The South-West Kiwanis Club was recently entertained by the E.L.I.T.E. Musical Group at its Thursday noon meeting. Carl Cannon, Assistant General Manager of Recreation at the Peoria Park District with Youth Outreach, is mainly responsible for the formation of this band under the direction of Jeff Mosher who introduced each member: Damairuis Redwick, saxophone; Mat Zahner, key-board; Jay Nash, trumpet; Maggie Sloter, trombone; Ethan Mosher, guitar; and Jeff Adams, drums.

The E.L.I.T.E. Musical Group played a superb mix of Jazz and Big Band. They opened with “Blue Monk”, followed by a brief a sing-a-long of “Joy to the World” lead by long-time South-West Kiwanis member and former Mayor Jim Maloof. The group also played “Take Five”, “Night Train”, and “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning”.

Mr. Cannon mentioned that the band was a hard act to follow. Mr. Cannon described the E.L.I.T.E. Youth Program and how the concept has helped improve student behavior in Peoria schools. The concept was first applied to high school. It was introduced into Trewyn about a year ago and there has been much improvement in student behavior and grades. Mr. Cannon showed many of the positive changes with the aid of progress charts for Trewyn students. Mr. Cannon then accepted a $959.00 check from South-West President Conley Stutz to help E.L.I.T.E. with their youth programs.

Mr. Cannon recognized S-W Kiwanis member, Anthony Gardner, for his work in the E.L.I.T.E. Youth Program. He has known Anthony since he was a young boy and mentioned he has recently graduated from Bradley. Anthony is an E.L.I.T.E. coordinator, helping with the 12-week training programs.

Throughout his comments, Mr. Cannon mentioned how the E.L.I.T.E. concept was similar in many ways to Kiwanis and mentioned that as his program was coming together they looked like Kiwanis — they did what they did based on what was right.

For more information, find us on the web at www.PeoriaKiwanisS-W.org .