Sunday, November 30, 2008

Help those affected by the Southern California fires

8360 Red Oak Street, Suite 201 ∙ Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
Office: 909.989.1500 ∙ Fax: 909.898.7779 ∙ E-mail: foundation@cnhkiwanis.org

November 19, 2008


Dear Kiwanians,

The devastating Southern California fires have destroyed thousands of homes and forced tens of thousands of residents to be evacuated from their homes, schools and communities. Now that most of the fires have been contained, the children and families who've been impacted begin the unimaginable process of starting over. For so many people, the long road to recovery starts now, and that's where you can make a difference.

Many of you have already contacted us to inquire how you can help the victims of the Southern California Fires. We are encouraging all Kiwanians to support the Kiwanis Cal-Nev-Ha Foundation's Disaster Relief Fund. This fund will provide critical support for children and families affected by the fires. The Foundation, working through the Lt. Governor or appointed contact person within the affected areas, will ensure your contributions are directed to those with the most immediate and critical needs, such as:
  • purchasing gasoline, which will be used for generators to provide emergency power
  • providing shovels, rakes, boots, gloves and sifters, etc., to clear debris
  • helping to repair fire-damaged areas
  • replacing essential items such as clothing, toiletry and household items to families devastated by the fires
  • delivering perishable and non-perishable food to families affected by the fires


We ask that you send your contribution to the Kiwanis Cal-Nev-Ha Foundation Disaster Relief Fund, 8360 Red Oak Street, Suite 201, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730. Please indicate on your check or in an attached note that your donation is for the Southern California Fires.

On behalf of the victims of the most recent Southern California Fires, we thank you for your generosity and your commitment to "Serve the Children of the World."


Thank you and please do not hesitate to contact us should you have further questions.

Sincerely,


Pete Edwards
President

Sent via Julie Gonzales
Administrative Assistant
Kiwanis Cal-Nev-Ha Foundation
8360 Red Oak Street, Suite 201
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
Phone: 909-989-1500
Fax: 909-989-7779
www.cnhfoundation.org

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A Special Message from Better World Books

Apply to be a CKI Service Ambassador!

Do you like the CKI Service Partners? Would you like to be an Official CKI Service Ambassador to UNICEF or Better World Books?

Circle K International has two positions open on our CKI Service Committee. Below you will find the application for the positions of 2008-09 CKI Service Ambassadors to UNICEF and Better World Books. If you have questions regarding the application process, structure or committees - please contact Vice-President Ricardo Torres at vp@circlek.org or President Kristen Reed at president@circlek.org.

INTERESTED? Interested members are encouraged to apply for these positions by submitting an application. To be considered, members must be dues paid and from a club in good standing. Supplemental Materials, are optional but highly encouraged. Please note deadlines, as they will be strictly enforced. An e-mail will be sent to all applicants on December 5th regarding the state of their application.

Applications are due by DECEMBER 1ST, 2008 AT 11:59PM EST.
Late applications will not be considered.


Applications must be sent to both vp@circlek.org and president@circlek.org.
For logistical purposes, please clearly note in the subject of your email the name of the committee you are applying for.

READ FIRST: Click Here for the 08-09 Committee Ed Piece


APPLICATION: Click Here for the 08-09 UNICEF/Better World Books Application

FACEBOOK EVENT: Click Here to invite your friends to participate through Facebook


Please forward this e-mail on to anyone you feel could benefit and good luck to all applicants!

Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,

--Kristen

Monday, November 24, 2008

CKI Club helps out Extreme Home Makeover

Greetings CKI!

Below you will find an entry from Lyssa Bergstrom, President of the CKI Club at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Lyssa's CKI club was lucky enough to have the fantastic opportunity to work with Extreme Home Makeover on a very unique service project and I asked her to be a guest writer for my blog to give you some insight on this SUPER cool project. Congratulations to UW-Oshkosh for their great work and I hope everyone has an excellent week!

Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,
--Kristen


University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Ty Pennington Style
Its 3am and I'm warming up my car, as Meggie DeWild my lieutenant governor drives up and hops in. One would think why in the world are you up at 3am? We have one for you Service. We where traveling to Richland Center, Wisconsin to help a family of 5, that's right we where heading to Extreme Home Makeover: Home Edition. We were not only motivated by the service we would be doing but to see the handsome face of Mr. Ty Pennington. Our long early 4 hour drive included many detours and picking up my secretary, Melissa Winchell, along the way. We traveled across the state which led us to this fabulous city, full of volunteers and workers from all over! It was the race against time, to finish a project that would ordinarily take a company at least four months to achieve. Here we where helping in the cause to finish this project in less than a week! Several hundred volunteers passed through the rolling Wisconsin countryside to help this family. We helped out with many tasks, and where split up: we landscaped, we handed out hardhats, and one of us was put in charge of all the volunteers, yey Leadership! No matter what volunteer project we did, we where happy to be there to serve. Just knowing that this family would be forever changed by us made our adrenalin driven bodies withstand the 99.8 degree weather for 5 hours. This one small service project changed my views on many things, showing there are so many people out that care about others, and our willing to make a change.

Live to Serve, Love to Serve,
Lyssa Bergstrom
UW-Oshkosh Circle K President



Thursday, November 20, 2008

Welcome Tiffany!

Greetings CKI --

I am very excited to announce that the Governors of Sub-region D met this evening and elected Tiffany Hansen from the Wayne State College Circle K Club in the Nebraska-Iowa District as their International Representative. Tiffany will also be serving on the Membership Development and Benefits Committee.

Tiffany is a junior International Business and Communication student and has served as a Lt. Governor for the past two years. In addition, she is a graduate of the CKI LeaderShape Institute. A few fun facts about Tiffany include that her favorite color is red, favorite food is prime rib, and she loves the store Target!

Her contact information will be uploaded to the Circle K web-site very soon.

WELCOME TIFFANY!

Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,

--Kristen

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Win a FREE International Convention Registration!

CKI members are challenging one another to raise money for the Six Cents Initiative.

Are you game?

If so, check out the UNICEF Six Cents Initiative page to form a team, join an existing one, or sign up as an individual participant. All money raised will help provide clean drinking water to children all over the world. The link to sign up: http://www.unicefusa.org/sixcentsonline

CKI’s Six Cents Initiative with UNICEF is designed to help children get the rehydrating salts they need to survive dehydration spells. But that’s not all. With the money raised, UNICEF also is working to provide long-term solutions for the problem, which includes providing clean water resources through the installation of filtration and sanitation systems. Water filters installed in schools and communal areas can benefit entire communities. Ultimately, the goal is to educate individuals on safe water and hygiene practices, and to provide supplies to produce safe water supplies for communities.

The CKI dues paid member that fundraises the most money on Six Cents Online will receive a FREE International Convention Registration for Birmingham, Alabama 2009!

The goal is to raise more than US$32,025 for the Six Cents Initiative by the end of the 2009 CKI convention. Why $32,025? Because that symbolizes every club raising $61 to buy a family in need a water filter.

Thanks for reading and feel free to contact me should you have any questions :)

Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,

--Kristen

Photo credit: A young girl gets clean water from a tap installed by UNICEF. (UNICEF/HQ05--155/Kathryn Grusovin)

Monday, November 17, 2008

Silly Buster!

Hi CKI!

I thought I'd take a second and share with you this cute picture of the newest member of my family! I am now the proud mommy to a Husky mix puppy named Buster!


This is actually a photo of my suitcase from when I was packing to visit the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan District's fall conference. Although he couldn't come with me this time, I did promise Buster a trip to Milwaukee in the future! :) Thanks for catching up!

Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,


--Kristen



George Washington University CKI

Greetings CKI!

To the right you will see a window decoration by the Circle K Club at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. promoting the Six Cents Initiative. Pretty cool huh?! I was very lucky to have the opportunity to visit GWUCK last April and can attest first hand that they are one remarkable Circle K club -- this is just icing on the cake!

For more information on other cool projects that GWUCK does feel free to click here and if your club is looking for project ideas sell paper water drops or decorate your student union to promote your club and the Six Cents Initiative with UNICEF.

Have a great week
!

Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,


--Kristen

Thursday, November 13, 2008

New Videos added to CKITV

Hey there CKI!

Check out CKITV for new videos promoting Prematurity Awareness Month with the March of Dimes (including Sherri Shepherd from the View!!!), Club Executive Board Meeting Tips, promotional video for Holiday Embrace 2009 and much more.

You can also leave a suggestion for a video idea by clicking on the suggestion link underneath our channel description. Thanks for stopping by and have a great Thursday!

Yours in the spirit of YouTube,


--Kristen

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Today is Prematurity Awareness Day!

Hi all-

Sign the Petition for Preemies if you haven't yet at http://www.marchofdimes.com/petition and look for local buildings to be lit in purple and shining tonight - including the Empire State Building in NYC.

For more information on how your club can get involved in helping every baby to be born a healthy baby visit www.circlek.org. Also, e-mail ckimagazine@kiwanis.org with pictures and articles on how your club helped make a difference today - they may just end up on the web-site!

Love to Shop? Support the March of Dimes by ordering your holiday cards at www.marchofdimes.com/cards.

Thanks for supporting healthy babies and have a great week!

Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,


--Kristen

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Touching Video

Hey CKI!

I never thought a 49 second video could make me cry until I stumbled up on this video on YouTube. Take a peak below and remember that One Can Make a Difference. If you get the opportunity during this Kiwanis Family Month please take the time to work with your local Kiwanis Clubs on projects serving the children of the world.



(please note that this video is not affiliated and was not produced by Kiwanis International)

I hope everyone is enjoying their November and good luck on your Midterm exams.


Yours with a full heart of service,


--Kristen

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Service Trip to Panama - Application deadline November 14th

Greetings!

The Pacific-Northwest District of CKI will be traveling to Panama on a hands on service abroad trip in July of 2009. If you are interested in attending please
click here for an application. All applications must be postmarked by November 14th and because of limited spaces priority will be given to PNW District members.

For more information regarding the trip and contact information of the organizers please download the application above or e-mail PNW District Governor Helen Mak at helenym@gmail.com.

Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,

--Kristen

CKI is moving to Google

Greetings!

CKI is MOVING TO GOOGLE!

A new e-mail news reflector has been created so that you can continue to receive your CKI updates regarding scholarships, projects, programs, events, contests, and more!

To sign up visit: http://groups.google.com/group/CircleKInternational

Important: Please be advised that after 12/1/2008 the usage of ckibusiness@yahoogroups.co
m will cease and in order to continue receiving updates from CKI you must sign up for the Google Group.

Thanks and have an excellent day!

Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,

--Kristen

Have you seen this gavel!?

To the person who stole my gavel in Denver,

I would really appreciate it's safe return. Please e-mail me a ransom note or let me know what I have to do to get it back. Thanks much and congratulations for pulling a fast one over all of us!

Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,

--Kristen

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Election Day in America

Greetings CKI and Happy Election Day! I JUST VOTED and I hope you do too!

If you didn't get the opportunity to register and you live in Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, or Wyoming, you can register and vote the day of the election. =)

Also, http://www.rockthevote.org/ can help you find your polling place.

Regardless of your political party affiliation I hope that each of you takes the opportunity to make a difference in the world and vote. The polling lines may be long but remember that One CAN Make a Difference.



Live to Serve -- Love to Serve,

--Kristen