Free bike helmets for small-town kids 

Free bike helmets for small-town kids 

Jul 26, 2023 | News | 0 comments

A multiyear Kiwanis project between Iceland and Canada bridges over 2,700 miles.

By Julie Saetre

On the west side of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, the unincorporated community of Gimli is home to fewer than 2,400 residents. Its first European settlers came from Iceland and established the New Iceland settlement in 1875. Outside of Iceland itself, Gimli now has the largest number of Icelandic peoples in the world and is known as “the second Iceland.”

In August 2022, the Gimli and District Kiwanis Club accomplished a multiyear project with a fellow Kiwanian in Iceland: bring free bicycle helmets to the community’s children.

In 2019, Gimli club member Sam Sekhon, then a Kiwanis International trustee (2018-21), and his wife, Terry, traveled to Iceland for the Iceland-Faroes District convention and met Kiwanian Ólafur Jonsson.

Jonsson chairs a Kiwanis district project that distributes free bicycle helmets to children to protect them from head trauma if they take a tumble. The successful initiative has been going strong for over 25 years. The bike helmets are donated by Eimskip, an international shipping company with offices in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. In 2022 alone, over 4,400 bike helmets were distributed. Every Icelandic child in first grade received one. In total, the Kiwanis/Eimskip partnership has brought bike helmets to some 65,000 children.

Impressed, the Sekhons thought the children of Gimli could also benefit from such a program. They learned that Petur Jokull Hakonarson, an Eimskip district manager, works with the Iceland- Faroes Kiwanis District on the helmet project.

“Terry is a very persuasive person,” says Sam Sekhon. “She first convinced Ólafur Jonsson to introduce her to the Eimskip representative [Hakonarson]. Then she did what she does.”

Hakonarson readily agreed to help the children of “second Iceland.” Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

But Terry remained in touch with Jonsson. In June 2022, as pandemic restrictions continued to ease, the Sekhons got news that the promised helmets were ready to ship.

 

Trekking to and through Canada
Jonnson’s help didn’t stop there. He reached out to the CEO and assistant CEO of Icelandair Cargo and asked whether the helmets could be shipped from Iceland to Canada at no cost. The pair agreed, but Icelandair could not deliver directly to Winnipeg. Instead, the shipment would arrive in Toronto.

This brought a new challenge for the Sekhons: How to get the helmets released quickly from Canada customs and shipped to Gimli.

Terry, of course, didn’t let this latest development deter her. She contacted Ken Allan, then governor of the Kiwanis Western Canada District, for help. Allan referred her to Jim Scott, then governor of the Kiwanis Eastern Canada and the Caribbean District. Scott worked with a broker who arranged for the shipment’s release and for Loomis Cargo to transport the helmets from Toronto to Winnipeg.

The timing was flawless, as the 93 new helmets arrived just in time for the annual Icelandic Festival of Manitoba. Known by locals as “Islendingadagurinn” and launched in 1890 — only 15 years after Gimli was established — this celebration of Icelandic culture now attracts as many as 30,000 people.

The 2022 festival program had already been printed, but the event organizers worked with Terry to add helmet distribution to the schedule. Finally, the years-long project came to fruition on August 1, 2022, when 60 children received bicycle helmets on the festival’s main stage. The remaining 33 helmets were donated to Gimli schoolchildren.

The wait was worth it.

“The joyous looks on the faces of the children, their parents and the dignitaries from Iceland (in Gimli for the festival) made it worthwhile,” says Sam Sekhon. “Our stress and tension all faded away, and that, for the two of us, was truly a Kiwanis moment.”

 

Disaster relief

Disaster relief

Jul 26, 2023 | Fundraising, News | 0 comments

When a fire in Pennsylvania destroyed multiple homes, Kiwanis members jumped into action.

By Julie Saetre

Kiwanis clubs often plan projects to help their communities based on needs surveys, discussions with community leaders and other detailed research. But sometimes an urgent situation emerges, and Kiwanis members jump into action to provide immediate relief.

That was the situation on May 29, 2023 — the Memorial Day holiday in the U.S — in Easton, Pennsylvania. In the middle of the afternoon, a six-alarm fire broke out in the West Ward area of the city. By the time it was controlled, it had damaged or consumed 15 row homes.

The devastation left 45 people, including parents and children, without homes. When Bill Walters, secretary and manager of special projects for the Kiwanis Club of Easton, heard the news, he knew his club could help. The day after the fire, club leaders began to organize a relief effort in conjunction with other area organizations and Easton City Council Member Taiba Sultana.

To address the pressing matter of housing for those impacted by the fire, Third Street Alliance — a nonprofit that provides shelter and childcare for women, children and families in need — offered to help. Other organizations joined with the Kiwanians to plan a lunch for those affected.

At the same time, Walters was busy working to ensure those individuals had quick funds for urgent expenses such as prescription drugs, eyeglasses and cell phones.

“After the fire, I sent an email to our club leadership team, immediate past president, current president, president elect and chair of our foundation,” Walters says. “I made a suggestion of what I felt we might be able to pull together quickly.”

The Easton Kiwanis Club Board approved a minimum of US$3,000, based on the club’s treasury, non-disbursed budget monies and donations from members.

Help in six days
On Sunday, June 4, less than one week after the fire occurred, the Easton club and Full Gospel Cathedral hosted the lunch. Fidelity Bank and its branch manager, Linda Johnson, provided pizza, pasta and beverages, and counselors from the American Red Cross were available for trauma counseling. Easton Kiwanians James Owen (club president), Janet Owen, Nick Ciambrone and Dean Young (who is also the executive director of the Easton Boys and Girls Club) distributed a $75 gift card to each of the 45 guests.

“Today was a good day to be a Kiwanian,” Owens said at the event. “This enabled us to make sure there were considerations and immediate/critical needs met for those families who had children. This is only a beginning. The city of Easton and other agencies are working together to make sure the needs of these folks and others are met as the recovery continues. We will be there to do our part.”

Since the luncheon, the Easton club continues to receive additional donations, which members will distribute to those impacted.

“The healing has begun,” Owens says. “It will be a long way through. Love will guide the way, and we will be there alongside to support and provide resources to the best of our ability. We are Easton, and we are Kiwanis.”

In a surprise twist, the social media coverage of the club’s quick relief drew the attention of a retired schoolteacher in Easton. She searched for club information on kiwanis.org and requested to join.

“Our membership chair spoke with her,” Walters says. “She is so happy that Kiwanis is about kids, she is planning on attending our meeting next week.”

Building literacy

Building literacy

Jul 19, 2023 | Leadership, Literacy | 0 comments

A Kiwanis club in Arkansas, U.S., brings bookcases and books to kids. 

By Julie Saetre 

In April of this year, 50 children in Conway, Arkansas, U.S., eagerly gathered at the Conway Public Library for a special presentation. Soon, each child would be awarded a personalized bookcase, a starter kit of age-appropriate books and a “reading buddy” — a stuffed animal toy — courtesy of the Conway Kiwanis Club. 

The presentation marked the 19th year of the Conway Kiwanis Bookcase Project, founded in 2005 by club member Jim Davidson with the goal of promoting literacy at an early age and setting kids up to excel in education and future professions. The Kiwanis club assumed oversight of the project in 2020. 

Recipients are 4- and 5-year-old preschool children who are enrolled in three area Head Start centers; they are selected by the Community Action Program for Central Arkansas, the centers’ administrator. 

“They’re old enough to understand they’re receiving a gift and they react in particular to books with colorful pictures and their ‘reading buddy,’ says Richard Plotkin, the Kiwanian who chairs the Bookcase Project. “One recipient could not wait to have her bookcase loaded in her family’s car before checking out her copy of ‘Three Little Engines.’” 

A local construction company builds the bookcases, which the Kiwanis club funds through ticket sales to its annual banquet and supplemental cash and in-kind donations from businesses and individuals. A personalized nameplate, donated by a local trophy and awards shop, identifies the owner of each bookcase, which contains a selection of books that the Conway Public Library receives through community donations. Other area supporters donate books as well, and an individual donates the “reading buddies.”

A seven-person operating committee provides functional oversight of the Bookcase Project. Committee members include representatives from the fields of education, government and community service.

Bookcase recipients, however, are unaware of the annual team effort organized by the Conway Kiwanis Club. They’re just happy to receive the gift of literacy.

For Plotkin, one experience from earlier this year stands out: a bookcase ceremony in which a representative of Child Care Aware of Northcentral Arkansas led recipients in numerous activities.

“I was told after the ceremony that the children did not want to return to their parents at the end of the session,” Plotkin says. “They wanted to stay.”