Pomona : Mayor Joins Kiwanis Club

Donna Smith, who last year became the city’s first female mayor, has become the first woman to join the Pomona Kiwanis Club.

Smith, who was elected mayor last April, attended her first meeting as a member of the service organization last Wednesday. In the past, Smith said, she has worked with the club in fund-raising activities for the Crippled Children’s Society and other charities.

“I had been invited as a guest a couple of times and had spoken to the group,” Smith said. “It just seemed that we ended up at a lot of the same events in the community, and then they invited me to join. . . . I didn’t realize right away I was the first female member.”

Many local service organizations have been inducting women since last May, when the U. S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld a California law that prohibited Rotary International from ousting its Duarte chapter for permitting women members.