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Many significant events stand out in Redwood City’s long and rich history. It’s not only the oldest city on the San Francisco Peninsula but also became the county seat of the newly formed San Mateo County in 1856.
Before World War I, the United States and German governments began conducting climate surveys and gathering meteorological data. Their findings revealed Redwood City to be at the center of one of the world’s three best climates, leading to the slogan: “Climate Best By Government Test.”
Prior to the great quake of 1906 in San Francisco, towering Redwood trees covered this area of the Peninsula until many were cut down and shipped through our deep-water port to aid in the rebuilding effort.
Another amazing fact about Redwood City is that it is home to one of the oldest chapters of the international philanthropic organization, Kiwanis International. Kiwanis was founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. The name Kiwanis was selected because the word was translatable to “we build” from the Algonquian Native American language.
Initially focused on business networking, the organization changed its focus to serving children in 1919. Today, there are Kiwanis Club chapters in nearly 80 nations and geographic locations. The Kiwanis Club of Redwood City was established on April 29, 1924 – just nine years later – and is now celebrating its centennial anniversary.
The mission of Kiwanis is to develop funds and create programs that serve the children of the world. Through community service and philanthropy, Kiwanis supports the following children’s causes: health and nutrition, education and literacy, and youth leadership development.
Established in 1979 and now in its 45th year of operation, the Redwood City chapter’s “Signature Project” is their beloved Farmers’ Market, the oldest and largest farmers’ market on the Peninsula.
Shaleen Hinestroza-Keen, current president of Kiwanis Club of Redwood City, has a unique full-circle relationship with the organization. As a child, Hinestrosa personally benefited from their services, being one of the families from Garfield School granted a holiday shopping spree. This much-anticipated annual event allows children in need to choose items from toys to clothing, to games and more (within a set budget) that will make their holiday brighter. The experience stayed with her, and as a high schooler, she began volunteering her time as a face painter at the Kiwanis Farmers Market on the weekends and eventually became a member herself in 2017.
The Pulse sat down with Hinestrosa to understand the positive impact the Kiwanis Club of Redwood City has had on local children and families in need.
Redwood City Pulse: 100 years is an impressive milestone! What is the Kiwanis Club of Redwood City doing to mark the occasion?
Hinestroza-Keen: On April 28, we are gathering all of our members, partners and supporters – like the Redwood City Public Library, The Bay Area Council for Health Advocacy, and others – to celebrate everything we have accomplished over the years for the local community and recognize key people for their dedicated service and involvement.
Throughout 2024, to commemorate our 100th year of service, we partnered with several organizations to give back. Some of those included the North Fair Oaks Community Center, where we distributed food to the community. With City Trees, we were there to support their 4,000th tree in Redwood City at Magical Bridge Playground.
At our Kiwanis Farmers Market, we will be doing special tote bag giveaways and handing out complimentary sweet treats on both Saturday, April 20th and Saturday, April 27th, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. This is also the second year we will feature live, acoustic music, which we are excited about.
In October, we have our annual Trunk or Treat at the Farmers Market, along with a costume contest and pumpkin weigh contest. This will be our fourth year running this in a designated area near Bradford, and the kids and families love this.
Redwood City Pulse: Your personal relationship with this organization is very special. Tell us a little bit about that and how you became its current President.
Hinestroza-Keen: Yes. I was in elementary at Garfield Community School, in third or fourth grade, and I was chosen for one of the holiday shopping sprees that the Kiwanis Club of Redwood City sponsors. The experience changed my life and from then on, I wanted to pay it forward.
I became part of K Kids, which is the younger elementary version of our club now, and I was president of K Kids for two years. Then, in high school, I was part of the Key Club. Around this time, in my high school years, I started volunteering my time at the Kiwanis Farmers Market as a face painter. I did this for a number of years, through high school and college, and then officially became a member of the Kiwanis Club of Redwood City in 2017.
Redwood City Pulse: Can you share some of the local organizations the Kiwanis Club of Redwood City partners with, and what kind of community work you do with them?
Hinestroza-Keen: Oh, yes, there are many. For the annual holiday shopping sprees, we have partnered with Garfield Community School for a number of years. We have partnered with the school in many other ways as well over the years to provide for their community.
Right next door to Garfield is St. Anthony of Padua, who we also partner with frequently in order to do things like feed the community. Any leftover produce our vendors have from the Farmers Market gets donated here, to provide meals to those in need. Around the holidays, we also provide St. Anthony’s with turkeys and hams for their Christmas and Thanksgiving meals.
This January, we partnered with the North Fair Oaks Community Center to provide meals to those in need, and most recently, we supported City Trees at their 4,000th tree planting in Redwood City at Magical Bridge Playground.
Up until their closing, Talbot’s Toyland was also a partner of ours, helping us provide toys to children in need, which were delivered right to the families’ homes by Santa Claus.
More recently, we have started giving out [academic] scholarships to students. This initiative started with a group of students who volunteered at the Redwood City Public Library and alongside some of our vendors at the Farmers Market.
Redwood City Pulse: Tell us more about the history of the Kiwanis Farmers Market, how it came to be, and its effect on the community.
Hinestroza-Keen: Four community-oriented individuals, led by John Hensill, created the Kiwanis Farmers Market in 1979, and it is the oldest and largest running Farmers Market on the Peninsula. This year marks its 45th year in operation – wow!
Hensill grew up on a fruit ranch outside of San Jose and was raised growing fruit throughout the Santa Clara Valley before residing in Redwood City, where he helped establish and run the Kiwanis Farmers Market.
It has grown so much from starting out as a group of local farmers supplying the community with fresh produce to a true community event, with vendors offering everything from fruits, vegetables, flowers, eggs, dried nuts, a variety of berries, corn, cheese, honey, pastries, hummus and spreads, kettle corn, jewelry, arts and crafts, handbags and more. It has become a platform for local and independent farmers and artisanal vendors – from all over the state – to share their products with a wider community.
The funds that we raise from this platform allow us to grant so many families annual holiday shopping sprees at our partner schools, provide food and clothing to communities in need through St. Anthony of Padua and the North Fair Oaks Community Center, and award students [academic] scholarships each year.
Redwood City Pulse: What can we do as a community to support the mission of the Kiwanis Club of Redwood City, and how can interested parties get more involved with the organization?
Hinestroza-Keen: Spreading the word about our Farmers Market is the best and easiest way for the community to support us. It’s our largest and longest-running project and the funds raised from this platform go towards all of our local community initiatives, like providing food to the community and helping to grow our most recent scholarship efforts.
For those interested in becoming involved on a deeper level, they could reach out to us about becoming a member. We would invite them to a few meetings so they could meet all our other members and see what we do, and visit us at the Farmers Market to see how we run things there. And, although all our members are obviously dedicated to service and giving back, there is no required time commitment involved in becoming a member of the Kiwanis Club of Redwood City.
While it might be the oldest, it’s not even close to the largest. Of the several Peninsula farmer’s markets I’m familiar with Redwood City’s is by far the smallest.