Serving children is the cornerstone of Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Kiwanis. That’s why the two organizations are forming a partnership. Yet the official union only formalizes work many Kiwanis clubs are already doing with Boys & Girls Clubs. Together, Kiwanians are working with Boys & Girls Clubs to raise money, serve as mentors, and incorporate youth from Boys & Girls Clubs into their service projects or the Kiwanis-family clubs they sponsor. Here are three cases in point.
A win-win-win in Charlottesville
Building a future in Manassas
Key Club and Keystone get together
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A win-win-win in Charlottesville
The Charlottesville, Virginia, Kiwanis club didn’t waffle when it came time to decide how to use proceeds from its pancake breakfast: The money went to the Boys & Girls Club of Charlottesville/Albermarle.
Assisted by Albermarle High School Key Clubbers, Circle K’ers from the University of Virginia, and youth from the Boys & Girls Club, Kiwanians flipped thousands of pancakes, served hundreds of sausages, and poured gallons of coffee and cola during their fourth annual Dogwood Pancake Breakfast. The event cleared more than $5,000, all earmarked for the Boys & Girls Club’s Keystone Program.
The annual pancake breakfast raises money for programs and organizations that share the club’s passion for children, says Kiwanian Charles “Chuck” Harris. “The Boys & Girls Club seeks to inspire young people to reach their full potential as responsible, caring, and productive citizens,” Chuck notes. “We pursue a similar mission by sponsoring Kiwanis-family clubs, such as our Key Clubs, and we saw this contribution as a great way to broaden the focus of our mission.”
Jim Hart, the club’s PR chairman, agrees. “We have been supporting the Boys & Girls Club for a number of years now, mainly through fundraising,” Jim explains. “We did help out at a work night at one of their locations a few of years ago. Some of our members helped them when they put on a community health fair. And our past president, Philip Day, is a cycling enthusiast who participates in their annual bike tour fundraiser; the club sponsored him with a $500 donation last year.
“When we began considering how we were going to allot proceeds from this year’s pancake breakfast, the Boys & Girls Club was the natural—and best—choice.” In the coming months, the Charlottesville club will bolster its involvement with the Boys & Girls Club, and will encourage the youth clubs it sponsors to do the same.
“We sponsor a Builders Club, six Key Clubs, and a Circle K club,” Jim says. “We will be working with these clubs to provide mentoring for and to conduct joint service projects with Boys & Girls Club youth. We also will encourage youth from the Boys & Girls Club to join the Builders Club and Key Clubs in their schools, which will invigorate the clubs and the youth. “And we Kiwanians will tag along and cheer them all on.”
One such project already is in the works: “Breakfast with Santa” for more than 200 kids from the Boys & Girls Club. The event will be staged during the upcoming holiday season at the University of Virginia by the Circle K club there, Jim says. Kiwanis members also will be there to assist.
Jim believes in the Kiwanis family supporting the Boys & Girls Club. “It’s a win-win-win,” he says.
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Building a future in Manassas
Sound investing by the Kiwanis Club of Manassas helped reap huge dividends for the Prince William County, Virginia, community: construction of the Boys & Girls Club of Manassas. The opening of the 42,000-square-foot facility in 2005 brought to fruition a dream that first materialized almost two decades ago.
“A number of our members were part of a movement in the 1980s that was trying to build a facility for our youth,” explains club secretary John Beere. Money was raised and a parcel of land was donated as part of that effort. When the group realized it could not fulfill its goal on its own, it approached the city of Manassas to see if the city could complete it. The money and land was turned over on the condition that the project would start within a given time period.
Unfortunately, a major business closed its local facility, and with that, a large portion of the city’s tax base evaporated. That left the city with no additional funds to move the project forward, and the idea lay dormant for several years.
About this time, the Kiwanis Club of Woodbridge, Virginia, heavily involved in a Boys & Girls Club in the eastern end of Prince William County, was looking to expand the program into the Manassas area, but lacked funds and resources. The Manassas club was able to provide both.
“Our club had invested the funds received earlier, sold the property, and made a cash donation in excess of $542,000 to help build a 42,000-square-foot facility with three gyms and a multitude of specialized craft and training rooms. There are before- and after-school programs, a well-equipped computer lab, library, kitchen, ceramics lab, and study area. Most importantly, more than 2,100 kids are members of the club.
“There are many advantages in supporting Boys & Girls Clubs,” John says. “It’s a natural fit with our Young Children: Priority One programs because these are the only facilities in our county that give so much to our children. Being part of that is truly special.”
The club’s support didn’t stop when the building was completed, says April Chervenka, director of the Boys & Girls Club. “For the nearly four years we have been open, they’ve sent us a check for $100 each month,” Chervenka says. The amount covers four scholarships for children who otherwise could not afford the $25 membership fee. Over the course of time, that correlates into nearly 150 youth who have benefited from free memberships.
And each year, both the Manassas and Woodbridge Kiwanis support the Boys & Girls Club’s annual Steak 'n Shake fundraising dinner. This event nets more than $60,000 for the three clubs in Prince William County.
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Key Club and Keystone get together
High-school students who belong to the Boys & Girls Club in Richmond, Indiana, are no strangers to Key Club: They are the Key Club.
“A few years ago, the Key Club at Richmond High School was struggling,” notes Tim Jenkins of the Richmond Kiwanis club, sponsor of the Key Club. “There were a number of logistical problems—we couldn’t find a faculty advisor, the school wasn’t allowing meetings during the day, and many of its members didn’t have time to attend meetings, anyway. We needed to do something.”
Coincidentally, Bruce Daggy, chief executive officer of the Boys & Girls Club of Wayne County, was president of the Kiwanis club at the time. When informed of the dilemma, Tim says, “Bruce immediately thought of Keystone, a Boys & Girls Club leadership program. He proposed moving the Key Club charter from the high school to the Boys & Girls Club, and that’s how it all began. Nowadays, when you talk about Key Club in Richmond, you’re talking about Keystone, and vice versa.”
Since then, the club has averaged about 15 members each year, many of them at-risk youth from diverse backgrounds. The melding of the two leadership programs has been a boon to them, notes David Woolpy, a Boys & Girls Club staff member who serves as the equivalent of a faculty advisor for the Key Club.“We have kids from various backgrounds, many of whom have struggled with behavior,” David says. “These kids take on leadership roles and we see quite a turnaround in them.”
One example, David notes, is Key Club President Také Fellman, a high school senior whose family immigrated to the United States when he was in fourth grade.
“This teen has struggled with our language and with fitting in,” David explains. “Despite all that, he took an active role in Keystone/Key Club, worked his way up to president, and this fall will be attending Purdue University. He would not be going to college were it not for the Boys & Girls Club and Key Club.” Také is also one of two young men from the club who have been named Indiana Youth of the Year by Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
In addition to leadership training, club members participate in service projects. The club collaborated with a number of store owners in Richmond’s Depot District to run a kiddie train during the city’s Christmas festival. They’ve also helped with landscaping projects at a nearby college and nursing home.
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