Club History:

February 14, 1973, was, as usual, another beautiful day in Carefree. Richard Milhouse Nixon was President, the United States was still entangled in Vietnam, people in Phoenix were selling rocks for pets, and the Dow-Jones was 979.91.

Locally, the "Village of Carefree" was growing into the dreams of, and on the roadways cut by, developers the decade before. Cave Creek to the west was still smoldering in its rich historic dust, a living settlement of the cattle, mining and otherwise rowdy days before. Together, they sat serenely in the lush Sonoran Desert Foothills far north from Phoenix. The Boulders Resort did not exist, nor a Bashas'. There was no high school, no Desert Mountain, no Terravita, no el Pedregal, no Walgreens, and no incorporated cities.

There was the Carefree Inn located on Mule Train Road across from Desert Forest Golf Club. This resort, replete with pools, dining and banquet facilities, was the social spot of Carefree, an integral part of the days and lives of many, and is where, on February 14, 1973, at the urging of Fred Griffin, 22 men met to discuss the idea of forming what is now the Kiwanis Club of Carefree.

At the breakfast meeting, Hod Easley, Les Rhuart (a long-time member of the Valley of the Sun Kiwanis Club of Phoenix), and Floyd Williams (longtime secretary of the Southwest District of Kiwanis), told of the purpose and activities of the Kiwanis Club. Within a few days of that morning, 22 Carefree residents signed a petition to form a club, and the petition was sent to Kiwanis International. On February 28, 1973, an organization meeting was held, and that date is the birthday of our Club.