About Us

With a focus on improving the lives of children, the Kiwanis Club of La Jolla serves our surrounding area through impactful grant giving and events that strengthen our community.  We are one of 15,000 Kiwanis Clubs around the globe whose collective mission is “serving the children of the world”. 

Our History

Founded in 1925 by Samuel Gillispie, we have been an integral part of La Jolla’s story for an entire century. Early projects included helping to create and fund The La Jolla Playhouse in 1947, planting 50 Torrey Pines that line the canyon on Torrey Pines Road from La Jolla Shores to UCSD and helping to establish the Gillispie School in 1933.

Message from the President

Kiwanis is an incredible opportunity to help your community and I strongly recommend you try it. Volunteerism is such a rewarding experience, and it is so easy to make a difference in the life of a child, or any community member in need, for that matter. Need exists all around us, every day, and we are often so busy living our own lives that we just do not see it.

The club’s primary fundraiser is the La Jolla Half Marathon, 10K, and Shores 5K. And we host several other community events during the year both as fundraisers and as gifts to the community. You can read about them elsewhere on this website.

We meet every week.  For information on times and places, please refer to our calendar. We hope you can join us to get a better sense of who we are. Please send me an email if you have any questions.