KI Center Stage

Lights! Camera! Action!

Curtis Billue — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:04:00 GMT

Capture your club’s Kiwanis One Day project on film

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the value of video is enormous. So a video or KIWANIS magazine story of a special project such as your club’s Kiwanis One Day project would be priceless, especially as it relates to storytelling potential, emphasis on service and focus on the benefit that Kiwanis clubs bring to children and communities worldwide.

Your club’s One Day project could be the subject of that professionally shot video, or of specialized coverage in KIWANIS magazine, through the Kiwanis One Day Contest. If chosen for the video shoot, your club will receive a copy of the video, which you can use to share your club’s service story, to recruit members or just to share news of the good work you do. Kiwanis International will also retain a copy for use in its marketing and publicity programming around the world.

If chosen for the KIWANIS magazine story, your club’s service to children and community will be shared with all who read the magazine, Kiwanians and non-Kiwanians alike. Copies of the article can be shared with schools, community partners and others with whom you partner or wish to partner to further educate or introduce them to Kiwanis and its Service Leadership Programs.

In 2009, the Olympia, Washington, Kiwanis club’s One Day project was selected for specialized magazine coverage about its Olympia Kiwanis Food Bank Garden. The story of the Griffin, Ga., Kiwanis club’s refurbishment of the Thomaston Mill neighborhood, with partners from the city of Griffin, Boys Scouts, Habitat for Humanity and others, was captured in a video for the club and for Kiwanis International.

To enter your club’s project in the One Day contest, log on to http://forms.kiwanisone.org/fs-KiwanisOneDayContest.aspx, and enter the pass code that appears on the page to use the electronic form to describe your project, or describe your project in a letter and send it to:

Kiwanis One Day Contest
Attn: Elizabeth Warren
3636 Woodview Trace
Indianapolis, IN 46268-3196
USA

The submission should be as complete and comprehensive as possible, providing specific details about your planned project and its impact upon and benefit to the community, including its primary beneficiary audience(s). If Service Leadership Programs (K-Kids, Builders Club, Key Club, Circle K, Aktion Club, Kiwanis Junior) will be involved, explain how and whether or not your club needs additional financial assistance. If financial assistance is needed, please explain the need and how the funds will be utilized.

Please include information on prior Kiwanis One Day projects, including details about the work and the benefit, and provide, by mail, any photographs and/or videos of or for the project. Also include samples of media coverage from the past year and examples of how your project helped raise awareness of Kiwanis and children’s needs in your community.

Submissions for the Kiwanis One Day video contest must be received at the Kiwanis International Office no later than January 15, 2010.

The materials will be reviewed by a committee comprising members of the Kiwanis marketing and branded program staff (“committee”) to ensure the project accurately and dynamically represents Kiwanis International’s vision, mission and values.

The committee will select finalists and submit the finalists’ project materials to the Kiwanis Executive Management Team (“EMT”), who will select a winner and runner up from the finalists. All decisions by the EMT are final, and an announcement of the winner is expected by February 15, 2010. The winning club will have its project professionally videotaped, and a runner-up project will be included in KIWANIS magazine.

Kiwanis reserves the right to discontinue the contest if Kiwanis, in its sole discretion, determines that the projects submitted for consideration do not meet the selection criteria. In the event of such determination, contestants will be notified on or before January 30, 2010.

Oh, the Kiwanians you'll meet

Kasey Jackson — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:09:00 GMT

I love it when I come across a great Kiwanis story.

George Shuba is one such story. To hear him talk of his passion for photography, for capturing a moment in time, has been such a delight.

George obviously caught the photography bug at an early age and has produced iconic photos of some of the biggest rock legends of all time. His photo story is also a Kiwanis story. A story that tells of how meeting a new friend through his Kiwanis club eventually took him to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Kiwanians the world over are doing such wonderful things. The beauty of it is that they are all such different stories. And they are all worth sharing.

We'd love to hear more stories about interesting Kiwanians. What are you all up to out there? Do you have a fun story to tell? E-mail us!

Want to be on Center Stage?

Kasey Jackson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:16:00 GMT

I'm looking for the best Kiwanis stories to share with the world. Yours could be the next!

E-mail me at kjackson@kiwanis.org.

Service grows Kiwanis

Kasey Jackson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:44:00 GMT

It's exciting when a club's service projects spark enough interest and enthusiasm to bring new members to a club. It's even more exciting when it leads to growth of Kiwanis in another country.

That's exactly what has happened with the partnership between the Kiwanis Club of Mecklenburg in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the newly chartered Kiwanis Club of Belize Central. Kiwanis had existed in Belize before, but interest had waned a bit. But the Charlotte club's efforts to save a little girl from Silk Grass, Belize, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, sparked an intense desire in that country that led to the chartering of the new club on January 31, 2009.

Club President Patricia Bennett (seen below with Mecklenburg Kiwanian Sam McMahon, Jr), President Elect Paul Lecky, Secretary Patricia Lamb and Treasurer Camille Estell have taken leadership positions to guide the young club in service.

Welcome to Kiwanis, Belize Central!

Kasey Jackson — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:40:00 GMT

Sam McMahon Jr., member of the Kiwanis Club of Mecklenburg in Charlotte, North Carolina, called last week, his voice bubbling over with excitement. He just got back from Belize, where he traveled to celebrate the charter ceremony of the Kiwanis Club of Belize Central, a club he helped build.

The new members, with help from their sponsoring club in Charlotte, will work with the Ministry of Health to tackle the issue of pediatric cancer care in their country. Of course, this is just one of the projects they plan to work on, but it’s certainly one close to their hearts. Rashale Arana, who traveled to Charlotte for cancer care with help from the Mecklenburg club, was from Silk Grass, Belize.

Sam says Kiwanis is the talk of the town right now in Belize. While Sam visited for the charter ceremony at the end of January, TV stations ran spots about the new club 2-3 times a day, and at least one radio station got in on the fun as well. Sam was even featured in interviews with the CEO of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Peter Allen, as well as other officials. It was wonderful publicity for Kiwanis and the new club—a great way to get off and running!

Sam reports the club chartered with 22 great people ready to serve the children of Belize. And the members already have big plans—they want to start a CKI club and a Key Club as soon as possible. And Kiwanis still has plenty of room to grow in Belize. In fact, Sam says there already seems to be enough interest to start a second club within the year.

Rashale Arana

Curtis Billue — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:05:00 GMT

The e-mail in my inbox read:

From: Rashale Arana
To: Kasey Jackson
Sun 12/21/2008 5:00 AM
Kasey rashale picked up a horrible infection and she is not doing good

That was it.
I didn’t know what I was reading. I thought the note came from Rashale. After all, it was from her e-mail account. But I didn’t quite understand. That day and what happened in the next 24 hours remains burned into my memory.

From: Kasey Jackson
To: Rashale Arana
Sun 12/21/2008 7:30 PM

Oh, my. What’s wrong? Are you OK? I hope so. I’m praying for you, girlie girl!
Kasey

I don’t remember why I hadn’t been on e-mail earlier than 7 that night, but when I got the message, I immediately e-mailed back to Rashale. I also started calling and e-mailing everyone I could think of in Charlotte who might get back to me. I e-mailed Megan in PR at Presbyterian. I e-mailed Dr. Mark Mogul, Kiwanian and Rashale’s doctor. I e-mailed Rashale’s mom.

I remember feeling sick to my stomach. I was shaking. I was replaying everything in my mind that had been said. “Not doing good.” What does that mean?

I was sitting on the bed in my son’s room when I finally spoke to someone—Megan Talley from Presbyterian.

She told me it was the worst news. She said Rashale really wasn’t doing well. It was not looking good at all. At that point, we knew she was in some sort of intensive care unit and tests were being run.

We spoke of how we both felt so helpless. How we both figured the initial word that she wasn’t doing well meant she probably just felt crappy—this was, after all, the chemo she called the “worst ever.” We both kept saying we wished we were closer so we could do something. Anything. Talk to her. Be there.

From: Mogul, Mark J
To: Kasey Jackson
Sun 12/21/2008 11:49 PM

She is doing horribly and will likely not survive another day. Absolutely devastating. Call me when you can. M

I didn’t get this one till the next morning. I was at work.

I passed the news along to everyone, so everyone knew what was going on. My boss, Joedy Isert, said I had to call Dr. Mark for an update. I remember telling Joedy I wasn’t about to be the one to call Mark and have his pager go off while he was trying to save Rashale’s life.

I waited a bit. But I couldn’t wait too long. I e-mailed Mark instead of calling. Then, probably not even 20 minutes later, I called.

He said she was slipping away. He’d call me later.

I got the call a little after noon with the news that Rashale had passed.

I can’t tell you how those words affected me, other than to say I was a complete wreck. I’d be kidding myself to say I’m not still. People around me were crying—people here, at Kiwanis International who had never met her, were crying and devastated.

Her story of hope and courage and determination—and the fact that Kiwanians had stepped up to do the right thing, to save a little girl who needed saved … it was all just so touching and amazing and at this point, so downright sad.

I share all this with you and I’m not sure why. These were tender, personal moments. E-mails shared between new friends. A time that we will never forget. And we can’t forget.

We can’t forget how awful childhood cancer is. We can’t forget how sicknesses such as cancer ravage a body so quickly—and sometimes without explanation. We can’t forget that everyone deserves a chance. We can’t forget that there are countless children suffering because they have no access to medical care—even the most basic. We can’t forget that Rashale had a few amazing months that she might never have had if she hadn’t come to the United States for help. We can’t forget that Kiwanis was there for her and her family.

Rashale was meant to come into my life, Dr. Mark’s life, Megan’s life, and every one of your lives. I believe that. If you’re reading this right now, and if you read the first part of her journey, no doubt you feel connected to the little girl with the huge smile. A little girl who traveled to the United States from Belize, thanks to many caring individuals—many of them Kiwanians.

Their compassion and caring hearts should make yours beat a a little stronger. Make you want to go out and do something good. Make you want to find a child to hug, to hold, to help.

Rashale changed my life. I’m thankful to have met her. I miss her. There’s not much more to say than that.