full breakfast is available for $10 and is free for persons expressing an interest in membership on their first visit.

The Kiwanis Club of Weston, Connecticut is an eclectic mix of ages, genders, occupations, backgrounds, and interests. We are all passionate about making Weston and the world a better place for children so they can thrive. We have been serving the children of Weston, Fairfield County, across Connecticut, the country, and worldwide through unique and innovative service projects and fundraising initiatives since 1974. For more information, see our website at westonkiwanis.org.

The photograph is by Ned Gerard/Hearst Connecticut Media and appears in the Fairfield Citizen online.