Serving Mackinaw, Illinois since 2020

Mackinaw Mail

Olympia Kiwanis Club

The Olympia Kiwanis Club is a part of the global Kiwanis organization of volunteers that are “dedicated to improving the world, one child and one community at a time.” The Olympia Kiwanis Club sponsors a bunch of different events throughout the year that bring the community together. A few of these events are a house decorating contest around Christmas, a Christmas parade, The Olympia Kiwanis Corn Daze, and community Easter Egg Hunts. The Olympia community has always enjoyed these events that the Kiwanis Club puts on. 

One of the community's favorite events that the Olympia Kiwanis Club hosts has been the Minier Christmas Parade. This past Minier Christmas Parade was a big success. After months of social distancing and uncertainty, the Olympia community was very grateful to be able to celebrate Christmas alongside their close-knit community. There is a lot of hard work from the Olympia Kiwanis Club that is put into the Minier Christmas Parade each year. Club members help make sure everything runs smoothly, Sue Miller helps with promotion, the Minier Village office also helps with promotion by posting on Minier.com, Brian Foley helps with his line up team, K’s Cafe provides food, Walters Trucking provides a flatbed truck used for announcing, Dave Renfrow does the announcing, Dr. Gilly plays Christmas Music, Minier police officers escort the parade, and the Minier Department of Public Works helps set up the announcer's booth and decorate the town tree that Olympia West students make ornaments for. As I’m sure you can tell, it takes a lot of effort for the Minier Christmas Parade to be successful, and that is all started by the Olympia Kiwanis Club. 

Whether it’s the Minier Christmas Parade or any of the other enjoyable community events, the Olympia Kiwanis Club has become a key factor in local events. The Olympia community has definitely taken notice on how impactful the club has been recently. With the lack of community events during the COVID pandemic, the Olympia Kiwanis Club has helped bring exciting events back to our communities. 


Hayden Stork
Correspondent, Columnist

Hayden Stork was a Mail Correspondent covering the Olympia communities starting in February 2021, and was the Mail Sports Columnist from August 2021 until July 2022. He is from Danvers, Illinois.