Updates on Service Fair at ICON 2009

Greetings everyone!

I want to let you know that there will be representation from each Service Partner during the Service Fair. In case you are all wondering, CKI has four Service Partners. They are Better World Books (BWB), March of Dimes (MOD), Students Team Up to Fight Hunger (STUFH), and UNICEF/Six Cents Initiative. Attendees will have a chance to meet with the Service Ambassabors to the Service Partners and learn more about how they can participate with each Service Partner.

This year's Service Fair theme is "Showcasing the Magic of Service".

More details will come out in the next several weeks so be on the look out on this blog or through e-mails sent out by International President Kristen Reed or any member of the Service Committee.

Are you hungry?

Hunger is a serious problem facing the world, and Circle K International wants to address it. Because of the current worldwide economic crisis, hunger has become even more prevalent. In an effort to put food in the hands of those who need it most, CKI’s partner, Students Team Up To Fight Hunger (STUFH), will be organizing end-of-year food drives at college campuses across the United States.

For the last two weeks of the school year, as students prepare to leave for the summer, STUFH will arrange for collection bins to be placed in dorm or residence halls on campus so students can donate unused food, rather than discard it.

Last year, the STUFH food drive received significant support from CKI clubs across the country during its end-of-college-year food drive, resulting in the collection of more than 1 million pounds of food at more than 70 colleges in 27 states. This year, CKI members can again help feed hungry men, women and children in their local communities by promoting STUFH.

Contact Dan Kahn and CKI Service Ambassador Michael Zebrowski for more information on how your CKI club can help and visit the STUFH Web site for more news and statistics.

Another end of the year project for you....

Looking for a simple end of the year project? Why not do a food drive. We all know that at the end of the semester, when we are all getting ready to leave campus we end up with a bunch of left over food. Well instead of students just throwing it out or having to cart it all home.... Collect if and donate it to a local food bank or shelter!

8 steps to holding an end-of-the-year food drive through STUFH

1. Obtain approval from your college or university to hold a food drive at the end of the semester.

2. Set up the time and date for the food bins to be brought by the food bank to the food drop-off point on your campus. Bins are usually placed in each dormitory. If this is not possible or your college is a commuter school, several other high traffic student areas may be used instead.

3. Publicize! Obtain flyers, posters, or any other informative material that will let the departing students know of your efforts to help feed the hungry in your local community.

4. Mark the food bins with information on what foodstuffs are acceptable for donation (i.e. nonperishable, unopened food items).

6. Set up the time and place for you local food bank to pick up the bins at the end of the food drive.

7. Obtain final results of the poundage of food items collected through your drive. Send these results, along with a thank you letter, to the college authorities who authorized your food drive.

8. If you need help locating your local food bank and the local food bank official who can act as a liaison to your club, contact Program Director Dan Kahn by email at dkahn@stufh.org.

Service Fair Theme announced for ICON 2009

Each year there is a theme associated with the Service Fair. Last weekend, the CKI Board of Representatives voted on the proposed Service Fair theme, "Showcasing the Magic of Service". Birmingham, Alabama, is known as the Magic City. Everyone approved the proposed theme. More information will come out within the next two months on how you can take part in this year's Service Fair theme.

BWB and You!

Looking for a simple project for the end of the semester? Well look no further! Partner with Better World Books for a book drive. Its super simple and but has a great impact!

Here are some tips for working with BWB:

1. Check out http://www.betterworldbooks.com/Info-Book-Drives-for-Better-Lives-m-2.aspx
2. Research the different literacy partners http://www.betterworldbooks.com/Info-Literacy-Partners-m-41.aspx
3. Contact your school and/or local college bookstores to set your book drive drop off stations
4. Contact Better World Books at reusefirst@betterworldbooks.com
   
5. Sign up to start receiving all book drive materials.
6. Advertise your book drive; Fliers, Chalking on sidewalks, Writing on the chalkboards in the classrooms, put an ad in your schools newspaper, Leave table tents, etc.
7. Check bins once a day to collect books already donated. If leaving bins outside, place a trash bag at the bottom of the box, so that books will not get ruin from weather or place rocks so that the box will not blow away from wind.
8. Store books either in a storage unit or your apartment. This provides security of all books.
9. Host a packing party. While sorting the boxes, having some kind of entertainment makes the process go faster.
10. Scan books to sort what books are acceptable, $1 per Per scanned book ($1.25 per acceptable book is only if the club collects more than 1,000 acceptable books).
11. Schedule a pickup wherever the boxes are located.
12. Celebrate! Checks are sent out to the clubs, bi-annually.
    

How did you spend Kiwanis One Day?

CHECK OUT THE INTERACTIVE KIWANIS ONE DAY MAP:

SUBMIT YOUR STORY AND BE FEATURED ONLINE:

http://www.kiwanisone.org/Pages/Resources/default.aspx?PageID=284


♥ WHAT'D YOU DO FOR KIWANIS ONE DAY? ♥

No, you didn’t miss anything. Kiwanis One Day is still April 4. But we want you to start thinking about it now.

Why?

Because KIWANIS magazine wants to hear about what your club did—and your story might be published in the magazine or online. We figured that if you know what we need before the event, you’ll be better prepared to gather everything needed to help us tell your story.

To be considered for publication, we need your information—fast. Send us a quick wrap-up of your Kiwanis One Day event by April 10. Please wait until after the event is finished so we get an accurate account.

Start planning now and your club’s story might be shared with the world! Send us:

* Your club name
* Location of project
* Kiwanis One Day project highlights (What did you do? Why’d you do it?)
* How many members took part
* How many Kiwanis-family members (Service Leadership Programs members) took part with you
* What time of day your event took place
* Photos. Photos must show your members in action—not posed—and must be large in size. For best quality, set your camera on its largest image setting.
* Video. Prefer digital format.

On Call for the Future

Starting today, April 1st, and lasting until July 31st this service initiative focuses on children’s health and safety issues.

In the United States alone, nearly 8,000 children are killed and at least 50,000 are permanently disabled by preventable injuries each year. These injuries lead to 360,000 hospitalizations and 10.4 million emergency room visits annually. The major unintentional injury risk areas are:

• traffic injury
  
• fire and burns
• drowning
• poisoning
• choking
• falls

April 1 through July 31 is an important time to schedule educational projects focused on keeping children safe during their summer vacation, when they will likely be playing outside and may injure themselves. This also is a great way to keep Circle K clubs and members active while attending summer classes or while home on break. The range of health and safety risks is varied:

• gang violence
• accidental poisonings
• poor eating habits
• malnutrition and disease due to neglect
• children not wearing safety belts
• malfunctioning smoke detectors in the home
• bicycling without a helmet
• unfingerprinted children who are difficult to trace if missing
  

Even though the school year is starting to wind down for some of you dont forget about the service.

Interested in March of Dimes?

Hello!

Just as a reminder, the National Youth Council will be holding a conference call
for students interested in March for Babies. See below for more information!

March for Babies Call for Students

March 30, 9 pm EDT
1 800 411 7650
code 0820#

Want to share your best fundraiser? Looking for new ideas to recruit other
students to your team? Just curious as to what actually happens on March for
Babies day? Gear up for the big day in April! Join us on this call led by March
of Dimes National Youth Council members to chat with other students from across
the nation about the March of Dimes’ major event, March for Babies.

Regards,
Janice Lin

By the Numbers

As of 9:56am EST Better World Books has:

Funds Raised for Global Literacy:

$5,626,877.32

Books Saved From Landfills:

18,297,410

These numbers are constantly increasing. Have you contributed? Its really simple just contact BWB and make arrangements on your campus to hold a book drive. Not only will you be helping BWB, your home club and CKI as a whole but you will also help to fight illiteracy across the world. You can even select which of BWB literacy partners your books get donated to if you want to. Clubs will receive $0.50 US per acceptable book, $1.00 US for each pre-screened/acceptable book or $1.25 US for each pre-screened, acceptable book if more than 1,000 books are collected.

Collection/Dates: February 1 – July 31; August 1 – January 31. Books must be in the Better
World Books warehouse by January 31st and July 31st. Payments are sent bi-annually in September and February.

Working with BWB is simple and no cost to you or your club! It cant get much better than that!

Count Down to March of Babies begins

Hello!

Time is ticking down to the March for Babies, the largest annual fundraiser for the March of Dimes. I have heard that lots of Circle K's are participating this year, including my own! To help the members out there in preparation for the big day, I am forwarding on some information - please feel free to send this to your regions and districts!

The March of Dimes National Youth Council will be holding another March for Babies call on Monday, March 30 at 9 PM EST. There will also be an advisor call the next day at 9pm EST for Circle K advisors who wish to participate. To jump on either call, just dial: 1-800-411-7650, ext. 0820#. There will be some updates, youth-specific best practices, and a chance for questions and sharing.

For those who haven't registered yet, visit www.marchforbabies.org to set up your team. With over 900 walks taking place across the United States, there are plenty of options!

For Circle K's outside of the United States, you can join in on the celebration by fundraising and participating in advocacy and mission activities in your country. For more information on March of Dimes mission programming and how you can help, visit www.marchofdimes.com and www.marchofdimes.com/youth.

You can find additional materials and information about creating an Online Fundraising page, 'Where Your Money Goes,' March of Dimes logos and pictures, and widgets and badges for your e-mail and Facebook page at http://marchforbabies.org/spread_the_word.aspx. If you search for March of Dimes in youtube, you'll get access to some great videos about the organization, its mission and its volunteers to share with your Circle K as well!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. A strong partnership between the Circle K and the March of Dimes will go a long way in the fight to ensure that EVERY baby is born healthy. Will you be a champion for all babies?

Regards,

Janice Lin

0809 March of Dimes Service Ambassador

Support STUFH at your DCON!

We recently sent out the following letter over the Governors' reflector:

To the Governors of Circle K International:

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Michael Zebrowski, and I currently serve as the Circle K International Service Ambassador to STUFH, Students Team Up to Fight Hunger.

Since its founding at Cornell University in 1999, STUFH has aided with the collection of over one million pounds of foodstuffs. This has helped contribute to STUFH’s core mission to increase the gathering of food on college campuses for two main purposes: to combat hunger and to increase awareness of the rising pervasiveness of hunger in our communities.

In order to ensure that we can do the most for this Service Partner, we are encouraging each of you to hold a food drive on behalf of STUFH at your District Convention. Through this International effort, we are hopeful that we can make a large contribution to this valued Service Partner.

If you want to know more about STUFH, please visit http://www.stufh.org/, or check out our STUFH Member Resource Guide, which has been made available in the “Service Partner” section of our International website. Please also feel free to contact me at Michael.NYCKI@gmail.com if you have any questions about this initiative.

Thank you again, and we really appreciate your support!

Yours in Service, Leadership, and Fellowship,

Michael Zebrowski
Service Ambassador to STUFH
NYCKI Empire Division Lieutenant Governor
Circle K International

BIG CHANGES FOR BOOK DRIVES FOR BETTER LIVES™

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT - BWB and you!

1. Every CKI club that ran a book drive this past semester will be able to keep the funding for their individual chapter! Funding is RETRO-ACTIVE!
   
   
2. IMPORTANT - Contact your Account Representative to verify payment information so there is no delay in your payment. Better World Books will send the payments directly to each chapter in February, 2009!
   
   
3. Clubs will receive .50 per acceptable book, $1.00 for each pre-screened/acceptable book or $1.25 for each pre-screened, acceptable book if more than 1,000 books are collected.
   
   
4. Collection/Dates: February 1 – July 31; August 1 – January 31. Books must be in the Better World Books warehouse by January 31st and July 31st. Payments are sent bi-annually in September and February.
   
   
5. For 5,000 acceptable books collected this spring/summer, Circle K International will receive $1,500 for the Leadership Academy
   
   
6. ♥ NEW! Each chapter will have access to an environmental portal that calculates the environmental impact of their drive on campus!! ♥

♥ Contact CircleK@BetterWorldBooks.com to sign on for the Spring Drive! ♥

Why?

• Approximately 800,000,000 people are illiterate….mostly women and children. We believe literacy and education is a basic human right.
• The United Nations declared 2002-2012 the Literacy Decade in an effort to improve Global Health and decrease poverty, worldwide.
• To date, our grass roots book drives at colleges and libraries have diverted more than 8,000 tons of books from landfills.

What’s involved?

• Your decision. Books for Africa, Room to Read, Worldfund, the National Center for Family Literacy, or Invisible Children
• Your leadership. Better World Books provides all supplies, incurs all costs in shipping and assigns a dedicated account representative to your club. We need you to take the lead.
• Your passion. Help break the cycle of poverty at it’s core…through education and literacy
• Be the change you want to see in the world and lead a drive!

STUFH

Hey everyone -

Some exciting news, the new STUFH Guide has finally been published. Check it out at the website, here's the link:

http://slp.kiwanis.org/CircleK/service/partners/STUFH.aspx

You can also check out the STUFH website, http://www.stufh.org. There are also two pamphlets that you can download from the site (located at http://www.stufh.org/about.html).

If you have any questions dont hesitate to ask STUFH Ambassador Mike Zebrowski

Community Service and Awareness Week

CSAW is a week to show your support for the Focusing on the Future Service Initiative. It takes place the first full week of February ending on Saturday, the International Service Day.

For this week your club should establish some goals that enable your clubs to:

• heighten campus and community awareness of CKI and the Service Initiative
• further educate club members on the Service Initiative, and motivate each member to become actively involved in related service activities
• each day should have tasks that encompass: Kiwanis Education, The Key Club Connection, Community Education, Public Awareness, Set Up Shop, and Service Activity
  

Once the week is over and your projects are complete be sure to get recognition for your club by submitting a summary of the activities that your club sponsored throughout the week (don't worry you don't need to have sponsored something everyday of the week for recognition).

For more information on CSAW check out the Service Initiative Guide

Ideas for Service Fair theme needed please

Hello everyone!

The Circle K International Convention usually features a service fair in which districts get to showcase their projects to all in attendance. In recent years, there has been a theme associated with the service fair. If you have ideas for this year's Service Fair theme, please send them to me at tracymeyer.cki@gmail.com by January 28, 2009.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Yours in friendship and service,
Tracy