So, you made it. Thirty some odd years was a long journey but you made it. You have arrived. You are retired. You chose your place of retirement wisely. You are in Fort Collins, Colorado. Or maybe you always lived here and have decided to stay on for retirement. Either way, Fort Collins is a great place to live.
So, now what? The question is bound to hit you. What am going to do next? How can I fill some of my days with meaningful, productive activities that won't require my every waking hour, won't cost a fortune, won't bring with it a list of requirements sufficient to choke a horse. You want involvement. You want a connection to the rest of the community and a feeling that you are making a difference?
The Kiwanis Club of Poudre Golden K- Many retirees living in Fort Collins have found a big part of the answer to those questions at a very special Kiwanis Club. The Golden K chapter of Kiwanis here in Fort Collins. It is a chapter of Kiwanis whose membership is comprised 100% of retirees. Some members have been retired for years. Some have just entered into retirement. All meet our foremost requirement for membership. They are RETIRED just like you.
Think about it. It's Tuesday morning. It's 9 a.m. (our meetings start promptly and end just as promptly at 10a.m.) You enter the lobby of the Fort Collins Senior Center. It's a short walk down the hall to the largest meeting room in the the center and there you find yourself in the company of some ninety- five or so (that's the average weekly attendance at our club) retired Fort Collins residents. Tell the first one you meet that you'd like to visit for a meeting "to see what it's like." A warm welcome will follow. Or maybe you know someone who is already invoved. Just tell him you are ready to visit. Either way, what happens next is magic. You will experience Kiwanis hospitality. You will meet many people who have found a common ground in Kiwanis. They all take pride in the mission and goals of the organization. The children of our community are the focus of our service programs. We have been so sucessful in serving Fort Collins youth, through our in classroom efforts and our financial support of district programs, that we have begun to extend our reach into Mexico and further south into Central America. You'll also hear about the progress being made by our various committees, some of which staff programs in school supplies distribution locally and the provision of text books as far away as Honduras. Be careful, our spirit is contagious.
Our weekly guest speakers are the main attraction of our meetings. They give talks on subjects as diverse as the Women's Volleyball Program at C.S.U. and their counterpart the C.S.U. Football team. Recently the most current crime statistics for Fort Collins were reviewed and compared to national data by a highly informed member of the Police Department's command structure. On another occasion one of our own members took the podium to reveal where to go to catch a trophy sized salmon while vacationing in Alaska. The subjects are as diverse as one can imagine and change weekly. Each provides important information and an insider's insight.We promise you will leave our meeting feeling our Kiwanis pride in the work we do, better informed by the speakers who highlight each and every meeting, more involved by the opportunities identified for your meaningful participation in our community projects, and most of all, better connected through the people you've met and the relationships you have begun to build.
The Golden K Chapter of Kiwanis located right here at the Senior Center in beautiful Fort Collins extends this special invitation to visit. Hesitant to just show up? Call our club secretary, Don Crews at 221-1565 and he'll arrange for a member to greet you at the door, sit with you during the meeting, and introduce you to our club's leadership. He'll even buy you a cup of coffee. So, what have you got to loose? Nothing! What have you got to gain? A whole new opportunity to enrich your retirement with meaningful involvement in our community as a "Golden K" Kiwanis member. Plus the potential for lots of new friends. We look foreward to your first visit.