Service Initiative
High Five For Health
 Key Club International President Shivani Radhakrishnan, and the Key Club International Board of Trustees have invited Builders Club members to join Key Club in delivering needed service through Key Club’s 2006-08 Service Initiative “High five for Health”.
Through “High Five for Health” members focus their time and talents specifically on educating children about nutrition, wellness, and play. This program creates the common goal of service and also
allows Key Club and Builders Club members to develop into well-rounded individuals, community leaders, and lifelong children’s health advocates.
Builders Club members are encouraged to work with their neighboring Key Club. Involvement with this service initiative provides an opportunity to educate Builders Club members about the Kiwanis family and the natural path of progression from Builders Club to Key Club to Circle K to Kiwanis.
Service Partners
Key Club - High Five for Health
- Nutrition
- Wellness
- Service Partners
Circle K - Focusing on the Future: Children
One Warm Coat
 Your club can make a huge impact on your community by parterning with One Warm Coat®. Visit their Website and find out how your club can organize a coat drive that will provide warms coats to children in need.
K.I.D.S
 K.I.D.S. distributes new donated merchandise for children and youth to more than 1,000 non-profit agencies. These agencies work with children in poverty-stricken communities, homeless shelters, foster-care facilities, hospitals, AIDS clinics and relief organizations within the United States and abroad.
Service
Program Through American Heart Association (CPR Training)
The American Heart Association has created a CPR Anytime for Family and Friends Personal Learning Program, which allows families, friends and the general public – those who most likely would never attend a traditional CPR course – to learn the core skills of CPR in just 22 minutes using their own personal kit. The kit contains everything needed to learn basic CPR, and skills can be learned anywhere, from the comfort of a family home to a large community group setting. Also, at under US $30, the CPR Anytime Kit is a cost-effective way for anyone to learn CPR. The Kit includes: A personal, inflatable CPR manikin, CPR Anytime Skills Practice DVD, An American Heart Association CPR for family and friends booklet, Accessories for the program. To learn more visit: www.americanheart.org. A Circle K club could purchase this kit and work with the K-Kids or Builders Club to train teachers and students at the school.
Project Tree
A great way to keep track of all the fun service projects the club has completed is to make a project tree. The items needed include: poster board, green and brown construction paper, glue, and a black marker. Draw a tree trunk on the brown construction paper and cut out the trunk. Place it on a poster board. Draw a large leaf on the green construction paper as a guide, and then cut out enough leaves  to cover the treetop. If the club has completed a service project, write the name of the project on the leaf and then glue the leaf on the poster board at top of the tree trunk. The club will be able to track all the fun projects completed during the year by adding leaves to the tree.
Chalk Box – Service Project
Make chalk boxes for the elementary school kindergarten class or for the children in the Head Start program. The box of chalk is made with an old cigar box or shoebox. Paint the outside of the box with bright colors and the lid of the box with chalkboard paint. The inside of the box can be painted or left in its original condition. Place several pieces of colored chalk and a sponge in the box. Place the lid on the box. The kids now have a handy little chalkboard with supplies enclosed. They can use it to practice writing the alphabet and numbers.
 Welcome to Our School Basket – Service Project
Make a special welcome basket for students relocating to the elementary school. Include school supplies, information about the school, and a special invitation to join the K-Kids club. Another great gift idea is to create a cloth-covered notebook. Cover a three-ring binder with fun colors of scrap cloth using fabric glue as an adhesive.
Get-Well Books – Service Project
Construct a book with an upbeat message for patients at the local children’s hospital. The book could be made of construction paper. Plot out a story, color the pictures, hole punch the pages and tie the pages, together with yarn. Deliver the books to the children’s hospital.
Lullaby Cassettes – Service Project / Fund-raising Project
This project will give the school’s music teacher an opportunity to become involved with K-Kids. Approach your school’s music teacher about using the school choir to record public-domain lullabies on tape. The music teacher and club members choose the lullabies. The choir will need to work on the arrangements for a week or two. A time is scheduled to record the choir singing. The school’s audiovisual department duplicates the tape. If the elementary school does not have audiovisual capability, look to the middle school or high school for assistance. The next step involves creating a decorative cover for the tapes. Brightly colored markers are used to decorate the covers and list the songs. The lullaby tapes can be donated to hospitals or child-care centers. The tapes also can be sold for a small profit as a fund-raiser. Profits from this project could go toward items needed in the school’s music department.
Audiocassette Story Books – Service Project/ Fund-raising Project
This project promotes creativity. Club members work together to choose a theme and develop a story or several stories. Topics might include overcoming fear, accomplishing goals, or building friendships. Club members develop a story and write a script. Different parts are assigned to different members of the club. A time is scheduled to conduct a practice reading, and another time is scheduled to record the reading on audiocassette. The club utilizes the school’s audiovisual department to make duplicates of the cassette. If the elementary school does not have an audiovisual department, look to the middle school or high school for assistance with this portion of the project. This is a good way to include a Builders Club or a Key Club in a K-Kids project. Club members then develop a cover for the tapes with colorful markers. The storybook tapes are distributed to children’s hospitals, child-care providers, or sold as a fund-raiser. Perhaps the school library needs materials. The funds raised could assist with this endeavor.
School Memory Book or Bulletin Board – Service Project
Build school pride by making a school memory book or bulletin board. The club provides disposable cameras to certain faculty and K-Kids members. Photographs are taken at various events. Individuals should write the name of the event directly on the camera. Ask club members to collect film-developing coupons from the weekly newspaper. Coupons and the disposable cameras are taken to a store for developing. Club members paste the photos on construction paper, write special comments beside the photographs, hole punch the pages, and tie them together with yarn. The memory book is displayed at the front of the school where all students can view the book. If it is better to view the pages on a bulletin board, simply post a few pages a day, and at the completion of the posting, bind the pages together and keep for future viewing.
Felt Storytelling Boards – Service Project
This project can be completed using old shoeboxes, felt pieces, and glue. First, cover the entire shoebox with felt. Then cut other felt pieces into different shapes. Shapes of people and animals can be created, as well as stars, clouds, a sun, and a moon. The cut pieces are placed inside the box. Since felt holds in place against felt, when the shapes are placed on the outside of the box, they form different scenes. These felt boxes can be given to a kindergarten class, a children’s hospital, or child-care center.
Slipper Socks for Nursing Home Patients – Service Project
For this project, one needs socks and nontoxic, three-dimensional fabric paints. Organize a sock drive at your school, requesting that students donate new socks. Ask for adult sizes. Decorate the bottom of the socks with fabric paint. When the paint dries, it creates no-slip grips on the bottom of the sock. This is an easy project, and nursing home residents will love their new slipper socks!
Flash Cards / Matching Game Cards – Service Project
Create flash cards for the school’s kindergarten class. Use cardboard and markers to create the cards. Check with the kindergarten teacher to see what type of flash cards the class needs. Flash cards also can be given to child-care providers. The same technique can be used to create a matching card game. Cut enough cards to create 52 cards. Draw two identical pictures until you have drawn pictures on all the cards. Color the opposite side with a fun pattern. You have created a set of matching cards. You may want to write out a simple set of directions to go with the cards, explaining how to play the game.
Create Colorful Sweatshirts and T-shirts – Service Project
Conduct a clothing drive and ask specifically for sweatshirts and T-shirts that do not have printing on them. Wash the clothing. Use colorful fabric paints to decorate the items. Now donate the newly decorated items to a shelter.
More Service Project Ideas
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 Assist in reseeding the school’s lawn, help plant flowers around the walkways, and help weed the flower beds.
- Clean and wash school vehicles.
- Print and distribute “Emergency Phone Number” stickers to all homes in the community.
- Organize a canned food drive. Students donate canned goods, which are distributed to the needy.
- Ask students to donate old books, records, cassette tapes, videotapes, and CDs. Donate the collected items to a shelter.
- Offer baby-sitting services during a special school program. Parents will be able to watch their older children perform in the choir or play while the younger kids enjoy playtime in the school’s baby-sitting room made possible by the K-Kids club!
Program Ideas
Make arrangements to host a special educational lunch series. A special guest would be scheduled to talk to the students during the lunch hour. Each week could focus on a different theme. Week #1: Fire Prevention Awareness; Week #2: First Aid; Week #3: Settling Conflict; etc.
Conduct a fund-raiser to sponsor an educational program for the teachers at the school. Maybe the teachers at the elementary school need CPR training and the K-Kids could assist with sponsoring this training.
Stage a fund-raiser to sponsor a Red Cross first aid training program. Both teachers and students would benefit from this program.
Schedule a special educational week to inform students about the Kiwanis family’s Worldwide Service Project to virtually eliminate iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). Make posters that explain the dangers of iodine deficiency and how the Kiwanis family is trying to eliminate the problem worldwide. Place a collection can in the school cafeteria to collect extra pennies to raise money to fight IDD.
Fund-raising Project Ideas
* Create a Calendar
Club members develop a theme or simply color pictures for a special school calendar. Approach the school faculty to assist with making a list of dates that should be noted on the calendar. Approach a printer about offering a discount for printing the calendar, and offer the printer advertising on the calendar. An adult with access to a computer may need to assist with this project. The adult will be responsible for producing the layout of the calendar and adding the notations in the correct date blocks of the calendar. After the calendars have been printed, sell the calendars to parents, local businesses, etc. The price of the calendar should cover the printing and allow for additional funds to support the charity of your choice. This project should be conducted as a joint fund-raiser benefiting both the school and the club.
* Save-a-Memory Videotape Sale
 Videotape special school functions, such as the school’s holiday program. There are many times when parents would like to videotape their children, but they do not have the necessary equipment. The K-Kids club can tape special school programs and offer the taped programs for a fee. An order form is given to the parents as they arrive at the event, letting them know that the program is being taped and that copies are available for a certain fee. The form should note that the proceeds are going to a designated charity. The forms and money are returned to the K-Kids after the event, either that evening or later that week. The appropriate number of duplicate tapes are created and given to the students to deliver to their parents. The school’s audiovisual department would be involved with this project, or contact the middle school or high school audiovisual department. This project should be conducted as a joint fund-raiser benefiting both the school and the club.
Macaroni Chain
Club members, with the help of the faculty advisor, arrange a fund-raising competition between classes. The club distributes string, macaroni pasta, and pledge sheets to each class. The students are asked to receive pledges of one cent for each piece of macaroni threaded on the class string. The students then have one week to collect pledges and the next week to string macaroni. Someone is responsible for keeping a count of how much macaroni has been strung, and the number is posted outside the classroom door. By the end of the week, there should be a winner. Students collect their pledges, and the money is given to the school to use for special recognition functions. The class with the most macaroni strands on the string wins and is treated to a special prize by the K-Kids club. An award presentation is conducted honoring the class. Remember to save the macaroni strings for decorating during the holidays.
Develop Partnerships with Other Organizations
Service organizations always are looking for volunteer and financial support from other groups and agencies. Conduct research on the Internet to find out more about conducting service projects to help a specific organization. Below are just a few possibilities:
Kiwanis International Priority One Advisory Council
Visit the Kiwanis Web site and review the Priority One Council members. The Advisory Council includes more than 40 child-serving organizations that collaborate with Kiwanis International in developing Priority One initiatives. Develop a service project in support of one of these Kiwanis partners.
Service Projects Available via the Web
Project ROSEBUDS is an educational clearinghouse that acts as a distribution center for service learning projects for American students in classrooms across the United States. These service projects promote patriotism by honoring veterans and the US armed forces and build awareness of major health issues in the country.
We are seeking student volunteer groups for a program called "Bedsidebooks". This is a program that collects books and donates them to needy members of the community. The program has an environmental side, too. One tree is saved for every 300 books recycled. In addition, books that get reused don't end up in the nation's landfills.
This program is especially suitable to students that have an interest in the health care field (the books are donated to nursing homes or other health care facilities) or an interest in environmental sciences. Those groups who collect and distribute at least 25 books will receive a certificate from the President of the United States for the environmental aspect of this program. The steps in the program have been carefully laid out and the program is suitable for most students who have the time to devote to it and the ability to follow the simple instructions.
What we need from you:
- Your time and energy to contact donors and identify recipients of books.
- Your time to sort and deliver books.
What we provide you with:
- Detailed guidelines on how to get and distribute books.
- A timeline indicating the how to get the work done.
- A press release to help you get greater support for your project.
- A website to help explain the program.
- Support to resolve problems.
What you get:
- A sense of satisfaction generated by helping others.
- The knowledge that your actions are helping the environment.
- A certificate from the President of the United States
Last year, project participants received a certificate commending them for outstanding achievement in environmental protection services from the President of the United States, you can too!
More information is available at Bedsidebooks or via email.
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