The official publication of the empire division Volume 1. Issue 2. July 2012

Happy Summer Empire! I hope everyone’s having a great summer break so far and that you’ve been making the most of it whether you’re working, taking classes or simply catching up with old friends. Fortunately, I am not taking any summer classes this summer but I am definitely making the most of my time by attending as many service projects as I can. This includes my “why sleep when you can serve,” challenge that included 30 hours of service with no sleep. I also attended Circle K International’s Large Scaled Service Project and International Convention in New Orleans and it was such an amazing experience. It’s hard to believe how incredible and surreal the week was. I will further discuss this on page 11. I encourage everyone to start saving now for next year when we travel to

Vancouver! Moving forward, I have a lot to discuss via this newsletter so I hope you

enjoy and if you have any further questions, feel free to contact me about them!

Welcome 1 K-Family Relations 6 Meet your presidents 2 NYCKI Salutes Our Soldiers 7 Service Spotlight 3 Divisional Project 8 Club Reactivation 4 The Kiwanis World 9 Service Hours 5 ICON Reflection 10 Announcements 11

Service 1

Major: Communication disorders

Minor: Anthropology & Sociology

Hobbies: Guitar, drawing, video games

E-mail: pierrepierre.cki@gmail.com

Queens College: Daniel Pierre-Pierre

Vaughn College: Jennifer Truong Major: Aircraft Operations Hobbies: Art, flying E-mail: jennifer.truong@vaughn.edu

Leadership 2

My mission for this service year is not so much having the club grow, but rather to maintain its significance. We all want to see our clubs grow, but what good is that if we can’t retain the growth we have made already? To achieve that goal, I will need the aid of my E-Board as well as all the members. I have been a member, a treasurer and now I see Circle K in a whole new light as president. This will be a challenging year because we’ve all dared to challenge ourselves by going beyond what we have accomplished in the 2011-2012 service year. I truly believe that we all are capable of exceeding our past accomplishments and making this year even greater than the last. However, that can only happen if we all put as much effort as we possibly can to see this happen. So, as president of QCCKI, as a NYCKI Circle K’er and as a member of CKI, let us persevere and breakthrough to greater heights. One last thing: regardless of how much service you actually accomplish, don’t let anyone tell you it’s not enough. If you can give your time to those who need it and it helps the club grow, then you’re doing what a Circle K’er should be doing. It’s not so much about the time & effort itself, but how much of yourself you put into the time and effort. This is the 2012-2013 service year; let’s make this year one to remember. Thank you.

Hi my name is Jennifer Truong. I am currently attending

Vaughn College of aeronautical science and technology

(I am part of the 10% of females there). I’m majoring in

aircraft operations and getting my certificate in air traffic

control. Flying has always been a passion of mine as well

as helping others. I joined Circle K because I enjoy doing

work in the community. My goal is to make the club more

known in my school’s community as well as more projects.

Vaughn College Circle K and I are excited for this year!

1

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for a Service Spotlight!!!!! This is one of those recognition moments in which we at CKI give a heartfelt review of a certain event. I want to put the shine on the event known as RELAY FOR LIFE!!!! A lot of us at QCCKI have constantly attended these events but we never gave any real credit to it, so here goes. The Relay for Life events are commemorations/social gatherings of many people who are all brought together for one cause: the fight to end cancer. Cancer has been a big topic nowadays because of how many lives it has taken as well all the people who have lost their loved ones to it. Sponsored by the American Cancer Society, Relay for Life bring strangers together in an effort to say NO to cancer and to applaud the efforts of those fighting it. From the survivors who have won their fight against cancer to those who we hope and pray never get inflicted by it, we all come together as a tribute to those who did not survive and continue to raise funds as a means to find a way to rid our people of cancer. It is a long and difficult battle because this disease can inflict anyone and not everyone is as lucky as others. We of CKI are fighters and advocators for a lot of causes because in one way or another, they all hit us hard in our hearts especially when someone amongst has personally experienced it. This is just one of the many reasons Circle K gets out for the community; and it motivates our Circle K’ers to get more involved. The Relays for Life are both fun and memorable and this is why they have earned the Service Spotlight. Daniel Pierre-Pierre QCCKI president

3 Fellowship

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QCCKI took part in FIVE different Relay for Life events since April 26th when they kicked off “Relay season” at Queens College

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Service 4

Queens College

As many of you may know, the Empire division is comprised of all clubs within the boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens. As of the report from the 2011-2012 service year, this means that as a division, we have Queens College and Vaughn College. If you go back into the history of this division, you will find that St. John’s and Brooklyn College were both active clubs. This year, my primary goal in terms of chartering and reactivation is to reactivate the Circle K club at St. John’s and possibly even at Brooklyn College. However, St. John’s University is my first target because it is where I have my contacts necessary to reactivate a club and build a strong foundation. So far, I have I have spoken to about five different people who all seem very eager to do what it takes to reactivate St. John’s CKI and to build it just like Queens College CKI was built for the 2011-2012 service year. Two of these people are incoming freshman who just graduated from Bayside High School and were very active and dedicated to Key Club; thus, they understand all that the work they put into reactivating this club will all be worth it because they will be able to experience a new branch of the K-Family as they enter this new chapter of their lives. Their sponsoring Kiwanis club, Maspeth, is very eager to support St. John’s CKI with any needs. We are also working closely with the club building chair, Dylan Gross and utilizing the resources he has. If you know anyone going to/currently enrolled at St. John’s University, contact me so that we can get he/she involved or have them contact me directly! Let’s reactivate St. John’s Circle K together!

5 Leadership

This is just your friendly reminder that all Monthly Report Forms

(MRF’s) are due the 7th of each month!

The form I am referring to should have been sent out to you at the beginning of the service

year and it should look like the images on the bottom of the page.

This is a way of keeping track of all the amazing service that your club’s complete.

We want to know about each beautification project, every card-making event, all the

food drives, the fundraisers, the walks you support, the hours you spend enriching the

minds of young children as well as all the other great service projects you do!

Points of clarification:

• All MRF’s are due each month regardless on whether or not service was completed,

along with that, fill out the form to the best of your ability.

• Although you may not have done service, you may have had a meeting to plan,

put this is “additional comments.” If you need any assistance, put this in additional

comments as well.

• If you spoke to a district board member, fill the green section out!

• Each MRF should be sent to District Secretary Kathryn Graves, District Governor

Corey Oses, District Administrator Johnny K and your Lieutenant Governor (myself,

Kelly Chan). All e-mails are on the MRF.

• We love pictures so if your club took pictures during an event, send them with the

MRF!

• Questions? Contact me or District Secretary Kat at Kathryn.graves@nycirclek.org

When joining Circle K, you are not simply joining a club on campus, you are joining the Kiwanis Family. You enter a world where there are groups of individuals all over the world that share the same core values and visions that you and your club does. Regardless of age or ability, members of the K-Family are striving to make a difference as they serve their home, school and community. While serving, members are reaching their full potential as leaders and are building fellowship. Members learn that each member of the K-Family has something new to share and each member can serve as a valuable resource that can benefit many others, including themselves. A K-Kid can teach you more than you think! Don’t be afraid to reach out to your Kiwanis clubs for support; if you want them to attend your meetings and events, invite them. If you need financial support, ask for it. Kiwanis sees us as “the future” and they are always more than happy to help us out. When you complete a service project where at least 2 of your members are present with at least 2 members of another branch of the K-Family, record that as a “K-Family” event in your MRF! (Example: 2+ from Queens College, 2+ from Glendale Kiwanis)

Fellowship 6

This means building relationships between K-Kids, Builders Club,

Key Club, Aktion Club and Kiwanis International

Queens College has done a project called “Coups for

Troops” where they cut, sort and send out coupons to

families in need. These are families who are now

financially unstable because their provider’s are serving

our nation. We all know that every last cent or dollar can

make a huge difference. Therefore, let’s cut coupons, it’s

simple!

7 Service

Last newsletter, we discussed that for the 2012-2013 service year, the district board, the Who-Board, voted on having two district projects. The first one, NY District K-Family Foundations, was discussed in the first newsletter, now let’s discuss the second!

NYCKI Salutes Our Soldiers is our efforts to

support the troops that are fighting for our

country. This goes for soldiers at war now as

well as veterans.

There are plenty of organizations that you can work with to support this project, here are two great places to start. If you look on these websites, you will see that sending care packages is a big thing so why not have a collection at your school to help put together these care packages? Soldiers Angels Volunteer, non-profit organization providing aid and comfort to men and women of the U.S. Army, Marines, navy, Air Force, Coast Guard http://soldiersangels.org/ Operation Gratitude With a mission to “lift morale, bring a smile to a service member’s face and express to our Armed Forces the appreciation and support of the American people,” Operation Gratitude sends 100,00 care packages annually. These are filled with a bunch of things that you can help supply! http://www.operationgratitude.com (Scroll down to the bottom of the home page, click “Get Involved,” you will find a plethora of in-house service projects that you can do with your club that can be fun and productive!)

What is the Kiwanis Pediatric Lyme Disease (KPLD) foundation? During the 2000-2001 service year, the Kiwanis NY District Governor, John Gridley sought out to make a difference by starting a foundation that would help children who are affected by the terrible disease known as Lyme Disease. Lyme Disease is caused by bacteria that is usually transmitted by deer tick. We mentioned at the divisional meeting that deer tick and is a lot more common than we may think. Just last weekend I was out on Shelter Island and I was warned that were ticks in the area and I had to wear bug stray all weekend to keep the ticks away. It’s scary to know how easy it is to have this transmitted to us, especially during the summer when we prefer to be outside and adventurous. This disease may affect the brain and cause a disturbance in thinking. It can also cause patients to experience flu-like symptoms such as headaches, muscle soreness and fever. It can also cause mood swings, irritability, depression and various other symptoms, depending on the individual.   A “bullseye” looking rash is common upon being infected by ticks. This is the classic sign of early local infection of Lyme Disease. Those who are treated early with antibiotics do not incur long-term problems but those who aren’t may have a more complicated outcome. All the funds that are raised for the foundation go to helping pay for medical treatment for children with this disease. Unfortunately, treatment is very expensive and more insurance companies do not cover it. Funds will also be going to raising awareness of how to recognize ticks, how to remove them and how to prevent Lyme Disease.

Leadership 8

I am pleased to announce that at our July divisional, the Empire division unanimously voted to make the Kiwanis Pediatric Lyme Disease foundation its divisional project. This means that any funds that are raised through division events or meetings will go towards KPLD. At our July divisional, we raised $16.32 through “happy change” so congratulate yourselves on that!

Kiwanis clubs do so much for our communities in addition to supporting us CKI members and the other branches of the K-Family. Below is an article from one of my LTG counter-parts:

Greetings Circle K’rs. I am Michael Terry and I’m the current Lt. Governor for the Queens West Division of Kiwanis. The New York District of Kiwanis has 28 Divisions and, as you probably know, we now boast the International President of Kiwanis, Tom DeJulio, the President of the Kiwanis International Foundation, Peter Mancuso, and, now, proudly the International President of Circle K, Josephine Lukito. Congratulations Jo. Queens West currently has the following clubs: Astoria – Long Island City, Corona – East Elmhurst, Forest Hills, Glendale, Howard Beach, Jackson Heights, LaGuardia Airport, Lefferts/Liberty, Maspeth (my home club), Ozone Park, Queens Boulevard, and Richmond Hills/Woodhaven. Of course, any of these clubs would welcome a visit from any Circle K member. You can find out information about when we meet and where by going to www.queenswestkiwanis.org. We’re not sophisticated enough to do Facebook yet, but if any of you would like to volunteer . . . I am also trying to get a Young Professionals and/or Internet Club started for Queens, so for those of you who are graduating soon and planning on staying on in the Queens area, this might be a perfect opportunity for you. I need help, so if you have friends who have already graduated and want to be part of Kiwanis, but don’t necessarily want to be bound into one area, a Young Professionals Club could be just the ticket for networking, fun and service. Now, after that short promotional moment, back to our show. The clubs of Queens West Kiwanis, besides sponsoring 11 Key Clubs, 7 Builders Clubs, two Aktion Clubs and one K Kids clubs, participate in a variety of service projects. You probably know about LaGuardia Airport Club’s annual Airport Day every September where thousands of elementary and middle school age kids come to the airport for plane tours, exhibitions, free hot dogs and an air show. Always a big hit. Corona/East Elmhurst is involved in the soap box derby every year. Glendale and Maspeth get involved in a Harvest Fair at the Onderdonk house each year. Glendale, Howard Beach, Woodside, and Jackson Heights run Halloween parades every year and Woodside even has an Easter Bunny (not at Halloween of course, don’t be silly). Many of the clubs also run street fairs once or twice a year and the Maspeth Club always builds a float, and with our two Key Clubs Maspeth and Martin Luther, we hand out over 1500 American Flags at the Maspeth Memorial Day Parade each year. And, of course, we do fundraisers and write checks. We send lots of kids to Kamp Kiwanis. We support the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Center and buy Pediatric Trauma Kits for ambulances around the area. The clubs of Maspeth, Glendale, Astoria, Woodside, and Richmond Hill/Woodhaven all have college scholarship programs. And, of course, we raise money for The Eliminate Project. I could go on and on (some people say I do already), but I think you get the picture. Of course, we love having you guys help us and we love to help you. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at mterry@mtpadvisors.com or come to one of our Divisional Meetings (normally the third Monday of every month except August – however, this September, we will be meeting on September 10th because of the Jewish Holiday of Rosh Hashanah). My term will be up on October first, and my successor is Verdia Noel who can be reached at verdianoel@verizon.net and I know that Verdia will also welcome your help and input. I still be around though and I hope to work closely with Lt. Governor Kelly in revitalizing the St. John’s CKI and forming new Circle K’s throughout the area. Thanks for all you do.

“Empire” is the counter-part to the Brooklyn, Queens East and Queens West Kiwanis divisions!

 

9 Fellowship

The week of June 23rd – July 1st 2012 was absolutely too amazing for words. During this week, I traveled to New

Orleans, LA for the 12th Annual Large Scaled Service Project (LSSP) and the 57th Annual International Convention

(ICON). The 1st day I got there was “pre-con” where a few of us arrived a day early to explore the “Big Easy” city of

New Orleans. On this day we saw a real transformer, a banana tree, attended a PRIDE festival, climbed the rocks

along the Mississippi River, ate some great food and walked around Bourbon Street. The streets day and night

looked so authentic and when looking at the city, you know there was so much history behind it. This was our

biggest “tourist” day where we walked into a bunch of gift shops, talked to locals and wandered aimlessly. The

people were so nice; it’s nice getting out of NYC sometimes!

Once LSSP started, all the attendee’s got broken into teams and bonded with their teams. I got really lucky

because I was in the best team, I’m pretty sure we spent more time with each other than any other team. For 2.5

days, we traveled via school bus to different service projects. My team went to the NOLA Botanical Gardens and

did garden work (weeding, mulching), worked on a home that’s still affected by Hurricane Katrina, worked on a

Habitat for Humanity House and did some organization and painting at The Green Project site. Oh did I mention,

this was all outdoors in the 100° weather that NOLA granted us with? Water because our best friends. At night we

played a number of active team building activities, which included skin the snake, and human knot! We also

made buttons that were sold at “Dance to Eliminate” and learned a flash mob dance

Routine that we did at the Kiwanis opening session as well in the streets of NOLA to raise

money and awareness for The Eliminate Project. In addition to all this, we also did a

walk for The Eliminate Project on Thursday morning during ICON where Kiwanis and CKI

members walked togethe. In case you didn’t know already, this year, CKI had it’s ICON

in conjunction with Kiwanis ICON so a lot of the things we did, we did together so we

got to build those K-Family relations in NOLA! I even got to see Kiwanis members from

my sponsoring club. One night almost all NYCKI members attended a dinner where

almost all the Kiwanis members from NY were in attendance and it was cool to see

how Kiwanis does things! This dinner was actually one of my favorite’s in NOLA. This

took place right after our IP-Governor, Josephine Lukito was elected Circle K

International President! She was announced at this dinner at the same time the new

Kiwanis-IP was announced- he’s from NY also! Well, there are

the political happenings of ICON!

Finally, here’s my overall message: I met so many people

who were strangers just about two weeks ago and some of

them are now some of my closest friends. My love for

service and for CKI is at it’s all-time high right now and

LSSP/ICON inspired me to do even more. I’m been to

many conventions during my 5 years in the K-Family but

this is definitely somewhere at the top of my list.

Service 10

As Mike Terry mentioned, the Queens West Kiwanis division does an incredible job fundraising to send kids to Kamp Kiwanis each year. It costs $550 to send a kid to kamp and the following clubs sent at least 1 kid: Astoria, Corona-East Elmhurst, Glendale, Howard Beach, LaGuardia Airport (24!), Lefferts-Liberty, Maspeth (12), Queens Blvd, Sunnyside, Woodside In total, Queens West sent about 55 kids and made a difference in these young lives. Also, special congratulations to Queens College CKI for achieving their goal to send a kid to kamp! For information on Kamp Kiwanis: http://www.kiwanis-ny.org/kamp/

11 Leadership

Upcoming events: July 19th – Food Pantry Packing – 21-14 Mermaid Ave, Brooklyn (by Coney Island) – 9:00AM-2:00PM July 21st – Long Island Southwest Kiwanis Family Picnic – Grant Park, Hewlett, NY – 12:00PM-3:00PM July 22nd – Chinese-American Planning Council Walkathon & Family Day – Columbus Park – 9:00AM July 24th – Jackson Pond Playground Rebuild – Myrtle Ave. & Park Lane South – 11:00AM-3:00PM July 26th – DeVoy Playground Rebuild – Union Turnpike & 71st Ave. – 11:00AM-3:00PM July 28th – Annual Aktion Club IRI Picnic – Cunningham Park Picnic area – 10:00AM-3:00PM July 29th – Flower Gardening at Sherman Creek- Dyckman Street & 10th Ave – 1:00PM-3:30PM July 30th – August 4th – Leadership Academy, Morgantown, Indiana August 12th – Glendale Kiwanis Picnic – Onderdonk House, Ridgewood – Afternoon September 2nd – 2nd Annual K-Family Picnic – Cunningham Park – 12:00PM – 5:00PM September 15th – Kids Day! – LaGuardia Airport – 10:00AM (Vaughn, this is your annual event!) Did I miss something? Let me know!

 

Contact me: Call/Text: 718-757-5687 E-mail: Kelchan.cki@gmail.com or kelly.chan@nycirclek.org Facebook: http://facebook.com/kelchansayss Skype: pb_kelly Or feel free to use the divisional Facebook/e-mail information! E-mail: bqe.nycki@gmail.com Facebook: http://facebook.com/empire.nycki

“In a gentle way, you can shake the

world.” - Mahatma Ghandi