I Pledge to uphold the objects of Circle K International, to foster compassion and good will toward others through service and leadership, to develop my abilities and the abilities of all people, and to dedicate myself to the realization of mankind's potential.
To emphasize the advantages of the democratic way of life;
To provide the opportunity for leadership training in service;
To serve on the campus and in the community;
To cooperate with the administrative officers of the educational
institutions of which the clubs are a part;
To encourage participation in group activities;
To promote good fellowship and high scholarship;
To develop aggressive citizenship and the spirit of service for improvement of all human relationships;
To afford useful training in the social graces and personality development;
and To encourage and promote the following ideals:
•To give primacyto the human and spiritual rather than to the material values of life;
•To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships;
•To promote the adoption and the application of high social, business, and professional standards;
•To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive, and serviceable citizenship;
•To provide through Circle K clubs a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic service, and to build better communities; and
•To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which makes possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism and goodwill.
Circle K: The Beginning
In 1936, Jay N. Emerson, a member of the Pullman Washington Kiwanis Club, presented a plan to his club proposing that the Pullman Kiwanis Club purchase a house that could be rented to young men in need of assistance to attend the local college. The plan became a reality as the Kiwanians established the “Circle K House” at Washington State College. For ten years, the “Circle K House” became affiliated with a Greek Letter organization, although it continued to be sponsored by the Pullman Kiwanis Club.
Eleven years later in 1947, Donald T. Forsythe, Trustee of Kiwanis International, aided in transitioning Circle K from a fraternity to a service-oriented organization. That year, during September, the first Circle K club similar to our present day organization was chartered at Carthage College in Carthage, Illinois. (The college moved to its present-day location of Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1962.)
Circle K began as one man’s dream to enable the success of local collegians and continued to grow as others began to believe in the concepts of Circle K and in the men who belonged to Circle K. Though Jay N. Emerson died June 12, 1947, before he could see his dream become a reality, his vision of a collegiate-level, international youth organization will live on forever.
