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Community: They’ve put in their time as Kiwanians

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Kiwanis Club of Glendale is preparing to celebrate its 90th year of serving the community during its regular meeting this Friday. Sure to be recognized will be three members who are also 90 years old — Jim Bishop, Lou Yaussi and Irv Currier.

Bishop came into the club in 1949 and served as president soon later. He transferred to the Glendale club from a Kiwanis Club in Lynwood, Calif.

Top of his list for staying a member is the friendships he’s made.

“Just being associated with such great people — they will do anything for you or to you,” he quipped.

Yaussi and Currier have known each other since attending Toll Junior High School, and later, Glendale College.

They each have 50 years perfect attendance at Kiwanis Club meetings.

Currier is now blind and Yaussi has driven him to the Kiwanis meetings every Friday for the last 25 years.

“He’s a wonderful friend!” Currier said.

Yaussi’s favorite part of Kiwanis is the chorus, which entertains the club during meetings.

For Currier, who joined in 1956, he has enjoyed being on the photographic committee, taking pictures of the club’s important people, and the work committee.

“At Christmastime, we’d be assigned a family and we’d visit them to see what they needed and we would come back shoes, jackets and pants for the family’s kids,” he said.

Susan Dell is the current president. She is the third woman to lead the group. Laurel Patric was the first and Cathy Keen was the second.

“We have six members in their 90s and have more than 25 past presidents who come to meetings all the time,” she said.

“That is one of the strengths of our club. In other clubs, the past presidents drift away, but in ours, they stay and they still participate.”

The club was chartered on April 28, 1922 with 61 charter members. One charter member, Emil O. Kiefer, completed almost 60 years of perfect attendance.

That record was almost matched in 1997 by the Rev. Jim Brougher, with 59 years of perfect attendance. The club was sponsored by the Pasadena Kiwanis Club. The Glendale club went on to sponsor eight other clubs, including Burbank in 1922.

Today one of the major fundraisers the Glendale Kiwanis Club is known for is the annual Incredible Duck Splash, which brought in $55,000 last year to the Kiwanis Foundation to support community programs.

Friends gather to clean up river

About 4,000 Friends of the Los Angeles River will participate in the 23rd annual La Gran Limpieza: The Great Los Angeles River CleanUp, planned from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

Volunteers will pull trash at 15 sites from the Sepulveda Basin to Long Beach. One of the local river sites will be at Bette Davis Picnic Area, north of the Glendale/Pasadena (134) Freeway where Riverside Drive, Victory Boulevard and Sonora Avenue meet.

There will be gift giveaways, raffle prizes, entertainment and refreshments.

The city of Glendale is one of the sponsors because of its River Walk being created on the adjacent land near ABC7 and DreamWorks Animation. It is expected to open this year.

JOYCE RUDOLPH can be reached at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com.

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