STEAM Fair sparks creativity and leadership

STEAM Fair sparks creativity and leadership

Feb 20, 2025 | General interest, Kiwanis Children's Fund, Service Leadership Programs, Service projects | 0 comments

A California Kiwanis club inspires students to pursue their dream careers in the sciences and arts 

By Erin Chandler

On September 28, 2024, the gymnasium of Diamond Bar High School in California, U.S., was science and technology central, with robotics and 3D printing demonstrations, drones, introductions to coding and more. Outside were performances from bands, the local Hawaiian School and a K-Pop dance cover crew. Booths from organizations like Mathnasium, the Society of Women Engineers, the Department of Public Works, and Curtiss-Wright Nuclear stood alongside those from the LA County Library and the Literacy Guild.  

The Kiwanis Club of Diamond Bar Young Professionals’ second annual STEAM Fair was a true celebration of science, technology, engineering, the arts and math. 

“I always stress STEAM,” says club president Roseangeli Ayson. “Because the ‘A,’ the arts, are just as important, and I think a lot of time people lose sight of that. I just think it makes the world better when all of those aspects are embraced.” 

Clearly, the community agrees. Hundreds of kids flocked to the book giveaway; the reading/Lego corner; the stations for making bookmarks, slime and K-Pop photocards; the poetry readings; the face painting; and the sessions on professional development and college applications.  

The event, Ayson says, is all about “exposing the kids to things that are of interest to them and sparking their creativity.” 

A big idea
Only a few years ago, the project seemed impossible. The club was about six years old and had fewer than 20 members.  

“It was one of those things, like, ‘Maybe in the future that could be something,’” Ayson says. “‘One day when the club gets bigger.’” 

Then, at a fundraising event, she was introduced to Gabe Aguilar, now an instructional dean at Diamond Bar High School and advisor for the school’s robotics club, Team Sprocket. Once they agreed that Team Sprocket would cohost the event, with the high school serving as a free venue, the whole endeavor seemed much more possible. 

In the end, the first STEAM Fair came together in just six months. Members of the Kiwans Club of Diamond Bar Young Professionals called on family, college friends and coworkers to serve on the professional panels.  

Students step up
The real stars of the event were the high school students from Team Sprocket and other school clubs, plus members of Key Club Divisions 35 East and 35 West, and the Kiwin’s Goldstone Division of the Kiwanis California-Nevada-Hawaii District. 

“A lot of times, we can’t hold our events without SLPs [Service Leadership Programs],” Ayson says. “I don’t have 50-60 Kiwanians to help me pull it off.” 

The STEAM Fair offers its student volunteers all kinds of opportunities to grow as leaders. In the STEAM Fair’s second year, Ayson says, the students even joined the Kiwanians as leaders in organizing the project. 

“With another year under their belt, some of the juniors, who are seniors this year, were a lot more involved in the planning, which is, I think, probably why the gym was better coordinated and had a lot more activities than last year.” 

Among the new activities was a gallery of art made by local middle school students, a collaboration that highlighted another benefit of having Key Club members volunteer at events. They don’t just develop their own leadership skills — they also inspire younger attendees to follow in their footsteps.  

“When the kids come and they see all the high schoolers helping out, it’s more fun,” Ayson says. “They’re a lot more interactive than us old-fogey Kiwanians.” 

Inspiration and connection
Ayson made sure to leave time in the teen volunteers’ shifts to enjoy the booths, performances and panels that interested them. While most of the STEAM Fair targets younger children who are still discovering their interests, it also offers career panels for high school students. 

For some students, the fair was a chance to find mentors from their own communities who had “made good” in their chosen fields. For others, it was an opportunity for networking. One Key Club member who performed at the fair was scouted by a Friends of the Library board member to sing the national anthem at their annual toy drive. 

Another student approached Ayson after a career panel that featured Academy Award-winning documentary director Martin Desmond Rowe and an author who had written about how to make money in a creative career. The student said she had been struggling with whether she could pursue her interest in photography professionally, but after the panel she felt more confident. 

“Even if it was just that one person, we helped her see that her dream actually could happen,” Ayson says. 

Looking to the future
After its first year, the Kiwanis Club of Diamond Bar Young Professionals’ STEAM Fair was a top 10 finalist in the Kiwanis International Signature Project Contest and received a club grant from the Kiwanis Children’s Fund. For other clubs looking to host similar events, Ayson recommends partnering with local high schools and extracurricular clubs.  

Because the students are interested in and impacted by what the fair represents, Ayson says, “you get the buy-in right away.” 

Ayson hopes to get a panelist from the Grammy Museum next year. The past two years have taught her that when the members want to do something, they can make it happen. 

“We’re a small club,” she says, “but I feel like we’re a small-but-mighty club.”  

How you can help
If you want to support projects like the Kiwanis Club of Diamond Bar Young Professionals’ STEAM Fair, you can make a gift in support of The Possibilty Project.  

The Kiwanis Children’s Fund makes grants that improve the lives of children around the world by identifying 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. Through The Possibility Project, the Children’s Fund ensures that its grantmaking has the greatest possible impact, supporting projects that target the Kiwanis causes — health and nutrition, education and literacy, and youth leadership development — whether through a Kiwanis club’s local service project or a club’s partner. 

Learn how your club can apply for a grant to help kids in your community. 

Microgrants help kids get ahead 

Jan 24, 2025 | General interest, Kiwanis Children's Fund, Service projects | 0 comments

From October through December, smaller clubs made a big impact through the Kiwanis Children’s Fund.

By Erin Chandler

In October, November and December 2024, Kiwanis clubs around the world received Kiwanis Children’s Fund microgrants. Available for clubs with 35 members or fewer, microgrants recently helped clubs complete projects that brought clothing and other essential items to people facing weather adversity, books to community libraries and classrooms, and more. These projects might be smaller in scale, but they will make a big impact. The following three projects highlight some of the ways Kiwanis clubs are using microgrants to help young people in need keep up with their peers in the Kiwanis cause areas of education and literacy, health and nutrition, and youth leadership development.  

Health and nutrition
Kids’ Fun Zone
The Kiwanis Club of the Coast Fork, Oregon, U.S., plans to promote the physical and emotional health of some of the most vulnerable kids in their community. A Children’s Fund microgrant will help purchase a swing set, sandbox, monkey bars and more play equipment for a local center that serves people recovering from homelessness. Club members will take part in installing and inspecting the equipment. The “Kids’ Fun Zone” will let the kids at the center play, exercise and socialize in a safe and stable environment.  

Education and literacy
Library and reading center
Many students at Escuelo Nuevo Belén in Panama feel the effects of their community’s high poverty rate in their educational attainment — some struggle with reading and writing, while others never complete their primary or secondary education. By transforming part of the school into a library and learning center, the Kiwanis Club of El Águila De Panamá hopes to change approximately 2,500 of these students’ futures. A Children’s Fund microgrant will help to remodel the space, with new tables, chairs, bookshelves and other furnishings. The club also plans to clean and paint, install new lighting and air conditioning, purchase books and train teachers and volunteers to jumpstart kids’ love of reading and learning.  

Youth leadership development
Suited Seniors
When the Kiwanis Club of Duluth-Norcross, Georgia, U.S., learned that students who lack financial resources and mentorship are less likely to pursue career opportunities requiring interviews, they did something about it. In partnership with local businesses, the club will donate professional clothing items for approximately 50 students across five local high schools. They will also organize workshops on interview techniques, résumé writing, personal branding, goal-setting and other tactics to build students’ confidence and readiness as they enter the next phase of their lives. 

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

If you want to help the Children’s Fund provide grants like these that reach children around the world, you can make a gift to The Possibility Project. Your club can also apply for a grant to help kids in your community today.  

No child without Christmas 

No child without Christmas 

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

A Kiwanis club in the Bahamas delivers holiday magic in its island’s largest toy drive.

By Meredith Atwood, president, the Kiwanis Club of South Eleuthera

The Kiwanis Club of South Eleuthera, Bahamas, has been providing gifts and hope to our communities for over 50 years through the No Child Without Christmas Signature Project. In 2023, our team spent months planning and raising over B$30,000 to prepare for the day that we affectionately nicknamed “Santa’s Road Trip.” With everything from bikes and iPads for the kids to bedding for the adults, our Kiwanis club successfully pulled off the island’s largest toy drive. 

To understand who the Kiwanis Club of South Eleuthera’s No Child Without Christmas Signature Project serves, first you’ll have to understand the island that I call home. Eleuthera is a passionate Bahamian island with a population just over 9,000. Growing up in Rock Sound, a southern settlement on the island, I witnessed firsthand the contrast between our community’s rich culture and extreme poverty. 

Personally, I consider myself and my six sisters some of the lucky ones — we never had to worry about going to school hungry and we found presents under our tree each Christmas. This, however, was not the case for many of my peers. In a community where many families are without food, bedding and running water, Christmas gifts are a luxury that many kids will never experience.  

Being private and proud is a common denominator among Eleutheran families, including my own — but for families that are struggling, these traits often lead to children suffering. The No Child Without Christmas Signature Project aims to remove the stigma of asking for help around the holidays so that the children of less fortunate families are included in the festivities and, more importantly, develop optimism and hope for a better future. 

A crucial mission
Last year’s initiative saw the project’s largest turnout — a success we credit, in part, to our increased marketing efforts, which included door-to-door visits. On Eleuthera, word of mouth continues to be the most effective and accessible form of marketing. We utilized the hubs of our tight-knit communities, such as school bulletins and grocery stores, to display flyers to advertise the event. We also were grateful to have the support of our local newspapers, and we made additional efforts to advertise the event via email and social media. 

As I sit here reflecting, I wish you, whoever you are reading this, could have experienced the No Child Without Christmas event firsthand. But let me try to paint a picture of my experience, both at the event and in the days leading up to it. 

Our journey began with a crucial mission: to gather toys. The lack of readily available toys on Eleuthera led our team on a trip to Florida. There, we curated 1,500 gifts for the children of our communities. The feeling of purchasing such a vast number of toys was akin to the excitement I felt as a child on Christmas morning. For weeks, I counted down the days until I could see the joy on the children’s faces as they received these gifts.  

Pulling into each settlement in our truck, which we fondly called our “Santa’s sleigh,” to deliver gifts was a moment like no other. The prearranged gifting sites varied from school parking lots to grocery stores, and each time we were equally overwhelmed by the local turnout. From over 500 meters away, the excited screams of children reached our ears. With our holiday music playing and dressed in our Kiwanis festive attire, our team announced over the mic, “Kiwanis are here, come get your gift!” But we needed no announcement — the children were already running toward our truck.  

Every stop was special, but the moment we pulled into Rock Sound — the settlement where I grew up — will remain with me the rest of my life. As over 100 children crowded our truck, I turned to look at the parents waiting at the perimeter. They beamed with as much excitement as their children did, but there was an added layer of emotion. As a parent, all you want is for your child to feel loved and to have opportunity. No Child Without Christmas aims to ensure no child or parent feels forgotten. 

What we truly gave
In the end, our signature project reached all 11 settlements of South Eleuthera and over 50% of South Eleuthera’s youth. Our team of 20 volunteers (with the help of dozens more who contributed financially), hand-delivered over 1,500 presents to youth ranging from toddlers to teenagers. For many, this would have been their first and only Christmas present. 

As I write this, I am still seeing the positive impact No Child Without Christmas has had on our island. As I drive through the dirt backroads of our small communities, I see children riding their new bikes together to pick up groceries for their parents. I see others sharing their new basketballs in a pickup game. Earlier this year, a teenage girl ran up to me after recognizing me from the event. She thanked me and wanted to tell me she has been studying with her new iPad. She hopes to go to university one day. While some of these children will still return to homes without running water, they will hold on to the joy from that day of just being a kid. 

While the Kiwanis Club of South Eleuthera handed out Christmas presents, make no mistake about what we truly gave the community’s future generations: a sense of hope and the knowledge that there is no shame in accepting help from a neighbor. Through the No Child Without Christmas Signature Project, we’re arming our kids with the qualities they need for a more successful future on our island.    

No Child Without Christmas received the Group I Bronze Award in the 2024 Kiwanis Signature Project Contest. Get details about the 2025 contest, which opens January 7, on our contest webpage.