Latest news with #DecaturKiwanisClub
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Kiwanis set new record with Pancake Day fundraiser
May 9—The Decatur Kiwanis Club broke the record for money raised with its Pancake Day fundraising event for the second year in a row. It raised a total of $150,421 at this year's fundraising event on Feb. 22. This surpasses the record set last year by more than $15,000. "It is truly, truly remarkable the effort that these men and women put forth to try to raise as much money as possible to help the organizations that are represented here today," said Kiwanis Pancake Day Chairman Mark Waters upon announcing the total amount raised at a meeting honoring the funding recipients on Thursday. "It's just a passion project for this club ... so we're very, very thankful." The total amount distributed Thursday was $113,560, after removing costs of hosting Pancake Day and other special project funding used throughout the year. Forty-four area organizations received checks. The majority of the recipients were represented. A line snaked along the two walls of the ballroom of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Decatur Riverfront, where the luncheon was held, as recipients were called up. Each year, the Kiwanians choose a signature project, which they distribute a higher amount to and rally fundraising efforts behind. The club plans to give $34,500 to the city of Decatur Parks and Recreation Department for the purchase of new benches. The club chose the project to honor former Decatur mayor and active Kiwanis member Lynn Fowler, whose goal was to install new benches throughout the city. Fowler died in May 2023. "He was a force of nature for raising money for kids," Waters said. "... Even when he was in the hospital, he was on the phone talking to people about raising money." The City Council needs to vote on whether the department can accept the funding, but Aaron Lang, operations for Decatur Parks and Rec, said that should not persent a problem. Each bench costs about $3,000, so the department should be able to purchase 12 benches. Each bench will be made of wrought iron, painted black and have a bronze plaque honoring a Kiwanis sponsor. "Everyone is very excited to continue the standard that Lynn Fowler set out for us," Lang said, noting that Fowler started the project of installing new benches years ago. Lang said the goal would be to convert all benches in the city to the same style, and Founders Park and Rhodes Ferry Park will likely have highest priority for receiving new benches. Kiwanis President Darrell Wates said that the club serves as the organizer for the Pancake Day events, but many people come together to make it possible. "Last year, we set a record, and this year, we blew it out of the water," Wates said. "... So many people pour out, and the community pours out. We kind of are the method for it to run through, but it's a community thing." Around 4,000 people attended Pancake Day this year, the 59th year the event has been held. The club began selling T-shirts last year in addition to the Pancake Day meal tickets. Wates said the money from the T-shirt sponsorships, profits from their sale, and the ability to spread the word for the event through the shirts helped contribute to a more successful fundraiser. Next week, Kiwanis will award $6,000 in scholarships to local students, also using the funds from Pancake Day. — or 256-340-2437
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Local missionaries bring faith, hope to African village
Apr. 5—Ty Batchelor and his wife, Sally, of Decatur, were about to adopt two boys from the east African country of Uganda a few years back. "I didn't even know where it was on a map," Ty told the Decatur Kiwanis Club during their meeting Thursday at Doubletree by Hilton Hotels. "When Sally and I got there, I fell in love with the people," he said. The people they met were not easily forgotten nor were their needs. Later, back home, he was sitting in Sunday school wondering how he could get involved. So, he went to Lawson Craig, a fellow church member at First Bible Church in Decatur, and asked how they could make an impact. "We needed to know how to get plugged in, how to make a difference," he said. They formed a group to make the trip to Uganda and did so, the first time in 2009. He didn't know much more about the country than the picture he had of a giraffe. "We had a plan of going to various ministries and finding a way that we could get plugged in," he said. "We visited 12 ministries in seven days. Every night we would sit around the dinner table and say, 'That is a great ministry but it's not for us because — fill in the blank.'" The next day they had one last meeting scheduled but the group canceled. Ty was crestfallen. "I have taken 12 people from Decatur to Uganda to try to get plugged in and we have done nothing," he said. Then, their driver told them he had a guy they needed to meet. "Next thing I know, I'm sitting in front of Pastor Peter and he has a ministry called Africa Renewal Ministries. He sat down before us and laid out a vision for how to create leaders to transform Uganda, and it starts with the kids." This ministry seemed great. No caveats. "When he laid his vision out, God just placed it on our hearts and said this is where we need to be involved. We asked him, what do you need?" Pastor Pete said they needed training on how to teach the Bible to pastors who did not have formal theological training. So, they set out to do that. "We brought people who could do it," he said. "We started the mobile Bible school, and over the past 12 years we've trained about 2,000 pastors in how to interpret the Bible and how to teach that so it doesn't get distorted in a Third World country." He said the very first place they were supposed to set up shop and move forward was a village called Kutovu, Uganda. "It was a dusty, dirty little village that had no hope," Ty said. "It was just a dark, dark place. Their life path was such that if they got a couple of years of school that was great, but they were going to dig in their gardens for the rest of their lives." And so, the villagers subsisted. That is what their parents had done and their parents before them. "So, this small group in Decatur started on an adventure and said we don't know what we are going to do but we are going to try to do something," Ty said. They started a sponsorship program through Africa Renewal Ministries and there are 300 sponsored kids. People give about $40 a month for each child. "It has been just an amazing story of God's redemption in this little village," Ty said. "Today, when you go to this village, there is joy, there is hope and this village is sending trainers out into other villages." Greg Garner and his wife, Lesley, also members of First Bible who joined with the mission trips two years ago, had their own story to share about some of the improvements made at Kutovu, including a new, clean well, a dormitory and plans for a new school. Greg told the story of Pastor Karen. She wanted to introduce the children she and her family were caring for and housing at their home. "On day two we were asked to meet the children that were living with and supported by Pastor Karen and her family in a small area between two buildings," Greg said. As the children emerged and continued to emerge, he thought the line of kids would stop, but it didn't. It just kept swelling. "I was completely amazed," Greg said. "I counted 63 children." Lesley told The Decatur Daily some of the children's parents live too far from the village, some were abandoned and some have an unsafe home life, so they stay with Pastor Karen and her family. "I could not understand the willingness and heart for God that it takes to make this sacrifice," Greg said. "During this trip, Morse, Pastor Karen's son, laid out a vision to further develop the school and a dorm for the girls and boys who were living with Pastor Karen. It was agreed that the dorm was a top priority and through the commitment of a lot of people, the funds were raised and the dorm was completed." When he returned in 2024, he learned that Morse had been killed in a motorcycle accident. "This was devastating to the school and village along with Pastor Karen and her family," Greg said. "Morse had become the leader and visionary of the school as well as overseeing all the construction." But Greg said others are stepping up to continue Morse's vision. He said the school has grown to 497 children and more than 300 sponsors. They are in need of a new building, which will consist of four classrooms and office space. They plan to update the space where the girls had been before moving into the dorms, Greg said. Their new goal is to raise $15,000 to complete the area around the dorm plus bedding and an additional $67,000 for the new primary school and office space. Since the inception of the project, some of the students have gone on to become doctors and lawyers, but some have gone on to trade school or other professions, Ty said. But all are being trained to become leaders and Christians. And, so, too, they will train other Christian leaders and everyone will be lifted, he said. That first visit back in 2009 put a light to the fire. — or 256-340-2361
