Service Projects
The Sand Lake Kiwanis Club is continuously looking for new
service Projects all members are encouraged to provide the committees and
board with new ideas.
Over 55
years ago one of the first service projects of the club was to supply
encouragement and two chickens to young 4-H Club members involved in a project
of raising chickens. A current project, Computers for Youth, involves the
club collecting used computers, having them refurbished and then donating them
to needy students and their families for use in their studies.
A
few of the other recent service projects of the Sand Lake Kiwanis Club include:
Averill
Park High School Key Club & Columbia High School Key Clubs
Sponsorship of the two Key Clubs is
ongoing project of which the Sand Lake Kiwanis Club is most proud.
The club supports in many ways these outstanding award winning high school
service clubs. Most Key Club meetings are attended by at least one member of the
Sand Lake Kiwanis Club, members of all three clubs work side by side on joint
projects and our club provides funding for some of the Key Clubs activities.
The
TrashBusters a program that sponsors groups of youths wishing to clean
up or otherwise beautify a specific area. The
Sand Lake Kiwanis Club provides supervision, arranges for the disposal of trash,
arranges for media coverage of the activity and gives each of the participants a
distinctive tee shirt.
Partnership with the County Office of the Sheriff - the club provides volunteers to assist the County Sheriff with programs involving Child Car Seat Safety Inspections (donating a new child's car seat when needed), distribution of hand gun and rifle locks and ChildSafe Identification programs.
Volunteer assistance for county seniors - when the Rensselaer County Department of Ageing requested volunteers to be trained to assist seniors with the change to Medicaid Part D, several members accepted the challenge. Once the initial period for enrollment in Part D was completed, they continue to assist seniors making choices with the various services offered by the state, county and federal governments.
Ecumenical
church service each year the Sand
Lake Kiwanis Club sponsors a church service on the Sunday of SummerFest for the
community as a whole.
Food
from the Heart/Holiday Food and Gift Basket Programs
the Sand Lake Kiwanis Club collects or purchases food items and gifts that
are then gift wrapped and delivered to needy families in the area twice a year.
Blood
Drives working with the American Red
Cross and various local groups, the Sand Lake Kiwanis Club supplies manpower,
publicity and some of the donors for local blood drives through out the year.
Camp
Rotary the Sand Lake Kiwanis Club
supports the local Boy Scouts of America summer camp with at least one hands on
work night each year. At that time
tent platforms are built, buildings painted, light carpentry and plumbing are
performed and the like.
Petersburg
church renovations the Sand Lake
Kiwanis Club provided the necessary manpower and supplies to aid a small group
of elderly church members in renovating their church when it looked as though
they would have to close the doors.
Community
Signs the club makes available to
various local community groups 2 portable lettered signs to advertise their
upcoming events.
Health
screening the Sand Lake Kiwanis Club
sponsors and supplies manpower for a low cost blood screening for the community
annually.
Support
of Sand Lake Youth Soccer Program
the Sand Lake Kiwanis Club was one of the first groups in the community
to help sponsor this program held on Sundays
in the fall at the athletic fields of the Algonquin Middle School. The Sand Lake Kiwanis Club still has a presence with its food
trailer and by providing the sanitary facilities.
Habitat
for Humanity the Sand Lake Kiwanis
Club has provided volunteer manpower adding in the construction of two homes in
the Troy area.
Flagpole
donation the residents of the
Brookside senior housing facility expressed a desire for a flag and flagpole in
front of their building. The Senior
Services Committee provided the funding to purchase the flagpole, erect it and a
flag for display.
Adopt
a Highway members of the club along
with Key Clubbers and/or Boy Scouts maintain a section of NY Route 351
SummerFest
by far the largest single undertaking of the club, this is a large summer
weekend celebration for the town each year with a parade, rides for the kids,
athletic contests, craft fairs, demonstrations by various groups, youth events,
bands & dancing and a major fire works display.
Financial
Support/Scholarships/Awards the Sand
Lake Kiwanis Club annually gives a number of monetary awards at the Averill Park
High School Honors Night, supports a participant in the Hugh OBrien Youth
Leadership conference, supports/sponsors Boy and Girl Scouts, youth baseball
& football and the like.
Annual "Dissipated Eight" concert - starting with a concert in 2001 the club has sponsored a free public concert of the Middlebury (VT) College a cappella male chorus, in 2001 a local resident was a member of the group. Each year the high school auditorium is filled to capacity.
Senior
Luncheons
annually the club provides food and service for a Sand Lake Senior Citizens
Luncheon.
Butler
Park/Fitness Trail/Band Stand
from its inception members of the club have been involved with all aspects of
the creation of Sand Lakes Town Park. The
club has supplied funding and hands on support for the construction of the
fitness trail and the bandstand at the park.
Jubilee
Day Care the club
was one of the major supporters of the day care groups move to the Salem
United Methodist Church. When
another local facility would not renew the lease for space in which the day care
facility had operated for years a hasty move had to be arranged.
The club not only supplied funding assistance but many hours of hands on
labor.
Peace Poles - the club in partnership with the Averill Park Central School District Service Learning Project provided the funding and volunteers to erect 5 four sided Peace Poles, one at each of the District's schools.
Kiwanis Food Trailer - a common sight a many community events is the "Kiwanis Food Trailer". The club supports the American Cancer Society's Annual Rensselaer County Relay For Life, the Sand Lake Library's Annual Library Fair and other community groups with their fund raising efforts with food sales out of our "Food Trailer".
Support
of the activities of the Kiwanis International and NY District Foundations
annually the club financially supports both of these foundations and through
them service to NY state and the world as a whole.
Support of other organizations the Sand Lake Kiwanis Club routinely provides manpower to aid other organizations such as the Salvation Army, the American Cancer Society and the like as they may need for their fundraising activities in the local area.