Student Leadership Recognition Picnic 2017

 
Friday afternoon a few Mighty Kiwanians gathered at the Sunset Pavilion on Siesta Beach with 30+ students, a few student family members.  (Siesta is “Beach 1” – a marquee location to recognize our Builders and Key Club student leaders.)  Also attending were hamburgers, hotdogs, buns, potato and macaroni salad, fruit, veggies, cookies, cakes, chips ….. you get the picture.
 
Events kicked-off with a Classic game of Rock/Paper/Scissors (RPS).  Everyone drew a bracket number out of a baseball cap, then wrote their name on the bracket board, the same kind of brackets they use for Basketball.  Once everyone finds the person in their bracket the fun begins. To move to the next bracket, a you have to win 2 out of 3 hands.  I quickly found out I am not very good at this game when I was eliminated in the first round!  Winners of the higher brackets receive gift cards to places like Starbucks and Walmart.  Alyssa Steinbaum was the “Classic RPS” grand winner and received a generous gift card for Walmart.
 
After the first game we focused on the picnic food.  At this time, President Clark asked representatives from each Club – Riverview Key Club, Pine View’s Builders and Key Clubs – to give a verbal report of recent activity and accomplishments.  These reports appear in “READ MORE” below at the bottom right.  Spoiler alert – they did amazing things during the 2017 school year.
 
After the food disappeared, Chair Drew Lowther announced that the second RPS game would be “Canadian Rules.”  No... ice and hockey sticks are not required.  I, and most others, had not heard of Canadian Rules so, Drew and Clark demonstrated.  (See the photo at left!)  In the Canadian version you start back to back, count to “3”, turn to face each other then pose.  The poses you had to pick from were a lady, a bear, or a hunter.  Now, the lady takes the hunter, the hunter takes the bear and the bear takes the lady.  If I remember correctly, Clark picked the hunter and Drew picked the lady so Drew won. 
 
In order to advance you had to win 3 out of 5 poses.  I did better and got to the second round before losing.  Here again the top bracket winners got gift cards and here again the overall winner was (drum roll) Alyssa Steinbaum.  Alyssa walked away with a lot of gift cards.  She seemed very happy.
 
There are some people we should single out for special thanks.  The first being the young lady that played the ukulele and sang.  Also Bill Irish, Fred Scheerle, Steve Stonesipher, Matt Anderson, President Clark and of course Drew for Chairing this project.  Not to be overlooked are the wives that came and helped.
 
I can’t wait until next year.  I’m going to work on my RPS game and win it all in 2018.
 
Our Service Leader Club Reports Given at Siesta Beach Recognition 2017
 
A.  Pine View Builder's Club 2017 Accomplishments
  • Mothers helping mothers (3 times; helped organize clothes and other materials)
  • Tree of joy
  • Salvation Army bags for the homeless
  • Made blankets with The Payton Wright Foundation --brain cancer patients
  • Bell ringing with Salvation Army
  • Helping with pinnacle(our schools biggest fundraiser of the year)
  • Farm share
  • Chipotle fundraiser
  • Pine View Fair Fundraiser
  • We were invited to DCON
  • Letters to Santa with Macy's
  Naina Chauhan
 
B.  Riverview Key Club's Report for School Year 2017
  • PB&J for salvation army (major project)
  • making cards for nursing homes and children in hospitals
  • making dog toys for the shelter
  • working two pancake breakfast fundraisers
  • building gingerbread houses for CYD
  • making non-slip socks for nursing homes
  • felt hearts for new born babies
  • placemats for meals on wheels
  Kayla Escobar
 
C.  Pine View Key Club's 2017 School Year Report
  • During the fall, the club members participated in "Bag Up the Love" program by packing small duffel bags with personal items for children entering the foster care system.
  • We also made holiday cards for veterans wishing them happy holidays and thanking them for their service.
  • Old T-shirts make great dog toys for Nate's Honor Animal Rescue
  • In November club members made blankets for local brain cancer patients.
  • December also found members doing Christmas gift wrapping at Barnes & Noble as a fundraiser and bell ringing for the Salvation Army to help our Kiwanis club.
  • The annual Tree of Joy project involves soliciting funds and then using the money to buy clothes and other necessary items for needy children who shop with their parents and the key club members.
  • During the holidays, club members made candy cane reindeer  to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals
  • Members also donated toys to two children in the Foster Angels program.
  • We made over 1200 cards for the Macy's "Believe" program which benefits Make-A-Wish Foundation. The 1200 cards created $1,200 for the foundation.
  • New Year's Eve key club members volunteered at Historic Spanish Pointe for a children's event called "Starlight and Fire" with crafts cider, popcorn and S'mores around the fire pits.
  • In January, Club members wrote letters to cancer patients for the Pine View "Standing Up To Cancer" Club.
  • Also in January and they had "Feeding Our Future" week with different activities on each day. Feeding our future was the Key club District Governor's initiative for this year.  As part of that initiative, the club pursued a mission of "Food, Service, and Literacy"
  • Toward the end of January, they volunteered at the Early Childhood Conference in Sarasota.
  • February they had  a successful fundraiser at chipotle restaurant.
  • March brought a celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday on March 2 so the club members made hats for second grade reading.
  • The Muscular Dystrophy Association benefited from the Key Club's Clover fundraiser. Clover cards with candy grams were sold with the proceeds helping send children to the MDA summer camp
  • Key club DCON came in April with more than 20 club members attending and Erin Chen winning a trophy for her creative DCON poster.
  • The UN women's happiness March at Payne Park brought out key club volunteers.
  • Other April projects included "Bag up the Love" again for foster children and then the Day Without Hate where they created 92 posters to put around the school campus and encouraged everyone at school to wear white in sympathy .