Kiwanis elects first woman president

By the time he reached the sixth paragraph of his 178-word nomination speech, Greg Beard's voice was reverberating through the convention hall, his amplified words lost on no one.

"Sue will be that leader who will inspire ..."

"Sue will be that leader who will focus ..."

Twenty-five years earlier, the face of Kiwanis International changed forever when delegates voted to open membership to women.

And when voting ended that day last summer, Sue Petrisin, of Lansing, Mich., was elected vice president of Kiwanis International. The move ensured the group would have its first female president for 2015-16, when the Kiwanians will gather for their centennial celebration at their annual convention June 25-28, 2015, in Indianapolis.

"It gives me goose bumps to think of what I was doing at the time," said Beard, who was immediate past Kiwanis governor for the Louisiana-Mississippi-West Tennessee District at the time of his nomination speech in Vancouver, British Columbia. "We were highlighting 25 years of women in Kiwanis at that convention, and there was rousing applause when I finished. But I wasn't nominating Sue because she's a woman; I was nominating my friend because I believe in her."

Petrisin, 52, will be formally elected as president-elect of Kiwanis International at its 99th convention, which runs today through Sunday in Tokyo.

She's no stranger to Indianapolis, home to the organization's headquarters and its umbrella of service clubs since 1982. Petrisin has family in the area, including her 78-year-old mother, who lives in Brownsburg.

Over lunch recently in East Lansing, Mich., where she is associate director of the Michigan State University Alumni Association, Petrisin was asked her thoughts on becoming the first female leader.

"When people introduce me and say, 'This is your first woman international president,' I'm a little embarrassed, like, why does it have to be said like that?" Petrisin said. "Service knows no gender. It's an honor, and I'm humbled by it."

Petrisin is aware that an anchor has been lifted, though: Since its inception in 1915, Kiwanis has been captained by men with first names like Frank, George, Walter, Donald, Stanley, Stephen and Sylvester.

Now here comes Sue.

A CALL TO SERVICE

Petrisin was a high school sophomore in Alpena, Mich., when she received an invitation to the Key Club.

She and her friends giggled, "What is this Key Club thing? Do they collect keys?"

The school's chapter president challenged the group: Attend a meeting and find out.

Petrisin learned that Key Club was one of the largest service organizations for teens in the Kiwanis family of clubs. Wanting to be involved with like-minded classmates, she signed up for a volunteer outing at a retirement center.

"We spent time with seniors, and we had a blast," Petrisin recalled. "We pushed them up and down the hall — we had wheelchair races — and they loved it."

Volunteer service became her calling. As the oldest girl in a family of seven children, responsibility came naturally to her. What Key Club offered was an opportunity to expand her leadership qualities; it gave her confidence.

"At the time, I was shy and reserved," Petrisin said. "It was something that brought me out of my shell. It opened me up. I started to speak to large groups. I met people older than me who were leaders in the community, and I thought, 'You know what? This is becoming like another family to me.' "

In her junior year, Petrisin was a state officer. A year later, in 1979, she was the state of Michigan's first female Key Club governor.

When she went on to Michigan State after community college, Petrisin was already involved in the Kiwanians' adult club for college students, Circle K International.

One winter, she led a service project tutoring at-risk children in an after-school program. When Petrisin and her fellow Circle K members prepared to return to campus, they discovered their hats and gloves had been stolen.

"We said, 'You know what? They need them more than we do,' " Petrisin recalled.

When they returned a couple of weeks later, Petrisin and her campus group brought with them dozens of new hats and gloves, gifts for the children to take home to their families.

"When I see people happy, I'm happy," she said.

'NOT JUST THE GOOD OLD BOYS'

After graduating from Michigan State, Petrisin couldn't take the next step from Circle K to Kiwanis. It was 1985, and Kiwanis was still male-only — women weren't allowed to be members.

But change was on the horizon. Other large service organizations that also had refused to admit women for decades were facing lawsuits. When delegates at Kiwanis International's 72nd convention in 1987 voted to admit women, Petrisin said her reaction was, "Great. It's about time."

Still, when she was put up for membership at the Kiwanis Club of East Lansing in 1988, there were men who voted against her.

Today, the memories produce a smile.

"Some of those guys who voted against me then, well, they're my biggest supporters today," Petrisin said. "I remember I didn't feel there was a big push for me to break the barrier. I just thought, 'I want to do service. If I can't do it here, I'll do it someplace else.' "

Still, tradition was hard to break at some clubs across the nation as integration took hold. At one in Michigan, loose change earmarked for charity was still being tossed into an unused ornate men's urinal before meetings. When new members — women and men — objected, it was replaced with something appropriate.

"Kiwanis continues to evolve," said Linda Lawther, 59, an officer in the Michigan Kiwanis district. "Now we're seeing many more twentysomethings and thirtysomethings. It's not just the good old boys anymore. It's much more inclusive than what it was."

'IT'S JUST WHO SHE IS'

In Vancouver last summer, John Petrisin, Sue's older brother, was amazed by the reaction his sister received when she was elected vice president, which placed her in the line of succession for the presidency.

He had flown in from Dallas to meet Sue and their mother, Elaine Petrisin, at the convention.

"After I heard her speech, it was eye-opening to see the impact of her work and how people value her," said John Petrisin, 57. "It took awhile for us to get to the hotel because every few feet people wanted to stop and congratulate her or take pictures. She shares in whatever way she can, no strings attached. It's just who she is."

Before the Fourth of July weekend, Sue Petrisin attended Key Club's international convention in Anaheim, Calif. She spent hours with the group participating in community service projects. One involved making plastic sleeping mats out of grocery bags.

A couple of weeks before that, Petrisin stopped by her mom's house in Brownsburg, en route to a Kiwanis event in St. Louis, to help her make more than 300 cake balls. Not surprisingly, many of Elaine Petrisin's baked goods are often dropped off at Kiwanis International headquarters in Indy for staff to enjoy, Executive Director Stan Soderstrom said.

"Sue is always available," Beard said. "That's a leader. She not only takes care of business, but she has a personal relationship with you."

Petrisin's one-year term as vice president ends this fall; she'll officially take over as president-elect Oct. 1.

But titles aren't important to her.

"Kiwanis isn't about who we are," Petrisin said. "It's about what we do."