Stopping By: Longtime Kiwanis Club member loves the focus on helping youth
“I wanted to be part of things, to help the community and help kids,” he said. “I just love helping kids. That’s so important.”
At the time, Toth was running McMinnville Factory Homes and had three sales lots and three manufactured home parks in town; he still owns one.
He was recruited by longtime members Don Eastman and Jim Craig, who were among about 80 people in the club. The membership included lawyers, doctors and a variety of businessmen, he recalled.
“It was a men’s club then,” he said, but now the membership is made up of about an equal number of men and women. The club has about 30 at the moment, but is open to new members.
Like today, the Kiwanis Club’s mission was centered on aiding youth, he said. “That’s all we do,” he said, and it’s vitally important.
[See Also: McMinnville Kiwanis Club marks century of service]
Some of the youth-oriented programs back then included taking buses of youngsters to their first Trail Blazer game and helping with equipment for McMinnville City Park.
He’s proud that a recent project helped with a park, as well — Kiwanians spearheaded the creation of Jay Pearson Park’s play area, which is filled with adaptive equipment that can be used by children with physical disabilities, such as an area for wheelchairs and another for those with low vision.
The Kiwanis Club also has always given scholarships for graduating high school seniors. It helps with efforts such as diaper drives for A Family Place.
And several years ago, Toth helped start a program to provide three books a year for every first grader in the McMinnville School District.
He said he knows the importance of assisting children. “Growing up in a poor family, I didn’t have that kind of help with education,” he said.
Toth grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After moving to McMinnville, he and his wife, Kathleen, raised four children.
All their kids graduated from McMinnville High School and went to Oregon State University; one of his 11 grandchildren, all Mac High grads, also was a Beaver.
Although he didn’t go to OSU himself, Toth is known as an avid supporter of the Corvallis university. His “toy barn,” next to his McMinnville home, is done in orange and black, right down to the Beaver logos on the folding chairs.
For many years, the McMinnville Kiwanis Club raised money for scholarships, often $20,000 a year, Toth said. It supported that and other youth-oriented giving by hosting an annual dinner and auction, called Bids for Kids.
“That was the best thing, for kids and for the city,” Toth said.
Bids for Kids started in about 1979, raising about $6,000 annually in its first few years. By the time it was cut short by Covid, it had been raising about $50,000 a year, he said.
In addition to raising money and interest in Kiwanis causes, Toth said, it gave local residents a chance to dress up and spend an evening at a gala event.
In that way, he said, Bids for Kids was similar to the Mayor’s Charity Ball, a fundraiser for after school programs. Both are missed, as events and as fundraisers, he said.
A relatively new effort for the McMinnville Kiwanis is giving away new shoes to K-12 students in conjunction with the annual Beyond Backpacks school supply event.
Toth said his son, David, who’s also a Kiwanian, started the program. Each year, the club gives out about 750 pairs of shoes.
“Kids are excited that they get to pick them,” Toth said. “Mothers cry.”
The shoe giveaway is “definitely one of our favorite projects of all time,” he said.
As much as he enjoys seeing Kiwanis helping efforts come to fruition, and as much as he loves taking part, Toth said he doesn’t want to take credit for the part he plays. He’d rather stay behind the scenes.
Just knowing he’s helping is a reward in itself, he said. That’s enough.
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