History of the Kiwanis Club of Scranton

The first Kiwanis Club was established on January 7, 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. In August of the same year the second club began Cleveland, Ohio. By November of 1920 Kiwanis International had 343 branches of over 36,000 members. The first International Convention was held in Cleveland, Ohio in 1916, with the 24 clubs that existed in the U.S. and Canada.

The Kiwanis Club of Scranton was chartered on April 18, 1917 and was the 111th club in the growing international service organization. In 1920, the Kiwanis Club of Scranton sent four delegates to the 4th Annual Kiwanis International Convention in Portland, Oregon along with 175 other U.S. and Canadian clubs at the convention. One the trip back to Scranton, these four Scranton delegates planned and formed the "Community Chest of Lackawanna County", forerunner of today's United Way of Lackawanna.