Kin Canada selects Yorkton woman as national president

Marley Hanishewsky is the youngest woman selected to serve as Kin Canada's national president.

"I knew that I always wanted to be involved in Kin Canada and where that journey took me was a bit of a surprise,” Hanishewsky said with excitement.

In late August, she was sworn in during Kin Canada’s convention held in Prince Edward Island. The all-Canadian service organization represents 400 Kin, Kinsmen and Kinette clubs across the country.

“I knew that I always wanted give back to my community. I always to be the best leader that I could be. It started small, and gradually, and kind of worked my way up to here pretty quick,” she said.

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Born and raised in Yorkton, Hanishewsky grew up watching her parents be active members of the Kinsmen Club of Yorkton which inspired her to join as a member when becoming of age.

"I mean there's so much camaraderie,” she expressed.

“I saw how much they enjoyed being members and what it gave to them, the personal development, that they achieved through Kin Canada. I knew that I wanted to be a member so I joined as soon as I could at 19."

However, this is not the first time someone from her family served as the organization’s president. Back in 2014, her father, Ron Hanishewsky, was selected for the same role.

"It’s very exciting to see. In our 105 years of history, this is the first time there's been a parent's child [as] president,” Ron explained. He currently serves as the president of the Kinsmen Club of Yorkton where’s he’s been a member for 25 years.

“It's history in the making, but it's more exciting to see her as a young person wanting to give back and really inspire other people,” he added.

He said he hopes youth across Saskatchewan are encouraged to join their local Kin clubs after seeing Hanishewsky’s place as president for the year of 2024-25.

“We do need to find those people in the communities, and leaders that are younger that want to give back to the association, to the community, to whatever it is,” Ron expressed.

“Whether it’s Kinsmen or Kinettes, or any other organization, it’s really just about people volunteering and giving back to their community to make it a better place.”

The local club has been in Yorkton close to 80 years, according to Ron.

Since then, it has donated thousands of dollars to various organizations in the community – with one in particular being The Health Foundation in Yorkton.

“As everyone knows, service clubs are struggling. We have a reasonably vibrant Kinsmen club in this community and they make contributions to all kinds of things to water parks, food banks, all sorts of things,” executive director Ross Fisher explained.

“It makes a difference in our ability to do and maintain some of those programs that are run and staffed by volunteers just to make a difference to the quality of life for individuals.”

Fisher said one initiative the Kinsmen Club of Yorkton helped the foundation with was a mammography program.

“Way back, we launched a program to bring the first digital mammography equipment to Saskatchewan,” he said.

“Back then Ron Hanishewsky was the president of the local club and he was on the Kinsmen Telemiracle board. The equipment was very expensive back then, it was around $800,000 and the Kinsmen donated $200,000 to help us buy that equipment. It made a significant difference in the diagnostic ability for breast cancer.”

Hanishewsky said being the second person from Yorkton to serve as the national president for the organization speaks volume to the local group.

“It’s pretty impressive. It shows the commitment and dedication the Yorkton Kin put into their membership,” she expressed.

“I was a previous Yorkton Kinette member before I moved to Regina for work. It really shows the dedication the members have out here to making sure not only the community is impacted, but also the association and the country.”

Now in her new role, one of the first projects yet to come is a Top 30 Kin Under 30 which will acknowledge the Kin members across Canada who are under the age of 30.

Hanishewsky said the association will open up nominations soon.