Gareth Pruitt is a retired school district facilities manager who joined Kiwanis in 2008. As club president in 2014 and later as youth services chair for his division, he worked with clubs that sponsored high school and middle school service programs but rarely heard from the students or their families after graduation.

He began tracking the parents of youth program members and found that fewer than one in twenty had ever been invited to a club meeting. His division started inviting parents to year-end recognition events and asking each one to help with a single project. Over four years, 46 parents joined clubs in the division, and two new clubs formed around parent groups. Gareth also coordinates a scholarship committee that awards about $30,000 a year to graduating seniors.