K-Kids Launch West Point Community Service Projects

by David Rorick

There are 15 members in the West Point Elementary School K-Kids Club. They may be small in number and (at age 9) small in stature, but they have big plans for this school year. K-Kids is the elementary-age wing of Kiwanis International. Along with Builders Club at West Point Middle School and Key Club at West Point High School, they are already learning the Kiwanis International motto "dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time."

(Right: West Point Elementary School K-Kids Officers and their advisors (left to right) advisor Gail Kemp, president Will Norton, vice-president Annabelle Porter, secretary Kelsey Duke, treasurer Kristen Cade, and advisor Chanda Futey.)

Led by club advisors Chanda Futey and Gail Kemp, the K-Kids have chosen four community projects for the current school year. They began with a canned food drive to benefit the Mercy Center, collecting hundreds of canned and dry-packed items destined to feed the hungry. They are gearing up for their holiday project now. They will assemble holiday goodie bags for the residents of West Point's Riverside Convalescent Center. They will take a field trip to the Center to put up holiday decorations and share their goodie bags. Next up is Pennies for Patients, part of the national campaign of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Last year the K-Kids raised over $1,800 for the campaign, and they hope to top that figure this year. The final K-Kids project, already underway, is classroom recycling. This environmental project will culminate with a tree-planting in the spring, already set for Earth Day 2010.

The K-Kids are student-organized and student-led, with adult coaching. The officers this year are president Will Norton, vice-president Anabelle Porter, secretary Kelsey Duke and treasurer Kristen Cade.

The West Point Kiwanis Club meets for dinner at six p.m. the first and third Mondays of each month in St. John's Hall at St. John's Episcopal Church. Visitors and prospective members are always welcome. To learn more, call Mary Ann Seward, Club President, at 843-3418.