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Thinking
about kids? Then think
about Kiwanis! We love
working with kids, and we try our best to help make their lives a
little better… in many, many ways.
We’d like to tell you about a few of our programs just to
give you a sample of what our club is all about.
We can’t tell you everything that’s going on… space
constraints limit that, but we can tell you about a few of our
exciting projects so as to give you an idea of the kinds of things
we do in and for our community.
Our club
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teaches Junior Achievement in our middle and high
schools
-
sponsors “Terrific Kids” programs in elementary
schools. These programs
promote character development, self-esteem and perseverance among
our young school children
-
provides volunteers and financial help to the
Child
Advocacy
Center
in
Lenoir
City
-
provides $100 “
Back-to
School
” gift cards each fall for children of deserving families so they
can purchase much-needed clothes and school supplies
-
offers volunteers to provide tutoring & remedial
reading assistance in area elementary schools
-
sponsors two $2,000 scholarships each year for
deserving high school students
-
sponsors “Trout in the Classroom,” a project in
which school children raise trout from eggs to young fish and then
release them into local rivers and streams
-
sponsors and organizes the making of simple cloth
dolls for young surgery patients at Children’s Hospital
-
purchases and provides books for children as part of
Dolly Parton’s “Imagination Library” program in
Loudon
County
-
supports the
Lenoir
City
and
Loudon
County
Family
Resource
Centers
and provide volunteers to assist them with their wide range of
programs
-
provides volunteers to pick up roadside litter each
month along a 2.2 mile stretch of
Tellico Parkway
-
provides financial support and ring the bell for the
Salvation Army every year during the Christmas season
-
provides volunteers for the Christmas
“Adopt-a-Family” program
-
helps distribute food each month for the Good
Samaritan Center
-
provides volunteers & financial support, and make
simple repairs at Iva’s Place for battered women
-
provides volunteer help and financial support to the
STAR
Riding
Academy
And, well, there’s so much more!
We haven’t the space to list everything… just
wanted you to get a flavor of what we do, and hope we’ve
accomplished that.
So, how do we do all these things? Well,
every year we have several fundraisers in our community.
We sponsor two pancake breakfasts -- typically one in the
spring and one late in the year -- and a golf tournament in the
fall, which is always popular and attracts golfers from all over
Loudon
County
& nearby
Knoxville
.
Our always popular “All-You-Can-Eat” Pancake Breakfast
draws large crowds and has become a much-anticipated social event
for the
Tellico
Village
community. Just about
all of our 82 club members pitch in to help make this event a big
success and it’s not unusual for us to serve 750-800 people at
each breakfast! And you
know what else? Helping
us at each pancake breakfast are about a dozen members of our Loudon
County High School Key Club -- a club of young men and women
sponsored by the Tellico Village Kiwanis Club who’re dedicated to
helping kids in
Loudon
County
. What a great
experience it is for all of us to work together to help better our
community -- especially the children who live here.
And our newest fundraising project is the “Cutest Little
Baby Face Contest” which recently raised over $12,000 to benefit
the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital… and for that
accomplishment we feel justifiably proud!
But, our work and our interest don’t stop with kids!
We care deeply about the elderly too.
The Tellico Village Kiwanis Club is very proud of our new
program called “Kiwanis KARES.”
The KARES (Kiwanis Assistance & Resources to Elderly
Services) program is focused on helping the elderly of
Loudon
County
in a variety of ways. In
cooperation with the
Loudon
County
Senior
Center
, the Office on Aging, and community
and church leaders, the KARES program provides
-
A trustworthy club volunteer for elderly clients to
talk to, either in person or on the ‘phone. These
conversations are held in the strictest confidence.
-
A monthly visit, if requested, by
a male or female Kiwanis volunteer
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Attention to small/minor maintenance problems that the
elderly are unable to handle by themselves
-
If the scope of a problem or its repair cost is larger
than can be managed by Kiwanis, resources that are both trustworthy
and affordable will be recommended to the client
Yes, we are very proud of what we do for kids, for the
elderly, and for our community in general.
But we never forget
the importance of our membership in helping to make this all
happen… for without them, none of what we presently do would
be possible.
If you think you’d like to be part of this great
organization and be a volunteer to help our kids and elderly in the
giving & grateful community of which
Tellico
Village
is a part, we’d love to hear from you!
Please contact our membership chair, John Strine, at
458-1966 or by e-mail John at jrspas2@aol.com. He would be glad to send you additional information or –
better yet – invite you to attend a club meeting.
We meet on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of
each month at 11:30 a.m. at the Tellico
Village
Yacht Club, 100 Sequoyah Rd. (on beautiful Tellico Lake), and visitors are always welcome!
[This page was last updated May 21, 2012
]
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