Kiwanis clubs around the world are making remarkable things happen for kids and communities. Thanks to your generosity, the Kiwanis Children's Fund awarded grants in October to these clubs — helping them make a difference in children’s lives. Learn more about the Club Grant program. 

Raising literacy rates
The Kiwanis Club of Nashville South in Tennessee is working with 10 Head Start early-childhood education centers to update reading materials and help provide lessons to children. The club has an ambitious goal: raise the third-grade literacy rate of the programs’ students from 28% to 75% by 2025. The club will use money from its grant to purchase resource materials for classrooms, including a “peace corner” with a bean bag chair and books. Children will also receive reading materials to take home, such as story books, CDs, puppets and coloring books.  

Promoting STEM for girls
The Kiwanis Club of Meriden, Connecticut, is partnering with the local Girls, Inc., to offer girls access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs. The club will use the grant money to help convert a computer lab into a STEM lab and science room with microscopes, iPad Pros, a smart board and more. The lab will provide programs that pique girls’ interest in STEM education and careers.  

Caring for kids in Honduras
Thanks in part to a grant from the Children’s Fund, the Kiwanis Club of Federal Way in Washington is changing kids’ lives in Honduras. Children who live in the cloud forests there will receive anti-parasite medicines, as well as medical checks and treatment for skin infections, dengue fever and malaria.  

Making reading fun
In Louisiana, the Kiwanis Club of Dawn Busters, Metairie will help more kids find a love of reading — thanks to a grant from the Children’s Fund. The grant will allow the club’s popular Rewards for Reading Program to reach 38 additional schools. The money will be used to purchase new bicycles that are given away at twice-yearly school assemblies. Since the program started, students have read more than 1 million books.  

Playing with purpose
Kiwanis clubs in Carolina District Division 1, led by the club in Waynesville, North Carolina, have joined forces to build a playground at a child development center that serves children from low-income families, children in foster care and kids with cognitive or physical delays. Designed to help therapists teach gross motor skills and to encourage imaginative play, the playground will replace an open field at the Eliada Center as the primary place for outdoor play.  

Kiwanis Kindergarten expansion
The Kiwanis Club of La Sultana Del Valle in Colombia received a grant to expand the Kiwanis Kindergarten School that serves preschoolers in a rural area where poverty is widespread. The La Sultana Del Valle club has supported the school since 2011. Because of the grant, the school will be able to purchase new classroom furniture, expand its nutrition program and increase its community impact.  

Celebrating 100 years with play
The Kiwanis Club of Roanoke, Virginia, is constructing a huge, interactive recreational area next to a neighborhood that previously had two swings for 1,000 children. The club worked with neighbors to develop a facility that will encourage play for all ages and abilities. The playground, located next to a public library, will have wheelchair-accessible ramps, shade, musical elements for sensory play and special activities in braille.  

Middle school track meet
Since 2001, thousands of middle school students in southern Arizona have participated in the Kiwanis de Amigos Relays and Rattlesnake Run in Tucson. The track meet, which is held in the spring, and cross-country meet in the fall are open to all public, private and charter middle schools in the area and at no cost. The Kiwanis de Amigos will use the grant from the Children’s Fund to invest in computerized timers that will help the meets run faster and more efficiently.

JUNE 2019 GRANTS

More than a camp
Poverty is a way of life for more than 30% of the children in Tattnall County, Georgia. Caregivers struggle to provide enough food and clothing, let alone pay for luxuries such as overnight summer camp. To give these families hope and encouragement, the Kiwanis Club of Tattnall County puts on a weeklong summer camp for 70 children. In addition to typical camp activities such as field trips and campfires, the campers receive new clothes, shoes and swimsuits. A special dance is held on the final night, and the kids are driven from their cabins to the lodge in limos.  

A tradition of caring
Since 1995, the Kiwanis Club of Pleasant Grove, Texas, has been sending 70 to 80 children each summer to Jerry's Dream Camp. Without the club’s help, most of these children would never experience the summer rite of swimming, boating, putting on talent shows and playing games at camp. But most of all, they receive attention, love and encouragement.

Recognizing outstanding students
Twice a year, the Kiwanis Club of Elkhart, Indiana, invites one fourth grader from each elementary school to a luncheon where they receive the Knowledge is Dynamite Award. Students are selected by their teachers, who also attend the ceremony. The program encourages students to work hard and develop leadership skills.  

Giving parks new life

• The Kiwanis Club of Clover Park, Washington, is bringing new life to the nearby Kiwanis Park of Lakewood. The club is using its grant to purchase two structures that will provide a safe, fun place for neighborhood families to gather and play.

• After the equipment at a local park was dismantled for safety reasons, the Kiwanis Club of Hidden Valley Escondido, California, stepped up. The 50,000 children who visit the park each year now have a place to play that’s enjoyable and safe.