SIGN is latest Kiwanis project

Liberty Lake Kiwanis are improving the lives of kids at home and abroad.

Although the club is a relative newbie at 3 years old, it’s diving into a diverse array of service projects.

Recently the club started fund-raising to support an international project called Surgical Implant Generation Network.

SIGN sets up fracture-treatment facilities in Third World countries so lacking that broken bones usually go untreated, ruining young lives.

“Typically, a broken leg in a Third World country means that child will be begging for the rest of his or her life,” said Steve Farnworth, a club member.

It costs $15,000 to purchase equipment and set up a clinic through SIGN, which enlists physician volunteers to train overseas doctors to use that equipment to set bones and save lives.

Jon Keeve, a Liberty Lake physician who volunteers for SIGN, collaborated with the Kiwanis to help them understand the organization’s mission and its funding needs.

The club’s goal is to start one clinic a year for the next five years, Farnworth said.

“That’s a huge goal, and we only have 40 members.”

Locally, the club sponsors a younger generation, who are multiplying good deeds throughout the city and world.

In the past year, the group started K-Kids, a youth-service club with 31 members who attend Liberty Lake Elementary School. The club also sponsors a newly formed 12-member Key Club International at Barker High School, an alternative school.

Last year, the group awarded $3,400 in scholarships to college-bound students from Liberty Lake.

Farnworth met up with the Liberty Lake Kiwanis last year when he was working with Living Water Community Church to raise money for Habitat for Humanity and Valley Meals on Wheels.

The church had organized a fund-raiser concert at Pavillion Park. The Kiwanians not only loaned the group their concession stand, they found volunteers to man it, raising $685 for the charities. But the Kiwanians didn’t stop there. They kicked in enough money to round the donation to an even $1,000, Farnworth said.

“I got jazzed when I got near the energy of these folks and thought, ‘I’ve got to be a member of this group.’ “