The Fishers Kiwanis Club is the oldest service club in Fishers, we were chartered in August 1981. Our first project was gathering signatures in support of Fishers first public park. Now called Roy Holland Memorial Park. Hamilton County owned the land and was to develop a park in Fishers, however plans were moving very slowly, and little was being accomplished. Fishers was in desperate need of park space and a grassroots campaign developed to bring the land back to the Town of Fishers.
Our second project began in 1982, was also successful and continues to this day. Over 12,000 candy filled eggs are "hidden" for the FREE Fishers Community Easter Egg hunt each year, held at the park we supported in 1981.
Except for the first few meetings, we have always been an evening club, first meeting in the basement of Christ's Community Church on 116th St. That building is no longer standing. We also used the meeting room of American National Bank. Some of our early service projects included the very popular Haunted Barn, and managing two concession stands for the Fishers Youth Baseball League. We shared the profit with the League for a dual role of service project and fund raiser.
During the holiday season of 1982 our Kiwanis Club began the tradition of decorating the grounds of the Fishers Town Hall. (Now the house in front of Fritz Used Cars) We erected a "tree" of lights on the flag pole and placed lighted figurines, a manger scene, and strings of lights on trees around the property. Some of those trees were planted by our club. Each year we held a public tree lighting ceremony complete with singing choir, Santa, hot chocolate and prizes awarded for the best poster colored by local elementary school students. We continued this until after the new Town Hall was finished. The Town now decorates the grounds. This project generated a lot of publicity for the club over the years.