Club grants foster adaptive play

Club grants foster adaptive play

Aug 7, 2023 | Fundraising, Kiwanis Children's Fund | 1 comment

With Kiwanis Children’s Fund grants, three clubs are pursuing projects that make sure all kids have an equal chance to play.

By Erin Chandler 

Accessibility for all people, especially children, is a goal many Kiwanis clubs strive to achieve. Recently, the Kiwanis Children’s Fund awarded grants to three clubs that are working to make all kinds of play accessible for kids in their communities. Libraries and parks in these communities will now have toys and equipment adapted for children with physical, neurological and developmental differences. Each club consulted with experts and members of their communities to determine what would best serve kids and families. Young people everywhere deserve safe and fun ways to play, and these clubs found creative ways to fill that need. 

 The Children’s Fund makes grants that improve the lives of children around the world by identifying the projects that create a continuum of impact in a child’s life — one that spans their entire childhood and sets them up for a bright future. By funding projects that target the Kiwanis causes, whether through a Kiwanis Club’s local service project or through a club’s partner, the Children’s Fund ensures that its grantmaking has the greatest possible impact.   

If you are interested in extending your and your club’s impact beyond your community by giving to the Children’s Fund or applying for a club grant, visit the Kiwanis Children’s Fund page. [https://www.kiwanis.org/childrens-fund]   

Expand Toy Box Library
The Kiwanis Club of South Sioux Falls, South Dakota, U.S., is working with the Toy Lending Library of South Dakota to adapt their service for children with special needs. The organization stocks hundreds of toy boxes for children 5 and younger at local libraries, where the boxes can be checked out and returned. The club is stepping in to create 34 toy boxes for kids with physical or neurological differences, such as autism and visual or auditory impairments. To design the accessible boxes, club members consulted with experts, including professors of child development at Augustana University and parents of children with disabilities. A club grant from the Kiwanis Children’s Fund will help pay for special books and toys, which can be more expensive and difficult to find, as well as educational materials for caregivers. Club members will assemble the toy boxes and sanitize them on a regular basis. The club estimates that around 300 children will benefit from these toy boxes that are just for them. 

Kiwanis Sensory Music Garden
The Kiwanis Club of Bowling Green, Kentucky, U.S., consulted parents of children with special needs and adults with special needs in planning their club’s 100th anniversary project: a sensory music garden playground in Basil-Griffin Park, the most popular park in the county. The club found that of the 21 parks in the county, only one had equipment for children with special needs. The new sensory music garden playground’s eight structures will stimulate multiple senses to appeal to all children, especially those with physical, neurological and developmental differences. A grant from the Kiwanis Children’s Fund will help the club purchase three pieces of equipment from Landscape Structures: the Grandioso Chimes, Vivo Metallophone and Animato Metallophone. The club anticipates that thousands of children will be able to enjoy the sensory music garden’s sounds, textures and more. 

Anniversary Playground Project
For their club’s 100th anniversary, the Kiwanis Club of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., is also working to make local parks more accessible for children of all abilities. With help from a Kiwanis Children’s Fund grant, the club will install handicap-accessible signs and merry-go-rounds at six community parks. They will also install a pavilion at Helen Amhurst Park for park-goers to have parties and picnics while enjoying the new playground equipment. The club and members of their Service Leadership Programs clubs will be involved in maintaining the facilities so that future generations will also be able to play and have fun. 

How you can help
The Kiwanis Children’s Fund amplifies Kiwanians’ impact to reach children around the world through the Kiwanis causes of health and nutrition, education and literacy and youth leadership development. Make a gift or learn how your club can apply for a grant to help kids in your community.  

Growing kids’ futures one seed at a time

Growing kids’ futures one seed at a time

Jul 26, 2023 | General interest | 0 comments

Thanks to Kiwanis, kids in Oklahoma are building a greenhouse to grow produce — and job skills.

Story by Julie Saetre

In North Tulsa, Oklahoma, some 4,000 children live in low-income families. Twenty-five percent go to bed hungry every night, 58% drop out of school before graduating high school and 99% don’t go on to trade school or college.

It’s not surprising then that Chris Beach, executive director of Tulsa YouthWorks, shared these statistics and more with fellow members when he joined the Tulsa Kiwanis Club. Also not surprisingly, the club began supporting YouthWorks initiatives.

In the past, the club has donated to Summer Dream Camp, an annual YouthWorks program for first through fourth graders that provides reading and math tutoring, field trips, leadership training, service opportunities, recreation and more. Equally important, it serves breakfast and lunch to participants five days a week for 10 weeks.

“When school is out, a lot of these kids will not eat,” explains John Sanford, a fellow member of the Tulsa Kiwanis Club. “And this past year, I think they thought they were going to have about 80 kids, and about 200 showed up. So our club gave them about $6,000 so they had enough money to buy food.”

In its 11 years in the community, YouthWorks also has established a 30-week after-school program that includes tutoring, recreation, a snack and dinner; The YouthWorks Pizza Factory, where children and teens learn how to run their own pizza business (and sell the pies to earn money for college or trade school); and the YouthWorks Ranch, where children care for (and bond with) animals, ride horses, swim and play outdoor games.

Beach’s latest initiative takes these learning experiences in yet another new direction. With the help of a $55,000 donation from the Tulsa Kiwanis Club, Tulsa YouthWorks will teach kids how to grow fruits and vegetables year-round in a “multi-ponic” greenhouse — one that uses hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic systems. In fact, the kids are building the greenhouse themselves through the Dream Camp and after-school programs.

When the new greenhouse training center opens, its bounty will be delivered to North Tulsa families in need through area churches and other strategic partners.

For the Tulsa Kiwanis club, it will have an added benefit: appeal to a younger demographic of service leaders. Once more than 200 members strong, the club now has around 55 members and is working to add a 40-under subgroup. To accommodate busy workdays, the subgroup will meet in the evenings rather than during the main club’s lunchtime get-togethers.

These younger members will also step in for hands-on service projects that are becoming more challenging for some of the older members. Their service will be welcome for projects such as Christmas parties and back-to-school clothing donations.

“It’s kind of hard for all of us old guys to chase these kids down,” Sanford says with a laugh. “And I think that’s going to be a good thing for us because it’s going to get these younger members involved with these kids.”

Sanford encourages other Kiwanis clubs to seek out similar projects, noting that the multi-ponic greenhouse concept attracts people of all ages.

“This is a very interesting idea and not very hard to get going,” Sanford says. “The greenhouse doesn’t have to be as big as the one we helped purchase. It could be half that size and still be effective.”

Drum corps competition and fundraiser marches into third decade 

Drum corps competition and fundraiser marches into third decade 

Jul 26, 2023 | News | 0 comments

In Mankato, Minnesota, the Kiwanis Thunder of Drums draws up to 2,500 people each year.

By Julie Saetre

July evenings are generally quiet in Mankato, Minnesota, U.S., a riverside city in the southern part of the state. But for the last three-plus decades, one night has brought the noise: Kiwanis Thunder of Drums. Sponsored by the Mankato Kiwanis Club, the event is one in a series of competitions held by the nonprofit Drum Corps International (DCI).

Drum corps are marching bands that include only brass instrumentation ― you won’t see anyone playing flutes, clarinets, saxophones or other woodwinds. They’re also independent organizations, each with a limit of 150 members.  (Marching bands sponsored by schools and universities include woodwinds and often are open to anyone who wants to play.)

For Mankato Kiwanians, it all started in the early 1990s. A club member’s son played in the Madison Scouts, which is a DCI founding member and two-time DCI World Champion title holder. So, the Kiwanians thought: Why not bring a drum corps competition to Mankato so the Madison Scouts can participate?

It was also an opportunity for the club, says Doug Foust, a member and head of the Thunder of Drums organizing committee.

“A part of it is that any proceeds above and beyond what it costs us to put on this show would support our various Kiwanis projects,” he says. “It seemed like a natural fit.”

The Mankato 77 Lancers, a music and marching program for Mankato Area Public Schools students, joined in as a partner and also benefits from event proceeds.

After a two-year interruption because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Thunder triumphantly returned in 2022 and will take place for the 31st time this July 11. Around 2,500 guests attend each year.

Community support and partnership has been a key to Thunder’s longevity. The University of Minnesota provides use of its Blakeslee Stadium. Area high schools open cafeterias, gyms and football fields for participants to eat, sleep and practice. Others volunteer their services, from graphic design students who design and print marketing materials to a certified athletic trainer/emergency medical technician who is on hand in case of an injury or illness.

A local television station even supplies thousands of dollars’ worth of free advertising.

“It takes all of these folks in the community to really make this a success,” Foust says. “We’ve built up some really good partnerships. It makes putting on the show relatively easy year after year.”