Club History

The Jenkintown Kiwanis Club was chartered as one of 7,700 clubs in 80 countries in 1949. Our motto is “Serving the Children of the World”.

The club traces its beginning to 1948, when a committee of the Kiwanis Club of Glenside developed interest in having a luncheon Kiwanis Club in the area. Both the Kiwanis Club of Glenside and Kiwanis Club of Old York Road, which had sponsored the Glenside club earlier, met in the evenings. The committee found many business leaders and professionals who were more interested in meeting for luncheons.

By early 1949, they had signed up 27 potential members and one of the Glenside members, Howard Yoder, was willing to transfer to the new club. So, on March 3, 1949, Kiwanis International granted an official charter to the Kiwanis Club of Jenkintown, which had already started to meet every Thursday for lunch. The charter was officially presented at a charter night party in May by the Kiwanis Governor of the Pennsylvania District, Elmer Menges, a member of the Ambler Kiwanis Club.

Today we still met for lunch, every Thursday, so come out and join us!

Original Club Officers:

President: Joseph H. Cochran

Vice President: Robert Synnestvedt

Secretary: Vicent J. Pupura

Treasurer: Arthur W. Hoch