Update on Kiwanis of greater Seekonk 2017-2018

The Kiwanis of Greater Seekonk sponsors a Builders' Club at the Hurley Middle School to promote the value of community service and encourage leadership and cooperation. This year they donated supplies to and visited the Seekonk Animal Shelter, collected items for Hasbro Children's Hospital, had a coat drive, donated pennies for leukemia and lymphoma patients and collected pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House.

Kiwanis sponsors a Key Club at the high school which had 100 members this year and 35 members performed over 100 hours of service. These members were presented with certificates and pins at a breakfast provided by Kiwanis. Their activities included tutoring, baby-sitting, PTA and library events, food drives, used jean collections, Trick or Treating for UNICEF and walks for health cures. Their main event is planning and conducting the annual Easter Egg Hunt when over 2000 eggs are hidden, many games are played and lots of prizes are given

The Seekonk Kiwanis held their 22nd annual Taste of the Towns in March with over 20 restaurants participating, wine and beer tasting and many raffles. In December they sponsored the annual Tree Lighting and Santa visit with girl scouts singing carols, the middle school brass ensemble playing, Santa arriving on a fire truck and cookies and coca served. Food for the food pantry Doorways was collected.

At Seekonk High School class night, Seekonk Kiwanis presented two $1000 scholarships to graduating seniors. They provided $600 for grants to special needs students for summer work programs. They purchased Tee shirts for the members of the Key Club. They also offer grants to parents of pre-school children who cannot afford day care.

Kiwanis is a 100 year old international organization of 600,000 members in 80 countries. Members have raised $140 million to protect children from miscarriage and stunted brain intelligence because of iodine deficiency. Teaming with Morton Salt and UNICEF, they provided enough iodine so that out of 113 countries that were suffering, only 19 still remain. They again teamed with UNICEF and Rotary and other charities to support immunization against maternal and neonatal tetanus. From 800,000 children dying each year in 39 countries, they raised $110 million and deaths have been reduced to 34,000 in 15 countries so far.

For more information or if you would like to participate in these worth while activities, contact Bev Hart at 508-336-9352 or russellhart@comcast.net.