Club History  

The Ripon Noon Kiwanis Club was chartered on March 6, 1924, by 35 community oriented Ripon citizens and was sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Fond du Lac. Over the past eighty-five years, the club has worked diligently to serve the Ripon community and beyond.

Through the years, the Ripon Noon Kiwanis Club has chartered a Key Club at Ripon High School, a Builders Club at Ripon Middle School, a Circle K Club at Ripon College, and the Ripon Early Bird Kiwanis Club. The club is currently working with the Early Birds and in partnership with Diverse Options, Inc., to charter an Aktion Club, for developmentally disabled adults.

Among current members, Leonard Ringstad is our senior member. Len has been a Kiwanian for 54 years and a member of our club for 50 years, having come to Ripon four years after joining a club in New Holstein.

Prominent past members include Robert S. Wilson, for whom a Circle K scholarship is named, and Samuel Pedrick, a charter member, local historian and attorney. Both served Kiwanis in many capacities, within the club and at a statewide level.

In recent years, the club has focused on sponsorships and service projects designed to benefit children and the elderly. We annually provide multiple scholarships for colleges and  technical schools for high school seniors; sponsor a Girl Scout and Boy Scout Troop; send a student to Badger Boys State; support FIRST Lego League; bring the Kids from Wisconsin for a Ripon concert; go caroling to shut-ins; ring bells for the Salvation Army; donate Caldecott Honor books for the public library; hold a Children's Fair and Clothing Swap; sponsor the Ripon Summer Community Theatre and hold an annual Doug Lyke Road Run.

In 2009, we will be expanding the Doug Lyke Run with a three day pre-race runner's mini camp and adding a Twilight Run in August. We are also resurrecting the Kiwanis Show, a former trademark Noon Kiwanis fundraising event since the 1920s. Local talent will perform centered on the theme "Turn the Radio On".

Today the Noon Kiwanis Club’s 48 members work hard to live out the Kiwanis mission, as we work to better and build our community.

It's always a great day to be a Kiwanian!