Kiwanis in the running to win $1 million to help underprivileged teens

Organization seeks Hoosiers support as the only Indiana charity in competition

INDIANAPOLIS - Kiwanis International Foundation is competing with 99 other charities to win $1 million from Chase Community Giving and Facebook through an online competition. The charity with the most votes wins, and voting ends on Friday, January 22.

"This week, we are mobilizing our members and stakeholders to vote for Kiwanis," said Kiwanis International Executive Director Stan Soderstrom. "Although we are currently behind in the vote count, we know there are many people who have not yet voted, and we expect to see a large surge by the end of the week."

Kiwanis would use the $1 million grant to enable 11,500 underprivileged teens to attend Key Leader, a leadership weekend for high school students. The Key Leader program helps teens worldwide believe they can make a difference in their lives and their communities. Key Leader provides a life changing experience, inspiring young people to achieve their personal best through service leadership. The program focuses on integrity, growth, respect, building community and pursuit of excellence. By sending more kids to Key Leader, Kiwanis would create worldwide Key Leaders to impact their communities and create change.

"We'd like to encourage the Indiana Facebook community to change the lives of thousands of teens by voting for the only Indiana charity in the competition: Kiwanis," Soderstrom said.

To vote for Kiwanis, visit www.facebook.com/kiwanis. Voting occurs through Facebook only and participants must have a Facebook account and become a fan of Chase Community Giving to vote.

During the first-round of voting in December, Kiwanis beat out 500,000 charities and was voted into the top 100 to qualify for the final round. Kiwanis also received $25,000 for making it into the final round.

About Kiwanis International
Founded in 1915, Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.  Kiwanis International and its service leadership programs for young people, including Circle K, Key Club, Key Leader, Builders Club, K-Kids, Kiwanis Junior and Aktion Club dedicate more than 19 million volunteer hours and invest US$100 million to strengthen communities and serve children annually.  The Kiwanis International family comprises 600,000 adult and youth members in 70 countries and geographic areas. For more information about Kiwanis International, please visit www.kiwanis.org