Meet an amazing woman: Kiwanian Pat Hawkins

One can make a difference

It was five years ago, during a Key Club International convention in Anaheim, California, that Pat Hawkins’ life—and her family’s—changed forever. A seed was planted that would one day make her extended Kiwanis family part of her personal family.

Cavia Mead and Pat Hawkins

Want to read more? This is just a sample of KIWANIS magazine's plans to celebrate 20 years of women in Kiwanis. In the August 2007 issue, you’ll learn about the history of women in Kiwanis, find out more about Pat Hawkins, and meet some other amazing women who mark two decades of service as Kiwanians.

“Almost five years ago, my son Kyle and I met Cavia and Marjorie Mead from Kingston, Jamaica,” she says of her trip to that convention. “Cavia had won the Builders Club oratorical contest, and Kiwanis International brought him and his mom to the Key Club International convention so he could speak during a general session. We quickly became friends. Over the next two years the friendship grew.

“After discussing it with Marjorie and Cavia, we invited Cavia to attend high school in the United States and go home for the summers. That is what was happening until his mother passed away in March 2006. Cavia hadn’t seen his father since the age of 4, and the end result is that we have (formally) adopted him. What started as a Kiwanis-family friendship has become an addition to our personal family.”

When Pat joined Kiwanis in 1991, she quickly discovered her passion for the organization’s Service Leaders Programs and became the Highland, Indiana, Kiwanis club’s Key Club advisor.

“Key Club energizes me,” says Pat, who is a past Indiana District governor. “Working with our awesome young people gives me hope for the future of Kiwanis. I have met some of the most talented, accomplished, giving people who are still teenagers, but care and give more of their time than any three adults.”