Peanut Butter and Jelly Service + Joint DCM
KB, Canyon Hills, D21
Canyon Hills attended the Division’s Peanut Butter & Jelly Jam and joint DCM on June 3rd. During the DCM attendees gave a warm welcome to Kiwanis District Governor Valarie Brown-Klingelhoefer, and well as listening to good news from Division Lieutenant Governors. The official event tasked members of reaching the goal of one thousand PB&Js made for the homeless. Together, many members brought in jars of peanut butter and jelly along with a heavy donation of bread loaves. While sandwiches were made and packaged, they were prepared with lunch bags full of fruit and snacks to be handed out later on. Picking up the speed with spreading and packaging, they eventually surpassed a little over the original goal. Sandwiches were packed into lunches and stowed away into cars ready to hand them out downtown.
May Clean Up
MPM, Helix, D31
Six volunteers went to Albertsons parking lot in Fletcher Parkway to pick up trash for 2 hours and 30 minutes. There were 4 adults and 2 students each but 2 adults were in the same group. As usual the groups went different routes to collect as much trash as possible. There was an unbelievable amount of trash such as food scraps, paper towels, cardboard, aluminum cans, batteries, plastic water/soda bottles, beer bottles with liquid inside, metal, glass, paper, medicine bottles, clothing, business cards, and cigarettes. It was quite odd to find clothing because that is not something someone sees on a daily basis when walking on the sidewalk. When the groups started heading back to the parking lot, one group noticed that the area where they had already picked up trash, was filled with trash again. This really concerned the group because they didn't know how all that trash got there and if the trash was put there intentionally. The group wanted to think it was a strong wind that caused all that trash to appear in the same spot they had already cleaned up, but the evidence was pointing towards that someone had done all that mess. The group ended with picking up all that trash before returning to the parking lot. Once the group finished, they headed back and everybody took a group photo and called it a day.
Spring Japanese Culture Festival
YL, Arbor View, D28W
One of our club's favorite volunteering events we did would be the Spring Japanese Culture Festival where we helped run and set up the event. It was so entertaining to see and learn about such a spirited and lively culture. We helped sell handmade origami made by the elder Japanese community and promoted other items while telling people about other activities could enjoy such as the tea ceremony, calligraphy, flower arrangement, and clothing events. There were many singers, dancers, and multiple different performers to help represent the Japanese culture. Everything there was very fun and entertaining to experience in person. In addition, some members of our club are currently taking Japanese language courses at our school and it helped them practice and use the knowledge from the classes. Everyone at the festival was so welcoming and time flew by so fast to the point we didn’t realize we were there for over ten hours.