I thought given recent current events, milestones and the current state of things, I would provide an update since my last review three months ago. As much as I'd like to say things have improved, they unfortunately have not. So let's start.
Seven years ago this month, on a warm May in 2015, I left California to take a train to New York City. By the time four months passed, I had raised several thousands of dollars toward the Eliminate Tetanus Project. The funds raised potentially saved thousands of lives. One would think that now that we have the COVID pandemic going on in our own front yard and the fundraising phase on tetanus already concluded, not only would Kiwanis, who has saved countless of lives and prevented negative health outcomes from its efforts on tetanus would be moved into action, but would also work with national government like it did in the 1980s with Nancy Reagan's Say No to Drugs campaign. Not so, even though I'm still working with several national organizations throughout the U.S. with government ties working hard to address the ongoing COVID pandemic wanting to collaborate with Kiwanis on those efforts. With vaccines now being recently approved for younger children, and boosters also being made available, one would think Kiwanis would be involved in those efforts. That's still not the case.
Almost two years ago now, our Kiwanis Executive Director Stan Soderstrom issued a statement on the unrest that resulted from the tragedy in the wake of the unjust police brutality that occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota https://www.kiwanis.org/news/newsitem/news/newsitem/soderstrom-we-will-not-tolerate-racism . In it, the statement mentioned the oft heard slogan "Black Lives Matter", which has been echoing almost as long as we've been dealing with this pandemic. However, one has to wonder if that's what the organization thinks, given that a recent reports show that so many lives could have been potentially saved.
One year after getting the letter from the White House on its national efforts to vaccinate as many eligible citizens, I would not have imagined that just one year later, we would be marking a million COVID-19 casualties https://abcnews.go.com/Health/unthinkable-tragedy-us-covid-19-death-toll-surpasses/story?id=84502918 .
But here we are. Despite Kiwanis, along with other service organizations working together to issue a joint statement early on, nothing has been done since- especially when vaccines first became available later in the same year http://digital.lionmagazine.org/publication/?i=668715&article_id=3732034&view=articleBrowser&ver=html5 . One has to wonder just "whose life matters?"
Kiwanis says "Black Lives Matter", then in a statement on COVID, Kiwanis also states, as mentioned by then President Daniel Vigneron that "We all play a role in keeping our friends and neighbors safe". But has Kiwanis really done that? What about other organization peers? Just who do service clubs serve? Whose life matters if it's not even making efforts to try to save lives of fellow Americans? Just like people we've tried to help around the world, this pandemic has disproportionately impacted people of color here in the U.S. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/expert-answers/coronavirus-infection-by-race/faq-20488802 .
To clarify, this isn't about your average member going out and giving vaccines to people, but being trusted messengers, voices, in their communities. Very few of us are doing this. But this isn't a small group effort, or even a bunch of organizations effort- it's an all-hands-on-deck effort. What's disappointing is that groups like Kiwanis and Rotary should be on the forefront of these efforts with their experience on issues like tetanus and polio, respectively. However, that is not the case. Trusted messaging is still in need of this time, and many lives could have probably been saved if service groups like Kiwanis had been involved since even last year https://abcnews.go.com/Health/300000-us-covid-deaths-averted-vaccination-analysis-finds/story?id=84753284
This isn't just a critique only of Kiwanis- this goes for all service organizations- especially those on the joint statement. Why come out with a statement at all if they're not going to put more effort into saving even fellow American lives, where most of our membership lies? It's sad to think that one year after my outreach, more than two years into a global pandemic, cases of COVID increasing again, and our organizations having their conventions again this year, there is still no collaboration with COVID organizations or national government. Do service organizations work to serve others, or only themselves when the situation suits them?
One has to wonder what the purpose of service organizations are if they only seem interested in helping those far away when they could also be doing something to help people here too.
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