Hampton Roads Region has "Best Mid-Winter Ever"!

by Amy Thorstad

The 6th Annual Hampton Roads Mid-Winter K-Family Reunion was held on February 12 at Old Dominion University. It was a frigid Saturday but that didn't stop 250 Kiwanians, including 60 SLP members, from coming out to enjoy a full day of fun, education and service.

Special guests included Kiwanis International Trustee, Dr. John Button and his wife Debbie; Capital District Governor, Tom Varner and his wife Lin; Capital District Gov-Elect, Jeffrey Wolfe and Immediate Past Capital District Governor, Don Dudey.

An array of training sessions was offered. The attendees really enjoyed the sessions on Club Growth, Revitalizing Your Club and Fundraising. A session called 'Kiwanis Game' was introduced this year and was a big hit! Divisions competed against each other in a variety of trivia questions, mostly focused on Kiwanis education.

(Above) This year's Mid-Winter featured a fantastic service project called Stop Hunger Now. Stop Hunger Now is an international hunger relief agency that provides nutritionally balanced, pre-packaged meals to people in poverty stricken countries throughout the world. These meals are primarily distributed through school lunch programs. The Planning Committee set up a lofty goal to raise $2500 and package 10,000 meals during the Mid-Winter Reunion. Kiwanis members watched a short video explaining the Stop Hunger Now program and then worked assembly line style to package the meals. K-Kids, Builder's Club members, Key Club members, Aktion Club members and Kiwanis Club members worked side by side for three hours to achieve our goal! The verbal and written feedback on the service project was tremendous! Comments like "Best activity I participated in at any conference! I actually felt like I'd done something worthwhile!" and "Loved the service project!" really showed what we love and do best, SERVICE!

Another service project, A Million Thanks was also offered for our SLP members. Over 100 cards were decorated that will be sent to soldiers serving our country oversees. The SLPs really enjoyed taking part in this service project and it was suggested that we continue to offer projects like this to encourage our SLPs to attend the Mid-Winter each year.

Eighty-seven evaluation surveys were collected and a whopping 90% of attendees felt that the conference was very useful to them. The Planning Committee was given a few suggestions on how to improve on the event but for the most part attendees agreed that this was the "Best Mid-Winter ever!"

Many thanks to all who helped! A special thanks to Pete Kundrant, Linda & Lankford Smith and Greg Davy for providing the pictures!