Kiwanis Cheese is on the Way

The weather put a crimp in our cheese delivery.  But the good news is the cheese is expected to be in Pekin today or tomorrow.  Look for deliveries of you order on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Kiwanis Cheese Sale Begins

The annual Kiwanis Club of Pekin Cheese sale is underway.  This is the clubs biggest fundraiser.

Club members are taking orders for several products, including gift boxes, 1-lb blocks of cheese, spreads, sausages, and mustard.  

You can place your order by contacting a member of the Pekin Kiwanis Club. Visit  http://pekinkiwanis.blogspot.com/p/club-members.html  to find a list of club members.

The order forms must be turned in by December 1st, so don't delay.

Grant Presentations on June 14th

The Kiwanis Club of Pekin will present grants to 9 different recipients at our June 14th lunch meeting.  The recipients will be at the meeting to talk about their organization and to accept their grant, which was awarded based on their applications.  The 9 recipients are:

• Childrens' Home
• Pekin Academy of Fine Arts
• Neighborhood House
• gitm Foundation
• Pekin Hospital Foundation
• Shade Memorial Youth Camp
• Camp Big Sky
• Pekin Community High School
• Key Club Scholarship

The Kiwanis Club of Pekin has focused their grants on organizations working in our area of focus.  Our 3-year mission is to "Help Improve the Wellness of Children."  Each year we have a different focus:

• Year 1 (2015):  Focus on children's physical health
• Year 2 (2016):  Focus on children's mental health
• Year 3 (2017):  Focus on maintaining wellness throughout the life of the child and building a healthy family environment.

Parkway Cleanup 5/31

Here is the link for the May 31st Parkway Cleanup. Please see the link for more details and to sign up. 

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E0C44A9AF29A3F58-parkway2 

Tri-County Citizen of the Year

The Peoria Downtown Kiwanis club is proud to announce the 53rd annual Tri-county Citizen of the Year award dinner

June 8, 2016

Time: Cocktails at 5:30pm, Dinner at 6:00 pm

Place: the  new Warehouse on State banquet facility (catered by Cracked Pepper) corner of Washington and State St. (plenty of parking in the back by WTVP)..entrance is on Washington St, next to Thyme restaurant.
736 Washington St.
Peoria, IL

Speaker:  Honorable Ray LaHood, former Secretary of Transportation and former US Representative from central Illinois
Price: $40 per person, $320 per table of eight
(Checks written out to Kiwanis)

Entree choices:
   1. Ale braised boneless short ribs
   2. Herb-crusted Whitefish
   3. Roasted Vegetable napolini w/fresh mozzarella (similar to veg. lasagna

Please contact Linda Thomas to reserve your tickets and entree choices by Wednesday, June 1, 2016.
Email: Lindathomas128@gmail.com
Phone or text: (309)360-6433
Address: 2611 W Windflower Ct.
                 Peoria, IL 61615

Peoria Chiefs Game

Tomorrow is the last day to sign up and pay for the Peoria Chiefs game on Thursday, June 2^nd. If you’re interested in attending, please sign-up online. We currently have 24 people going: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-peoria

Also, Marilyn has organized an inter-club on Wednesday, May 25^th at noon at the Golden Corral with the Peoria Downtown Club. We would like to get at least 3 more people to go with Marilyn.  Please send an email to Marilyn or Dan directly to sign-up.

Peoria Chiefs Game

We have a club social scheduled for Thursday, June 2!  We will attend the Peoria Chiefs game, which starts at 7:))pm.  The cost is just $5 for members and $16 for non members. The price includes a hot dog, chips and a soda. Kids 2 and under are free! It is Ninja Turtle night and there will be post-game fireworks!

This social will replace our May 31st meeting, (5th Tuesday) which is why the member prices are discounted.

To sign up to attend please go to visit: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-peoria

Several Volunteer Sign-up Opportunities

Aktion Club "helper" for future Aktion Club meetings. There are multiple slots open for all of the meetings from April through September of this year. If you are available and would like to see what it is all about go to: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-aktion

Grant Review Committee - With our second round of grants needing reviewed in May we would love to have some fresh eyes. The original members from this committee are still signed up but we have a couple of slots still open. We will decide on a meeting time sometime in May. To learn more go to: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-grant

Focus Group (temporary name) - this group is called back in order to review the changes that we have made over the past couple of years. The group will talk about what is going well and what maybe can be improved. We also will evaluate our 3 year goals which will come to a end at the conclusion of FY17.  So we will need to decide on  our next goals. We will decide on a meeting time sometime in May. To learn more go to: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-focus

Flower Planting - We are going to join with the Key Club in order to plant our garden! Go to: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E0C44A9AF29A3F58-flower 

Parkway Cleanup - A Kiwanis Club of Pekin tradition! To Sign up go to: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E0C44A9AF29A3F58-parkway1 

Bike Rodeo - more Details to follow, but to sign up to help go to: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E0C44A9AF29A3F58-bike 

Volunteers Needed

Camp Big Sky serves individuals with disabilities and their families by offering special needs individuals an opportunity to learn how to live independently while enjoying fishing, games, nature studies, cookouts, arts, crafts and camping.

The Kiwanis Club of Pekin began supporting the camp through our grant process this year. We would like to extend that by volunteering our time to the camp as well.

Our Kiwanis Division 20 set up a work day at the camp fpr April 23. There will be 2 different work groups. A morning group from 8 am to noon and and afternoon group from noon to 4. Lunch will be served to both groups at noon. They are looking for a WIDE variety of talents and skill levels. They will have many different projects. Anything from cleaning to construction. Please join us if you can. I imagine it will be a very fun and rewarding day!

You can use the sign up genius for our group:
www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-kiwanis

Hospital Mission Trip

Pekin Hospital is collecting items for their mission trip now through October. If you would like to donate, please see Sherry.  Here are the items they need for the children:

• Hair Bows/Clips
• Matchbox Cars
• Bags of Candy/Suckers (No chocolate or anything that will melt)
• School Supplies
• Combs
• Hairbrushes
• Small Stuffed Animals
• Other
• Infant Vitamins
• Powdered Formula

Ken Graman

A good friend and member of our Kiwanis family passed away over the weekend. Ken Garman has been a member of the Kiwanis Club of Pekin since 2005. Ken was always good for a smile and great conversation. He also embodied what it meant to be a Kiwanian. He served the children of our community (and the world) through several of our projects and was always available and willing to help out with our current initiatives. He will be dearly missed by many! 

You can see this video that features Ken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekH0gXIPCk4

Obituary:  http://www.preston-hanley.com/obits/details.cfm?pageID=8&obitID=4812 

Busy meeting today!

Before our committee meetings start today, we will induct 5 new members into our club:  Char Richardson, Lenora Fisher, Linda Ledger, Michelle Teheux and Shannon Tebben-Sandoval.  Our monthly board meeting will be held right after the committee meetings.

Upcoming Events

•  Wednesday, 3/9  – Interclub with Pekin Sunset Kiwanis Club at Mashies. Please See Patty if you are interested in joining her at the 6:00 pm meeting.
• Tuesday, 3/15 - Pat Graf & Sue Ranney will present a talk on their adventures walking across Northern England from St Bees Head on the Irish Sea to Robinhoods Bay on the North Sea- approximately 200 miles+/-; Brett Bode, K of the Day
• Friday, 3/18 - New member orientation - learn about Kiwanis (local and International). New members encouraged to join us and all members welcome.  11:30 am at Kouri's.
• Saturday, 3/19 – Kiwanis Family Easter Egg Hunt – Invitation only! We incited Sunset and Pekin Rotary to join us
• Saturday, 3/19 - Parkway Cleanup 
• Tuesday, 3/22 - Refugee Crisis, Bradley University Professor William Toel; Jeff Brooks, K of the Day; Leigh Ann Brown, Greeter
• Wednesday, 3/23 - BUG Breakfast
• Tuesday, 3/29 – No meeting!

We have a few sign ups that are available for volunteering opportunities. The links are below. You will find more detailed descriptions on the individual pages.

Committee Sign up: www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-committee

BUG Breakfast: www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-bring

Parkway Cleanup: www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-parkway

Grant Review Committee: www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-grant

Aktion Club Helper: www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c44a9af29a3f58-aktion

New Volunteer Opportunities

We have two new volunteer opportunities. Each link has a description of the event and also the member that is managing the event. Let me know if you have any questions!

To sign up for Parkway Cleanup on March 19 go to: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E0C44A9AF29A3F58-parkway

To sign up to help at the BUG Breakfast (Wilson and Washington schools) on March 23 go to: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E0C44A9AF29A3F58-bring

February 9th Meeting Made the News!

Check out the media coverage of our February 9th meeting on WEEK's website.

Special Meeting on February 9th

One of the club's most rewarding weekly lunch meetings of the year will be held on February 9th, beginning at 11:45am at the Pekin Country Club.   Throughout the year the club raised money by selling cheese over the holidays, kettle corn at the Marigold Festival, giving a dollar here and there for good news at meetings, attending events like the Patsy Cline Tribute Concert and  more.

For the past couple of years the club has slightly increased the amount of money raised each year. Every penny of this money is given to various charities and groups who align themselves with the mission of Kiwanis International (To Serve the Children of the World) and more specifically the focus of the Kiwanis Club of Pekin which is “Improving the health of children by improving or promoting their mental health.”

The charities are able to apply for grants each year and request money that goes toward a specific program or area of their business that reflects our yearly focus.  In the 2016 Kiwanis year the club will give $13,000 to local charities.

February 9 is the first part of these payments.  The club has invited agency representatives from 8 different charities to the meeting to receive their checks.  Each agency will also be given an opportunity to speak for a few minutes ho how their grants are being applied and why this is important to the overall mental health of children.

The luncheon is open to the public.  Cost of the lunch to non-members is $10.

Division 20 Club Director

Here's a link to the Division 20 Club Director for 2015-16

http://www.pekinchamber.com/2016/Div20ClubDirectory2015-16.pdf

Bowl-a-thon

The 2016 Bowl-a-Thon for Spastic Research will be Saturday February 20, 2016 at 8:00 A.M. at Bass Pro Shop. There are signup sheets available for team sign ups. Please ask Susan if you would like one. It's a great way to teach your children the value of helping others.