by Derek Dupuis
The Kiwanis Club of Mount Vernon is excited to welcome its
newest Service Leadership Program into the Kiwanis Family!
The Stratford Landing K-Kids club was organized this fall
and has submitted its charter paperwork to become Mount Vernon's
first K-Kids club! In its first 3 months, the club has been
very active in their community. In September, Mount Vernon Kiwanis held a family information session at the school and treated all attendees to a pizza dinner! Over 100 people attended and over 55 children signed up to be members of the new club! During our September meetings we brainstormed project ideas and held a service project! Students drew pictures, wrote letters, and mailed cards to local miltary servicemen in Iraq.
In October, the club had a guest speaker from New Hope Housing, a transitional housing program for needy families. With some guidance from our speaker, the club held a clothing drive for the children in New Hope Housing shelters. They collected so many clothes that we needed two cars to transport all of the items to the New Hope Housing offices. The K-Kids club also held a food drive for the United Community Ministries food pantry and ended up with enough food to fill a shopping cart.
In November we made crafts for residents of the nearby Hollin Hall Retirement home and the club sponsored the Stratford Landing Elementary School Fall Cleanup. Over 30 members and their friends and family helped cleanup the outside entrance to the school. Several students also helped run our bake sale during Parent's Night where the club collected over $200 for their service fund. On November 19th, the club held a Walk-A-Thon to benefit the vicitims of the California wildfires. Students had friends and family member pledge a small donation for each lap they completed at the Walk-A-Thon. Parents and Kiwanis members were on site during the Walk-A-Thon to help each child count their laps. The K-Kids club has worked with the Kiwanis International Foundation to channel their donated funds to a California-area Kiwanis Club working to rebuild their community. Students are still collecting on pledges but early results indicate that several hundred dollars were raised. Any Kiwanis Club interested in donating can contact Kiwanis Advisor Derek Dupuis (DerekDup@gmail.com) as the club is still accepting donations.
Pictured above left Fall Cleanup group on November 10th. Pictured above right the Walk-A-Thon group on November 19th.
