Kiwanians in Canada help refugees from Ukraine thrive in their new country.

By Julie Saetre

Kiwanians have a heart for service — and in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, that heart extends to helping families in need from over 7,700 kilometers away. 

In 2021, members of the Kiwanis Club of Barrie — including Helen Ellement and her sister, Cathy Locke — were deciding how to mark the club’s 100th anniversary. At a church service, Ellement and Locke learned that refugees from Ukraine would be traveling to Canada and needed places to stay. At the time, Locke had been preparing to sell her large home so she could purchase a smaller residence.  

“So of course we just looked at each other,” Ellement recalls, “and she said, ‘I know what I’m going to do.’” 

Locke offered to house some incoming refugees while they adjusted to living in a different country, learning a new language and finding employment. And Ellement thought of a way to celebrate the club’s centennial: spend CA$100,000 on service projects, a third of which would fund the refugees’ flights to Canada. 

The club’s donation paid for six families — a total of 33 people — to relocate. And once they arrived, Ellement, the current lieutenant governor of Kiwanis Division 8, and Locke, now the club’s president-elect, led efforts to help the families settle in. The sisters gathered necessities ranging from bedding to paper goods, made doctor appointments, located a service that would help determine grade placement levels for the school-age students, and even helped find jobs for some of the adults. 

“Pretty much anything you would do for your own kids, that’s what we’ve been doing for the Ukrainian families,” Ellement says. 

Generosity rewarded
Meanwhile, instead of selling her home, Locke invited the largest family group — two parents and 11 children and teens — to live in the residence. Locke relocated to what became a lower-level apartment, complete with separate access; the family moved into the remainder of the house. 

The families have not let this generosity go unrewarded.  

“They’ve worked at every function that Kiwanis does that we need help with,” Ellement says. “So they’ve helped us as much as we’ve helped them. They’ve been fabulous.” 

Now Ellement and Locke are writing letters of recommendation to help the families gain permanent residency in Canada. 

“They’ve all gotten jobs, and they’ve worked very hard. They’ve become members of their community,” says Ellement. “They feel like family, and they feel like we’re their family.” 

How has your club supported newcomers to your community? Let us know at shareyourstory@kiwanis.org. 

If your club’s service showcase is losing members’ interest, try these three ACE tools.

By Tony Knoderer

From playgrounds and parks to festivals and fundraisers, signature projects are what Kiwanis clubs are known for in their communities. In fact, Kiwanis International recognizes the best of them each year with the Signature Project Contest. 

But even the best signature projects can lose their impact. Maybe it’s just a matter of routine — a need to refresh what’s become too familiar for members. Or maybe it’s something more difficult to identify.

Your club’s signature project is its showcase to the community — so it’s important to make sure members care enough to make it impactful. If the project needs to regain member interest, some of Kiwanis International’s Achieving Club Excellence (ACE) tools can help: 

• Evaluate your impact. Start with an accurate sense of the difference you’re making. With this tool, your club can make an honest and thorough assessment. 

• Member survey. Sometimes you need to address a core issue: What makes the club experience valuable for members? Specific questions that explore their perceptions of the club’s impact — and what they’d like to start doing — provide insights that can be applied to your club’s most important project. 

• Club vision. You can also take a look at the big picture: What does your club do, and why does it exist? This tool helps your club create a vision that guides leaders and members alike. And it includes instructions on conducting a group exercise, so everyone has a part in the process.

Don’t forget: All these resources can be found on the ACE tools webpage, which includes other common concerns clubs face — and pairs them with the tools that help address those issues.

A Florida, U.S., Kiwanis club’s annual holiday program was more urgent than ever in 2024. 

By Tony Knoderer

For 34 years, the Kiwanis Club of Plant City, Florida, U.S., has made sure that kids in need get gifts during the holidays. In partnership with local businesses and organizations, the “Christmas for an Angel” program collects wish lists from local children — and then coordinates Kiwanians and various community members to gather and distribute the gifts.

Sharon Moody, club member and event chair, says the program was especially important this year.

“A lot of families are still hurting from Hurricane Milton,” says Moody, who is also a past governor of the Florida District.

Hurricane Milton struck Florida in October, becoming the fifth-largest Atlantic Ocean hurricane in history. It reached wind speeds of 180 miles per hour and generated nearly 20 inches of rain.

“Some kids got displaced,” Moody says. “Some are still living in hotels. Ultimately it affected about 1,500 students.”

For parents and volunteers alike, the children’s smiles were especially touching when toys were delivered to kids in 18 elementary schools throughout the day on December 16.

The success of the event was particularly gratifying for everyone who pitched in to make it happen — barely two months after the natural disaster that made the need more urgent than ever.

For Moody, it was a reminder of the power of partnerships. For example, the club coordinated the project at the City Parks and Recreation Building in Plant City. Locally, Stingray Chevrolet and its employees were crucial, she says, as were members of the Rotary Club and Plant City High School Key Club.

Moody’s gratitude ultimately extended to a wide range of people and organizations in the area — from local churches and retailers to South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City.

“This year, everybody stepped up,” Moody says. “We got together, and we got it done.”