K-Kids

The start of a new school year brings new opportunities to charter K-Kids Clubs. Principals often find old clubs without faculty advisors due to staff changes and new teachers are often looking for chance to get involved in their school's extra curricular programs. This situation often opens up schools that have not previously shown any interest in forming a K-Kids to the possibility.
Recent changes at Kiwanis International have made K-Kids easier than ever to charter and support. Clubs interested can download all the paperwork and information needed for the Kiwanis International K-Kids website (www.kkids.org) On the website's home pages click on How to Build a Club in the left hand column. There you will find the Standard Bylaws for a K-Kids Club and the Petition for Charter form.
The charter fee is just $150 regardless of the number of members in your K-Kids Club. Optional chartering expenses may include a banner for $110; a gong for $150; a gavel for $20 and an honors banner for $75. While purchasing all the meeting items for the club is desirable, it is far better to charter a club without all the trappings than to not charter a new K-kids because your club may not be able to afford the optional expenses. Remember at a later time your club can purchase additional club meeting items or your K-kids can fund raise to purchase these items themselves.
While I have been focusing on the new school year, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge a great success the K-Kids of the New York District have celebrated this past year.
This year, we had three K-Kids Clubs that were named "Distinguished Clubs." They are the Bowling Green K-Kids Sponsored by the East Meadow Kiwanis Club, the McVey K-Kids sponsored by the Nassau University Medical Center Kiwanis Club and, Lawrence Avenue K-Kids sponsored by the Potsdam Kiwanis Club.
In addition, the New York District can be proud that three of our K-Kids members received international awards. Michelle Hromin placed second in the international speech contest and Caitlyn Thompson won first place in the international essay contest. I am also proud to share with you that K-Kids President Kasha Bhatia won the Kiwanis International Foundation's K-Kids Leadership Award.
In closing, I look forward to another great year for the K-Kids of the New York District. I encourage the clubs to get involved in Kiwanis International's new Worldwide Service Project-ELIMINATE and the 2010-11 K-Kids International Service Initiative-Learn to Live. Learn to Live focuses on bullying prevention, service to others, character building and literacy. More information on Learn to Live can be found on the Kiwanis International K-Kids website or in upcoming issues of the K-Kids Zone magazine.
If anyone has any questions or requires any assistance with K-Kids, please do not hesitate to contact me at (516) 333-3563 or e-mail Assistant Administrators David Morse at slaphot@frontiernet.net or Rich Santer at rs2wdld@aol.com.
 

Column Posted on Web Site August 5, 2010