The Spring Hill Kiwanis Club celebrates the 20th anniversary

SPRING HILL - When talk turned to allowing women into the Kiwanis Club two decades ago, more than a few members of the all-male club were in an uproar.

"People thought it was going to be the end of the world," recalled Spring Hill resident Al Johnson, a Kiwanian for nearly 30 years who at the time served a chapter in Owego, N.Y.

By 1987, the Lions and Rotary service clubs were already embroiled in court cases over allowing women to join. The Kiwanis Club took a more proactive approach that caused outrage among many members.

"It certainly wasn't the end of the world," said Johnson, now a member of the Spring Hill Kiwanis, "and as far as I'm concerned, in the annals of Kiwanis it was probably one of the top-five most important things done in the club's 93-year history."

If that's the case, Johnson's Spring Hill chapter is now a little richer.

The group welcomed four new women to its ranks at a ceremony held last week at the Lake House.

It's at least partly due to a current campaign by the Florida Kiwanis encouraging each chapter to induct 100 women in 100 days, said Mark Taylor, governor of the Florida Kiwanis and a member of the Brooksville chapter. Taylor was on hand to induct the Spring Hill members, in the 20th anniversary year of women's admission to the club.

"We thought it was a great way to celebrate that part of it," Taylor said.

The Spring Hill chapter, formed in 1971, is a Florida club at the forefront of female membership, Taylor said.

The chapter currently has 60 members and nearly half of them are women. That's one of the highest percentages in the state, Taylor said. The chapter also produced the first female lieutenant governor in its Division 8, Diane Marsh.

Micki Hanna of Spring Hill is one of the four women inducted last week.

Hanna, a real estate agent, said co-workers kept telling her about "all the nice things that Kiwanis do," such as the Bring Up Grades, or BUG, program in which club members head to local schools to recognize children who have made progress in the classroom.

"It's a nice way to get out and help the community, which I'm looking forward to," Hanna said, "and it's a great way to meet people."

Hanna doesn't recall the brouhaha over women in Kiwanis, but does remember her early days trying to establish a career by working as a secretary at an insurance company.

"You didn't go any further than that," she said. "Of course, that's all changed."

Women have a proven history of establishing programs to help children, which fits perfectly with the mission of service clubs such as Kiwanis, Hanna said.

"Many of them being mothers, women are going to have a different insight into things, and they bring a lot of good ideas to the table," Hanna said.

Last week's induction ceremony was a coming home of sorts for Kim Ferris.

Ferris first joined a Kiwanis chapter in Yonkers, N.Y., then moved to Florida and became part of the Seven Hills chapter. The Seven Hills group would eventually merge with the Spring Hill chapter, and Ferris left the club to tend to her three daughters.

Now the girls are a little older and she has time to devote to community service.

"You have to put something back into something good," Ferris said.

Maria Sanvenero, another new Spring Hill member, has specific plans to do that.

Sanvenero, an investment banker, joins her husband Rich in the club. The couple, while living in New York, started an annual tradition to deliver toys to children in the hospital after one of their own kids spent a holiday there. She said she hopes to start a similar campaign here as a Kiwanis member.

Sanvenero said she appreciated the warm welcome from club members.

"It was wonderful to come down and be accepted in a place so different from where you came from," she said.

Elaine Boothby, the wife of 10-year Spring Hill member Rich Boothby, logged many unofficial service hours before becoming an official member last week. A decade ago, the smaller Spring Hill chapter recruited spouses of members to help with fundraising efforts.

Elaine Boothby spent many hours working at the club's concession stand at Springstead High School, among other projects. In fact, because of her history of service Boothby got the standard white name tag upon joining last week instead of the provisional pink name tag that most newbies wear.

"I felt part of something," she said.