The Kiwi Kaleidoscope
National Newsletter of The Kiwi Club
Members Only Kiwi Group
Public Kiwi Group
We thank Mary Thrasher for providing the "Critters" artwork that is used throughout our website, and for managing our private Kiwi Facebook group!
Read the Latest Issue of the Kiwi Kaleidoscope Now!
Printing and Viewing:
If you're using a pc (not a mac), you can right-click the .pdf and choose 'save as.' You can then save it onto your hard drive (on the desktop or in one of your folders). Open it from the new location, then click 'file'/print.
Read Previous Issues of the Kaleidoscope:
A Brief History of the Kaledioscope
Mary Richter Thrasher
In 1983, Jan Brown Hansen and Mary Richter Thrasher recognized that The Kiwi Club had no official newsletter. They approached the National Executive Board for permission to create one, and the project was approved.
At that time, neither Jan nor Mary knew whether a Kiwi newsletter had existed in earlier years. Since then, Mary, serving as The Kiwi Club Historian, has discovered newsletters published between 1952 and 1978 under the title The Kiwi Newsletter.
To launch the new publication, Jan and Mary sponsored a contest to select a name, with one of Mary's airline-themed artworks offered as the prize. The winning entry, Kiwi Kaleidoscope, was chosen because it reflected their vision of a publication that would continually change, grow, and evolve.
Jan and Mary worked together on the newsletter until the fall of 1987, when Jan resigned for personal reasons. Mary continued as editor until 1990, when Jane McDonald Jamison joined the staff. With extensive editorial experience, Jane assumed most of the writing responsibilities, while Mary, who was still flying full time, focused on artwork and design.
With the exception of Mary Thrasher's term as National President from 2004 to 2006, Mary and Jane continued their successful partnership for nearly three decades. Their collaboration came to a close in 2022 when Jane retired for health reasons.