Bellingham Kiwanis 2006-07 Projects

December 5th, Members of the Bellingham Kiwanis and the Key Clubbers worked a toal of 53 Kiwanis Hours ringing the Salvation Army Bell and collected much needed funds for the Bellingham Salvation Army.

Fred Meyer South Grocery:

Alyson Batcheller-Bestle - 3.5 hours, Marty Stauffer - 2.5hours, Ian Willey - 2.5hours, Bruce Jorgensen - 2.5hours, Barb Audley - 2hours.

Fred Meyer South Variety:

Rich Emerson - 2.5 hours Dick Zagelow - 2.5 hours, Alfred Dale - 2.5 hours; Layne Johnson - 2.5 hours, Jeri Bungard - 2.5 hours.

Haggens Sehome:

Elf:

Project Chair

Jan Armstrong worked4 hours getting set workers preparing sign-up sheets, working with Salvation Army.

Bellingham Kiwanis To Build Playground for Agape House

The Kiwanis Club of Bellingham voted to provide the gift of a playground for the Agape Home for Women and Children in Bellingham. This facility, located at F Street and Holly Street, is the only one in Whatcom County that provides shelter, food, and care for women and children who are homeless.

The Agape Home for Women and Children has been in operation since 1973. Their original facility on Yew Street could only house 16 people a night. The new facility has 106 beds and it is estimated that they will be caring for 15-20 children a day. One 19 year old woman tells the story of life in an abusive home with her parents and later with her husband and how she escaped with her 17 month old daughter and was lucky enough to come to the Agape Home. They have since helped her find employment and she is also going to school. She is very thankful for the fresh start she has received.

Nancy Larsen is heading up the project and is launching a fund raising drive. Any amount donated will be appreciated. Donations can be dropped off or mailed to the Kiwanis Club of Bellingham Foundation, in care of Vaughn Hagen CPA, 1015 Dupont Street, Bellingham, WA 98225. For more information, please call Nancy Larsen at 360-398-0223 or email her at nancy@whatcomskagithousing.com.

Smile Train

A combination of donations from members and from the club sent over $3,000 to The Smile Train. This nonprofit agency sends doctors to 3rd world countries to repair cleft palates in small children. This has a profound affect on the lives and futures of these children. At $250 per surgery, our Club gave new life to 12 children.(YC:PO Project.)

The Smile Train is focused on solving a single problem: cleft lip and palate. Clefts are a major problem in developing countries where there are millions of children who are suffering with unrepaired clefts. Most cannot eat or speak properly. Aren’t allowed to attend school or hold a job. And face very difficult lives filled with shame and isolation, pain and heartache.

The good news is every single child with a cleft can be helped with surgery that costs as little as $250 and takes as little as 45 minutes. This is Smile Train's mission:

Bellingham Kiwanis Turns 88

Bellingham Kiwanis Helps Big Brothers and Sisters

The Bellingham Kiwanis Club helped The Bellingham Big Brother and Sister Program get their new office ready for opening next week. Rex Dudley, the Director of the program was asked by the carpet laying company to remove the old damaged carpets in much of the new facility. The carpet was glued down. The Bellingham Kiwanis volunteered to provide the labor to pull up the carpets and do the final cleaning which needed to be done prior to the new carpets being installed.

The work crew consisted of Bruce Jorgensen, Russ Weston, Bob Gregory, Larry West and Mike Yeend of the Kiwanis Club and Rex Dudley of Big B&S. In all, 21 K-Servcie hours were earned.

It is the mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Washington to help the children of Whatcom and Skagit Counties reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one mentoring relationships. To achieve the mission of successful mentoring relationships for all children who need and want them, Big Brothers Big Sisters recruits and trains dedicated volunteers to match with at-risk youth in the local community. Through careful background checks, training and regular match support, Big Brothers Big Sisters is working to ensure that every child who needs a caring adult role model has one—contributing to brighter futures, better schools and stronger communities for generations to come. For more information about Big Brothers and Sisters, go to http://www.bbbs-nw.org/

Boys & Girls Club of Bellingham

ONE DAY PROJECT

Saturday April 10, 2010 was the fifth annual celebration of service for Kiwanis International. Yearly, we Kiwanians worldwide attempt to supply ONE MILLION hours of service to the Children of the World. In Bellingham, Washington, the Kiwanis Noon Club assisted the Boys & Girls Club of Bellingham (B&G) with the kinds of chores you just can't get done with a hundred kids at your ankles.

Chores accomplished in long Saturday of hard work by 37 participants included washing and dusting 75 cubicles, washing 200 chairs, cleaning 60 tables, painting three walls in two technology and reading rooms, unrolling, vacuuming, transporting, and laying down 10,000 square feet of carpeting, replacing burned out light bulbs, and tightening hundreds of wall plates, fixtures, hangers and hinge screws throughout the Clubhouse. For continued fun, other inside workers sharpened a nearly a million pencils, organized and culled out another half million colored pens, and watered all the indoor plants to the point of soil soaking, while the outside crew pressure washed the front sidewalks and a couple of passenger vans, raked and flattened the parking lot that had seen a few too many midnight doughnuts in the gravel. Some of the workers were allowed to work with sharp tools and literally attacked the cat tails in the settling pond behind the building, weeded and raked the "Dirty Onion" kid's garden behind the building, and made the side garden pretty where pumpkins and squash of all sorts will be grown by kids at the club.

As we all know, kids can wear out and overuse anything, given enough time. This included the pool cues with literally no leather left on the tips and two industrial sized restrooms that needed a "little refreshing." One worker got a taste of the dark side while cleaning the Club-sized barbecue table. Several others spent much of the day on their hands and knees weeding, trimming, and raking all the flower beds and parking lot islands surrounding the BIG clubhouse. One young helper reorganized all the quiet games and books in the reading room. Now it looks like a library again!

Kiwanians from the Bellingham Club (with their families and special friends) who participated in the event, or helped to organize the project in advance are Janet "Kitchen captain" Armstrong and her husband Gary, Barbara Audley and her husband "Two-Rolls" Bill Audley , Alyson Batchelder-Bestle, James Carney with his wife Laura and daughter Emily, Emily Citron, Hans Erchinger-Davis, Ralph Gardner, Vaughn "Speed Lunch" Hagen, Layne Johnson, Bruce Jorgensen with wife Shelley and sister Edie, Bob Olson, Mike "Pencil captain" Onorato, Chelsea Roy with her special friend Anthony Wells, Rhonda Schaffer, Marty Stauffer, Greg Wegrich, Larry "Paint captain" West, Russel Weston, and Mike Yeend.

Kiwanians from other clubs included Bill Audley, Dan Marantette, and Marie Marantette of the Kiwanis Club of Lake Whatcom. Circle KI members (WWU college young men and women) are affectionately known as the "YES Bunch" (Young, Energetic, and Strong), due to their great volunteering nature and their outstanding willingness to get involved. These six gave outstanding effort, only broke one shovel, included Erin Durch, Miranda Esles, James Etherington, Paige Mackintosh, Bobby Sterling, and Chris Woo. Many thanks to these great young people who understand the blessings of giving service to others in need.

Our special thanks go out to several people who are not directly affiliated with Kiwanis Club International, but have the heart, joy, and spirit to help others for the sheer fun of doing well for Goods sake. These kind-hearted people include Lisa McCoy and her best friend Bill Davis, and massage therapist Suzanne Steiner. Lisa and Bill did the painting in the Blue room, and Suzanne worked all day on the two industrial sized bathrooms. Thanks for taking on the really tough jobs! Also, thanks for the two Boys & Girls Club volunteers who came in to help for a while.

All in all, 37 people took time out of their busy weekend schedules to help with this project. In just one day, 219 hours of service were given to brighten the lives of children in Whatcom County. That is about six hours of hard work per helper for the good of someone else. Imagine what we could do if everyone got involved!

The Great Mushroom Project

Service Fundraiser

Ralph reported that we made $5035, ($3200 net). He said that he was pleased that we sold out. We sold well over 1000 bags. He thanked Mike Y., Joan D., Rhonda S., Nancy L-K, Vaughn H. He mentioned that Greg W. had done very well with pre-sales. He continued to thank Anita J. and Andy J. who worked for 6 hours, Bob G., who also worked for 6 hours, John H. and Lyla T who worked 7 hours, and Bruce and Nancy who worked untold long hours. Ralph highlighted Danielle's excellent planning job and mentioned that he enjoyed working with her. The group gave Danielle a standing ovation for her efforts.

Nancy had an (un)happy dollar. She reported that her feet got so cold during the compost project that they did not warm up until Saturday night. She said that they had been really busy with 5, 6, or 7 cars lined up at a time. She also reported that the buyers showed up half an hour early before they were really ready to sell.

Lyla commented that her feet did not warm up until Sunday to which Anita answered "If you were shoveling your feet did not get cold." It was also noted that Greg's contribution to the project was to drive up, take a few pictures and then drive away.

John W. commented that Ralph looked like a true farmer in his overalls and boots. John went on to say that he would not be able to go to the golf tournament tomorrow and asked if someone could take his place.

Jim had a dollar to say that he dropped by the compost sale before heading out of town to see his son play the marimba. He also mentioned visiting his second cousins.

Russ gave dollar because he had "fine" equipment available at the compost sale. "It didn't break down until we were done!" He said that he was also happy that Nancy was tall enough to hold up a canopy until they were done setting it up. (Being short does have its benefits).

Bruce gave a dollar because Danielle embarrassed him with her strength, "She was throwing that bag over my head" he said that he had also seen a variety of bag handling styles, some more effective than others. Dick gave a dollar to ask if the compost sale had actually been a fundraiser for Bruce's business. Bruce asked "See how well it works when it's fixed right?" (So, I guess it was.)

Bruce reminded us that we needed to thank Joyce Gardner and Danielle's mother. We also had the help of 11 Sehome High Students and as a thank you; we will be donating money to their "Bring joy to a child program". Finally Jan gave another $2 to thank Russ for delivering her compost to her.

Bellingham Pocket Park May Cleanup

May 15, 2010

Members of the Bellingham Kiwanis and Key Club members did spring cleaning, weeding and mulching at our Kiwanis Park located behind City Hall. See complete Photo Gallery

Bellingham Kiwanis Scholarships

July 20th: Bob Macisaac introduced the remaining two scholarship winners and their families. Jessica Cross with her parents, Robert and Maria Cross, live in Blaine. She plans to attend Western Washington University specializing in education. Kellie Fluit, with her mother, Amy Fluit. She graduated from Lynden High and will attend Wenatchee J.C. Plans to play basketball while furthering her education. They were presented their awards and scholarship funds along with an ovationfrom our group.

Last Years Projects

2008-2009 ANNUAL REPORT

Two Baby Food drives were held at the local Haggen Food Stores in Bellingham. 452 lbs of baby food and $796 in cash was collected and given to the Bellingham Food Bank.(Young Children: Priority One project) (YC: PO)....................[READ MORE]