Happy New Year!

Welcome 2011! I hope all of you had a restful break and are revived for the new year. The beginning of a year often brings reflection of the past and planning for the future. In reflecting on this past year in Kiwanis, I am filled with pride and honor to be a part of such an amazing club. Not only did we meet our Two Tons of Tuna goal, but we surpassed it by over 1000 pounds. We also recognized 37 Teachers of the month, 642 Terrific, and held a very successful Breakfast with Santa event. These successes lay on the shoulders of the club members, community members, local businesses, and students. We have spent countless hours serving our community, and I look forward to the countless other ways we will continue to serve. As I look forward to the three quarters that we have left in the Kiwanis year, I am excited to see the great things that are yet to come. We will continue to support our 18 Service Leadership Clubs, including the East River High Key Club that will officially be chartered soon – woohoo! We are now gearing up for our first ever 5K run/walk! Because of the hard work of our Public Relations Chair, Stacy Peterson, and her team, we have been highlighted in many of the local newspapers, magazines, and online publications. Keep your eyes open for where we will be next! It’s going to be a great year!

Second Harvest Receives Two Tons o' Tuna

Central Florida families will be ringing in the New Year with plenty of tuna salad sandwiches. Due to the overwhelming success of the “Ton o’ Tuna” challenge in 2009, the Kiwanis Club of East Orange County accepted a heftier goal of collecting TWO TONS of tuna by the end of 2010. With the assistance of numerous Key Clubs, Builders Clubs, K-Kids Clubs, Circle K International, other Kiwanis clubs, and numerous other community groups, the Kiwanis organization presented the local food bank with a grand total of over 4,000 pounds of tuna.

Here’s the math: 1 can of tuna is 6 ounces. One ton is 2,000 pounds, or 32,000 ounces. A “ton o’ tuna” is therefore 5,333 cans, and two tons of tuna is 10,666 cans of tuna.

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, through its five hundred participating agencies, provides food to about 60,000 people each week. With demand increasing daily, the food bank has never had less food on the shelves. The most pressing need, in short, is for more food. And among the non-perishable food items that Second Harvest distributes, none is more in demand among families in need than canned tuna – versatile, nutritious, and delicious.

Members of the community responded to the need for tuna again in 2010. East Orange County Schools from the Kiwanis club’s sponsored service leadership programs (Key Club, Builders Club, K-Kids, and Circle K) donated about 1,000 pounds collectively. Sunrise Elementary K-Kids and UCF Federal Credit Union topped the charts by each contributing just over 400 pounds of tuna. StarKist, one of the leading distributors of seafood products in the United States, also donated several cases of tuna. Due to a generous monetary contribution from the Kiwanis Club of Orlando of the equivalent of 1,500 pounds of tuna, the two-ton goal was achieved in December 2010.

Thank you to everyone who made a tuna donation!

Please contact our club if you are interested in serving the Central Florida community with us, or if you have suggestions for making next year’s tuna drive even more successful.

13th Annual "Breakfast with Santa" in Photos

Head on over to the EOC Kiwanis Flickr site to view photos from our 13th Annual "Breakfast with Santa" fundraiser and holiday celebration on Saturday, Dec. 4th.

Stay tuned for a blog posting with all of the details on this incredibly fun and successful event!

EOC Kiwanis and UCF CKI Team Up to Fight Hunger

The EOC Kiwanis club teamed up with our UCF CKI brethren to fight hunger at the Second Harvest Food Bank (1918 W. Princeton St, Orlando, FL) on Saturday, November 20th. Second Harvest is a private, nonprofit organization that collects and distributes donated food to more than 600 nonprofit partner agencies in six Central Florida counties. These organizations serve over 700,000 people (20% of the Central Florida population) each year, and Second Harvest relies on donorship from local food retailers and volunteer efforts to accomplish their mission.

The EOC Kiwanians and UCF CKI'ers responded to Second Harvest's call for volunteers on Saturday, November 20th, 2010. After watching a moving video about the children and families who Second Harvest serves, we migrated to the warehouse for a tutorial on how the food is to be sorted. Believe it or not, there are a lot of rules (and exceptions to the rules!) which need to be followed when sorting the food that is donated by local food retailers such as Publix, Winn Dixie, and Walgreens. We then dove into the hundreds of unsorted boxes... Three hours later, over 15 pallets containing 36 boxes each were ready for distribution to the community - not to mention to 95 lbs of tuna which we donated for our "Two Tons o' Tuna" drive!

A big thanks goes to our volunteers for the day: Gene, Yoli, Wanda, Jared, Brent, Jeremy A., Jason, Stephanie, Paige, and four members of UCF CKI! Volunteering at the Second Harvest Food Bank is one of the best and most productive service opportunities in Central Florida. I highly recommend you spend a day with them serving the local community and learning about Second Harvest's operations. It's safe to say that we'll all be a little more thankful this year as we celebrate Thanksgiving!

EOC Kiwanis Turns Students Into Student-Leaders

Developing young leaders is at the core of what we do in Kiwanis.  On Saturday, Nov. 6th, the Kiwanis Club of East Orange County held its annual Service Leadership Club (SLC) Officer Training to do just that.

Many of the Presidents, Vice Presidents, Secretaries, Treasurers, and other Officers representing K-Kids, Builders Clubs, and Key Clubs from across Orange County gathered together to learn what it means to be leaders in their community.  EOC Kiwanis President Prairy Riehl started things off with a fun icebreaker, which involved (believe it or not) a combination of memorization and dance moves.  EOC Kiwanis member Sean Osmond then educated the SLC Officers on "The 11 Principles of Leadership", derived from US Marine Corps Officer Training.  This valuable information laid the foundation for the remainder of the afternoon.

The group was divided into smaller groups by role to discuss their individual responsibilities as Kiwanis SLC Officers.  The student-officers learned how to properly conduct their meetings and the value of having an agenda prepared prior to each meeting.  The small groups were then re-organized groups to discuss things such as committees, fundraising, meeting activities, awards and recognition, and our Kiwanis Worldwide Service Project.  The group learned from each other and shared ideas through lively discussion.  To round out the afternoon, each SLC Officer was given the opportunity to share one thing they learned and one thing that they will take back to their clubs and work on.

Giving back to the East Orange County community is what the EOC Kiwanis club is all about, and SLC Officer training has equipped these bright young minds with the knowledge and ideas needed to take their service to the EOC community to the next level.