Disaster relief

Disaster relief

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.”

Arizona auction has raised millions for kids

Arizona auction has raised millions for kids

The Prescott Kiwanis Club held its 75th auction in March

By Julie Saetre

Going once. Going twice. Sold!

For 75 years, those words have been representative of a fundraising tradition for the Kiwanis Club of Prescott, Arizona, U.S. In that time, the club’s annual auction has helped support children and families in the area — raising more than US$4 million in the past 50 years alone.

The auction had even been a 10-day televised event for many years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been online for the past three years, and it continues to be a major community event. This year, 624 items went up for bid during the event’s 10 days. And for the second straight year, a live evening event was added.

All together, this year’s auctions raised $171,000 — the culmination of much volunteer planning and effort.

“Preparing for the online auction starts at least 10 months before the auction goes live,” explains Tim McShane, a member of the Prescott Kiwanis Club and the 2023 auction chair.

Hard work pays off
Items worth $30 or more are donated by area businesses and organizations. This year, for example, participants could bid on hotel stays, rounds of golf, automotive services, computer repair services, youth sports camp reservations and much more.

With over 600 items ultimately donated, McShane says, it requires a lot of club coordination and organization — such as approaching item donors, completing item and business descriptions, and getting publicity information about the donor.

“The data input to our local and web-based auction system involves several people and several hundred hours,” he adds.

The subcommittee planning the live event also begins working months in advance, securing facilities and auction items. Those members handle a number of logistical roles, including publicity, finance, food service, sound, entertainment and event flow.

“Although we don’t keep track of volunteer hours for the auction, it’s likely 3,000-5,000 hours per year,” McShane says. “Approximately 10-15 members do the majority of these hours.”

That hard work pays off for the community’s children and their families: All auction proceeds are invested in a variety of youth, family and community services.

Partners and projects
Long-term success has resulted in support for a wide array of projects and causes over the years — including tens of thousands of dollars for scholarships awarded to high school graduates heading to a university or trade school.

Another auction-funded project allowed the Granite Mountain Middle School Band to install a locker system for their instruments. The club has also partnered with the city of Prescott for an outdoor play area at the Goldwater Lake Recreation Area. And the Kiwanians have sponsored a number of kid-friendly projects and facility improvements at the Prescott YMCA.

One of the largest auction-related projects is Kayla’s Hands Playground. The $350,000, state-of-the-art play space is dedicated to Prescott native Kayla Mueller, a human rights activist and humanitarian aid worker who was kidnapped while leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Syria in 2013 and murdered in February of 2015.

All of these projects and partnerships exist, McShane says, because of the club’s continual maintenance and development of community relationships.

“We’ve used our club contacts, community centers of influence, print media and, most recently, social media to keep the mission of helping the children and their families in our community at the forefront of our efforts,” he says.

A new literacy project makes a big impact

A new literacy project makes a big impact

Kiwanians in Kansas create Little Free Libraries in courts. 

By Julie Saetre 

 When Melissa Bynum attended her first Kiwanis International convention in 2022, she heard a lot about the Kiwanis causes: health and nutrition, education and literacy, and youth leadership development. The “literacy” concept particularly caught her attention. 

Bynum’s club, the Kansas City-West Kiwanis Club in Kansas, U.S., focuses a number of projects on nutrition — from packing and providing weekend snack packs to local elementary school students to picking pears and apples from an area orchard for organizations that assist kids. While members also provide books to new moms and read at area schools, Bynum thought another ongoing literacy effort should be added to the club’s project list. 

Bynum remembered that a fellow member, Pat Hurrelbrink, had previously mentioned Little Free Library — a Kiwanis International partner. Bynum returned from the convention and talked with club members about where Little Free Libraries were needed in their community.  

Their consensus: court buildings. 

“We decided that the courthouse and municipal building were good places because that’s a place where Mom and Dad don’t want to go. And the kids sure as heck don’t want to go with them,” Bynum says. “We thought that it might be a good way to give them a book — to give them something to do, keep them occupied and possibly help endear them to reading.” 

Community collaboration
Kansas City, Kansas, has a unified city-county government, so the club contacted representatives about placing and maintaining Little Free Libraries at the Wyandotte County Courthouse and the Municipal Court across the site. Not only did the city-county government agree, but it also offered to buy multiple library carts — each costing several hundred U.S. dollars — to hold the books. Club members added Kiwanis signage to each cart and set about gathering new or gently used books. 

“We have club members who have children and grandchildren and they’re like, ‘OK, time to clean out your bookshelves,’” Bynum says. “And we’ve put the word out to our friends and family: ‘Hey, ask your kids about books they’re willing to give up.’” 

Pat Hurrelbrink and her husband, Dave (a former Kiwanis International trustee), searched garage sales and thrift stores, where they often found books in pristine condition. And at a surprise birthday party for Bynum, guests brought books for the libraries as gifts. 

Club members put a sticker on the inside of each book to show that it was provided by the Kiwanis Club of Kansas City-West. Four Little Free Libraries now offer books in the courthouse, with another in the Municipal Court. Two club members — one a judge, the other a sheriff — monitor book supplies as they go about their daily jobs and notify the club when more books are needed. 

“It’s probably not an understatement to say that we’ve already distributed over 1,000 books, and we’ve maybe been doing this for only six months,” says Bynum. “You know, I may never see that young person take that book. But based on the frequency with which we are replenishing those shelves, I feel like we are making an impact.”