INGLEWOOD : Kiwanis Club Calls It Quits After 70 Years

After nearly 70 years of community service and an unsuccessful drive to recruit new members, the Inglewood Kiwanis Club is calling it quits.

The club will have a retirement dinner for past and present club members at its final meeting Sept. 24, said President John J. Nicosia.

Club leaders blame a lack of public interest in community service, an inability to persuade younger professionals to join, and the increasing age of current members for the club’s demise.

“The community has become self-serving,” Nicosia said. “We just couldn’t spur interest.”

The chapter was scheduled to close last year, but club members decided to make one last attempt to boost their ranks. Members sent letters to local businessmen and community leaders and took out ads in local papers offering free one-year memberships.

Recruitment brought in only three new members, and one has since dropped out.

The club, which has 19 members, has seen membership fall steadily over the years. When Nicosia was first elected president in 1976, the club had more than 125 members, he said. But since then, the average age of club members has risen to 74 and many of the older members have moved away, died or moved to retirement homes, he said.

Club officials say they will spend half of the club’s remaining $10,000 budget on the dinner. The rest of the money will be given to charities the club has supported, Nicosia said.

“Our members have good camaraderie and the meetings are fun, but we just don’t have the manpower to do the community service we used to,” Nicosia said.