Look for leadership opportunities

Look for leadership opportunities

Feb 15, 2024 | General interest, Leadership | 0 comments

In addition to service, the Kiwanis experience includes several ways for members to be leaders and learners.

By Tony Knoderer

Kiwanis creates leaders. In fact, the Kiwanis experience provides members with multiple opportunities to develop leadership skills while changing children’s lives. Here are a few to look for: 

  • Leadership development training. Kiwanis offers virtual Club Leadership Education (CLE) for presidents, secretaries, treasurers and membership committee chairs — whether they’re new to their roles or want to refresh their knowledge. And all Kiwanians are welcome to participate each year in Kiwanis Amplify, a program that amplifies your leadership skills in your club, career and community. 
  • Project leadership. Many of the best Kiwanis clubs are known for their service projects. And those projects give you opportunities to step into leadership roles — which help you develop leadership skills while you contribute to your community. 
  • Mentorship. Many longtime Kiwanians say they stayed with their clubs in their early days because someone took the time to make them feel welcome and help them navigate their service journey. Be that mentor for a fellow member — especially someone who recently joined your club. 

As you seek out opportunities for leadership, don’t forget our tips for honing your leadership skills, with advice from a couple of experts: Kiwanis International Executive Director Paul Palozzolo and the recently retired executive director, Stan Soderstrom. 

Serve with first responders 

Serve with first responders 

Feb 14, 2024 | General interest | 0 comments

These Kiwanis clubs learned that first responders can make ideal project partners. Get inspired! 

By Julie Saetre

When your club is considering service project possibilities, don’t overlook your community’s first responders. They’re committed to helping families and children stay safe and well, and they encounter a diverse group of community residents. That often makes them ideal project partners. Get inspiration from these Kiwanis club projects. 

Connecting cops and kids
The Kiwanis Club of Bluffton, South Carolina, U.S., donated dozens of basketballs, footballs, dodgeballs and other pieces of sporting equipment to the Bluffton Police Department. Officers use the items when on routine patrols to interact with children and young people. The officers will chat with a child or teen and sometimes play a quick game of catch — and then offer the ball as a gift. They’ve also used the items as a distraction to divert a child’s attention from an accident or other troubling incident.  

“It’s a great way to build trust and rapport with children in the community,” says Bluffton Police Sergeant Bonifacio Perez. “It helps build fun, not fear.” 

In Florida, U.S., a local program called Dueling Dragons brings together officers from the Orlando Police Department and young community residents to form teams that compete in dragon boat competitions. The program reaches out to the area’s “invisible kids”: inner-city youth who strive academically but receive neither praise (which is often reserved for athletic prowess) nor intervention (which is directed toward troubled behavior). When members of the Orlando Kiwanis Club heard about Dueling Dragons, they donated a 10-person practice boat and volunteered to provide cookouts for team members and scholarships to students.  

Supporting safety and saving lives
The Kiwanis Club of Brantwood, Ontario, Canada, pioneered the Children’s Safety Village, a two-acre town simulation where kids learn about staying safe in even the most dangerous situations. The club provided CA$25,000 for start-up funds, and members have volunteered for thousands of service hours. The village includes classrooms, a fire-hazard apartment and a miniature town with roads and working traffic signals. Instructors from the Brantford Fire Department help kids identify fire hazards in the home and learn how to escape a burning building. Community constables demonstrate proper bicycle maintenance techniques and safety checks and explain the meaning of various road signs and signals. 

In Arkansas, U.S., the El Dorado Kiwanis Club partnered with the El Dorado Fire Department and ProMed Ambulance service to launch a local Stop the Bleed campaign. A national awareness effort, Stop the Bleed helps bystanders — also known as immediate responders — become trained, equipped and empowered to help in an emergency involving a bleeding person. In Eldorado, ProMed Ambulance and the El Dorado Fire Department conducted Stop the Bleed training sessions. The Kiwanis club also held training sessions and provided training kits with supplies for packing wounds and applying tourniquets.  

Microgrants boost health, learning and leadership

Microgrants boost health, learning and leadership

Feb 13, 2024 | General interest, Kiwanis Children's Fund | 0 comments

From October through December, the Kiwanis Children’s Fund helped clubs with fewer members make a bigger difference.

By Erin Chandler

The Kiwanis Children’s Fund awarded microgrants for several deserving Kiwanis club projects in October, November and December of 2023. Carried out by clubs with 35 members or fewer, these projects might seem small, but they’re making a huge impact on kids’ lives in the Kiwanis cause areas: health and nutrition, education and literacy, and youth leadership development. Read about one outstanding project in each cause area and see how your club could make a big difference in little ways! 

Health and Nutrition
Fleece Blankets for Camp Evergreen Bereavement Camp 

The Kiwanis Club of Knute Rockne Memorial, Granger in Indiana, U.S., knows that caring for kids’ health does not end with nutritious food and exercise — it also includes attention to mental and emotional health. The club provides fleece blankets to Camp Evergreen, a bereavement camp for children who have lost a close family member. Each kid at the grief day camp or the Saturday family workshops learns how to use their blanket as a positive coping tool that they can take home. A Kiwanis Children’s Fund microgrant will help the club purchase material, which members will cut and tie into blankets at a service event/potluck dinner. Club members value this project both to support children in need and to build camaraderie with their fellow Kiwanians. 

Education and Literacy
Sulphur Springs Library Improvement Initiative 

In 2022, the small rural town of Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, U.S., reopened its public library after years of closure — and the Kiwanis Club of Gravette was there to help. After donating children’s books and a rug for kids to sit on during story time, the club got a microgrant from the Kiwanis Children’s Fund to expand its support. As a result, they purchased materials for a new bookcase for the children’s section of the library and more books covering a range of topics and cultures. One group of Kiwanians designed and built the bookcase, while another consulted with the librarian on the most-needed books. The club knows how essential the public library is to increasing literacy in a low-income community where not all families can afford to purchase books of their own. 

Youth Leadership Development
Southern University Laboratory School Garden Enhancement 

The Kiwanis Club of Baton Rouge-Early Risers, Louisiana, U.S., has partnered with Cooper Farms and My Kid Plate Foundation on a project that encourages kids to become leaders — while helping them learn about and get access to nutritious food. With assistance from Kiwanians, elementary school students in the Science, Writing and Agriculture (SWAG) program at Southern University Laboratory School are responsible for maintaining and harvesting a garden. The students take the initiative in caring for the garden while learning about the benefits of the healthy food they grow. The quality of the vegetables they produce is evaluated by the Southern University College of Agriculture. The club will use a Children’s Fund microgrant to add equipment and a vertical trellis that will help the garden grow.  

How you can help
To learn more about Kiwanis Children’s Fund microgrants, visit kiwanis.org/microgrant-program. 

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