Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is working with SunTrust to secure a one-year extension on repaying a loan that helped bring a major collection of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers to the city.

Two years ago, Sotheby's was planning to auction the King collection to the highest bidder.

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But Franklin, in an unprecedented 11-day push, was able to get $32 million in pledges and loan guarantees to bring the papers to Atlanta without them going on the auction block.

SunTrust provided the two-year loan, which comes due June 23.

So far, city leaders have received $26 million in cash pledges and about $20 million in loans. John Ahmann, a public affairs executive who has been working with the mayor, anticipates that nearly all of the remaining $6 million is scheduled to be raised by the end of June.

The actual amount that the community and the mayor need to raise is up to $10 million. It is estimated that with interest, the original $32 million loan will total about $35 million.

"We're dialing for dollars," Franklin said after updating the project with the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a group of top CEOs who work with the mayor on her major initiatives.

She is calling the people and companies that provided about $18.5 million in loan guarantees and exploring whether some of those guarantors would be willing to convert a portion of their guarantees to cash pledges. Franklin also plans to continue raising money from other potential donors.

"We've done all of this without a full-time fund-raiser," Franklin said, adding that might soon change.

Raymond King, a SunTrust executive vice president over community relations, said the bank is "certainly open to renewing the loan."

But he said it's too early to get into specifics about the loan.

Meanwhile, Ahmann said the King papers already have had a tremendous impact in Atlanta. The Robert W. Woodruff Library at the Atlanta University Center, where the papers are housed, is archiving and cataloging the collection. It has been receiving its own grants to digitize the collection and renovate the library.

Morehouse College has raised $3.5 million to endow the Goldman Sachs Leadership Chair in Civic and Human Rights for the collection.

With the papers, the city now has more reason to build the Center for Human & Civil Rights, which already has received contributions from several leading corporate citizens.

The Atlanta History Center was the first to display the collection in Atlanta, attracting more than 72,000 visitors during the five-month exhibit.

"We just need more time to get it done," Ahmann said. "People have been very responsive."

Rollins extends its good works

Rollins Corp. is extending its philanthropic reach to Africa, thanks to a new program it's calling Fight the Bite. The initiative is part of the United Nations Foundation campaign to provide bed nets and training to help prevent mosquito bites and the spread of malaria and dengue fever.

"More than a million people, mostly children in Africa, are killed each year by diseases borne by mosquitoes," said Glen Rollins, president of Orkin Pest Control, which is owned by Rollins Corp. "It's just such a simple, but high-impact, way to make a difference in public health."

Rollins will donate a minimum of $100,000 toward the campaign. For every customer of Orkin's mosquito service this season, the company will donate a $10 net that has been treated with insecticide to kill adult mosquitoes. Already, Orkin has collected $80,000, and the season lasts through August.

Employees also are making donations. The general public can contribute through www.nets.orkin.com.

Glen Rollins, 42, said his family has dedicated much of its philanthropy toward public health, which fits in well with the company's business.

"I'm hopeful that we will live to see the elimination of malaria," he said. "The nice thing about it is that it's preventable."

Kiwanis Club hits 90th birthday

It's not every day that one can celebrate a 90th birthday. So the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta held a special lunch last Friday to celebrate the milestone.

The actual birth date was Jan. 11, 1918, when a group of business leaders gathered at the now-demolished Kimball House, according to longtime member Jack Lowndes, who presented a history of the Atlanta club at the lunch.

It was only the sixth Kiwanis club in the country. The national organization began in Detroit in 1915. Today, there are 16,000 clubs in 70 countries.

Other landmarks in the history of Atlanta Kiwanis include 1979, when it became integrated; and 1987, when it opened the doors to 25 female members.

Business clubs such as Kiwanis and Rotary, because of a Supreme Court ruling, had to open their membership to women.

In its history, Kiwanis has given millions of dollars to civic causes. The Kiwanis Club Foundation had an endowment of $500,000 when it was 40 years old. It collected another $500,000 in the next four years, according to Reynolds Couch, a past president who currently chairs the foundation.

Today, it has an endowment of $3.2 million and contributed $259,000 in grants to 40 organizations last year.

Membership, however, has not had the same kind of growth. At its golden anniversary in 1968, the Atlanta Kiwanis had 355 members. Now the club has 270 members.