{"id":16,"date":"2015-12-10T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T12:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2015-12-10T16:44:34","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T16:44:34","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/?page_id=16","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first Kiwanis clubs were organized to promote the exchange of business among the members. However, the members were distributing Christmas baskets to the poor. A lively debate ensued between those who supported community service as the Kiwanis mission and those who supported the exchange of business. By 1919, the service advocates won the debate.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kiwanis was founded in Detroit, Michigan, on January 21, 1915.<\/li>\n<li>In the early years, Kiwanis clubs focused on business networking, but even then, members were serving the needs of the poor.<\/li>\n<li>By 1919, the organization had changed its focus from business to service.<\/li>\n<li>Kiwanis became an international organization in 1916 with the organization of the Kiwanis Club of Hamilton, Ontario.<\/li>\n<li>Kiwanis limited its membership to the United States and Canada until 1962 when worldwide expansion was approved.<\/li>\n<li>Until 1987, Kiwanis was a male-only organization. But after years of debate and growing support, women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s membership was received overwhelmingly.<\/li>\n<li>Kiwanis celebrates <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiwanis.org\/kiwanis100\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">100 years in 2015<\/span><\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first Kiwanis clubs were organized to promote the exchange of business among the members. However, the members were distributing Christmas baskets to the poor. A lively debate ensued between those who supported community service as the Kiwanis mission and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/?page_id=16\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":6,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwanisclub.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}