BELLEVUE, Nebraska – Before Jane Erickson became Kiwanis International president, she spent her time helping others through the Noon Kiwanis Club in Fort Dodge.

Erickson, now of Bellevue, Nebraska, was working as a well life coordinator at Trinity Regional Medical Center in 1990 when Dean Clark, a member of Kiwanis, came into her office unannounced, she recalled.

Clark asked her if she liked children and if she liked the community.

When Erickson, a Storm Lake native, said yes to both questions, Clark invited her to Kiwanis for lunch.

“I enjoyed the people that were there,” she said. “I had a good time and connected with the amazing cause of helping children and I never looked back.”

Clark would become a close friend and mentor of Erickson’s.

Erickson, who worked in Fort Dodge for six years, said joining Kiwanis allowed her to see people, even those she worked with at the hospital, in a different light.

“It was an interesting thing joining in Fort Dodge,” she said. “Coming in and meeting people in a different way, in a different circumstance was interesting.”

“Maybe it was painting a house or serving a pancake breakfast,” she said. “It’s a wonderful way to get to know someone in a different way.”

While in Fort Dodge, she served as distinguished club president from 1994-1995.

She learned a lot from her time in Fort Dodge, she said.

“I am very proud of my Fort Dodge Noon Club, where I started,” she said. “They taught me a lot. Those gentlemen were very good at teaching me how to be organized and how to put things together.”

“They taught me how to recruit volunteers and work with volunteers,” she said. “They were very good at guiding me when I first came in. I thank that Fort Dodge Noon Club for being my base. They were fantastic.”

Twenty-six years after she first got involved, Erickson’s mission of helping others hasn’t changed.

“This is an incredible opportunity to help children worldwide,” she said. “It’s an exciting time to be a Kiwanian and to help children.”

She was officially named International president of Kiwanis on Oct. 1.

Prior to becoming president, Erickson was the first ever woman to be on the Kiwanis fundraising board, she said.

Her job has taken her across the globe.

Most recently, she was in the Czech Republic working with other leaders to encourage people to help.

She has helped thousands of people in various countries and communities.

“It might be backpack programs filled with food, or backpacks filled with school supplies, immigration programs, feeding programs, or hat and mitten programs,” she said. “Whatever the kids need in that particular community.”

One particular program she takes pride in is the effort to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus. The infection is life-threatening, but can be prevented with vaccines.

“For $1.80, we can buy a tetanus vaccine,” she said.

Kiwanis has raised more than $10 million for the vaccines.

“Being able to connect that tie between moms and babies – it just doesn’t get any better than that,” she said.

Knowing that she is making a difference is what keeps her going.

“Anytime that I work on a service project, I can see we are making a difference,” she said. “When I have a mom come and thank me for helping their kids or giving them a gift at Christmas time, it seems every time I have done a service project, there is someone that is there to say thank you or someone whose life has changed.”

Erickson and her husband, Gus, will be married for 20 years in December, have both served as district governors of Kiwanis. Together, she said, they have been all over the world.