Discovering The Mature Lifestyle Talented seniors engage young readers through Story Theater. Page 3
Senior Involvement
July 21 & 22, 2016
July Issue
Energy-filled Kiwanian volunteers at Fridley High School BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Mary Bowen has spent a quarter of a century volunteering with the Key Club, sponsored b y the F ridley Kiw anis, a t Fridley High School. It’s a job she tr easures, and she’s brought her own special brand of w armth and cr eativity to the task. “I went in to find out what the Kiwanis organization was like and I fell in love with the kids and what they were doing,” Bowen said. “I started out as a Key Club mom, then I was a grandma and now almost a gr eat-grandma.” Bowen and her husband r aised f our childr en and no w have 10 grandchildren. When she first joined the Columbia Heights/Fridley Kiwanis in 1988, Bowen was the group’s first female member. She later became the or ganization’s first female lieutenant go vernor in Minnesota and the Dakotas. “The men w ere v ery good to me ,” Bowen said. “They mentor ed or helped me. It’s been a v ery positive experience. The Key Club and Builders Club: tha t’s why I am in Kiw anis. It’s a r eally great youth program.” Key Club a t F ridley High School is a student-led comm unity service gr oup. “My purpose is to help the students
become key leaders in the comm unity,” Bowen said. “We teach leadership, character de velopment and or ganizational skills. We prepare them for business and college.” Some y ears, F ridley’s K ey Club has had 150 members; this y ear, there were 65 members , Bo wen said. Students ar e required to put in 50 service hours to receive a letter. Projects ha ve included planting tr ees on Arbor Da y, pr oviding Ma y bask ets for senior citizens, raising money for war victims in Darfur, in western Sudan, and the Children’s Medical Network. One of the acti vities is a 75-hour teeter-totter mar athon held in the family room at Bowen’s home. “We’ve been doing that for 13 y ears,” she said. “I’ ve never had an yone br eak our code of conduct.” Bowen, 78, who incorporates fun and merriment in all of the group’s activities, calls herself the “W orld Oldest Li ving Teenager,” despite the fact tha t she also works full time as a self-employed property owner and manager. A y ear a go, the Kiw anis charter ed a similar club a t F ridley Mid dle School. Called the Builders Club , it no w has 45 members. Bowen mentors them, too. Mary Bowen (left) is pictured in her signa ture fl amingo garb a t a Fridley High School Key Club KIWANIS - TO PAGE 3 installation with Colton Ranstrom and Whitney Meyer. (Submitted photo)