Charlottesville Kiwanis Christmas Tree Sales Underway

by Jim Hart

For the Seventy-Seventh year, the Kiwanis Club of Charlottesville is selling Christmas trees and hand-made wreaths to earn money to support club service projects mainly benefiting children and youth. Kiwanis sponsors 6 Key Clubs at local high schools, a CKI Club at UVA, a Central Little League team, and holds the annual Holiday Party for Persons with Disabilities at Worksource Enterprises.

(Right, K-Family members moments after having unloaded 400 trees on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving. Kiwanians Marc Bridenhagen, Gordon Merrick, and Herb Ely are joined by Key Clubbers from Albemarle and Monticello High Schools.)

"We are selling fresh cut fraser firs from nearby West Virginia, locally grown and fresh cut white pines, and wreaths beautifully hand-made and hand-decorated by local Kiwanians, Circle K (CKI) members, and Key Clubbers," said Don Foss, president of the volunteer service club which has been promoting the values of energetic community service and youth leadership development in Charlottesville for more than 87 years. All money raised at Kiwanis events is returned to the community in club service projects mainly benefiting children and youth. Last year, Charlottesville Kiwanians volunteered for more than 1,400 service hours and raised more than $25,000 which was distributed to a variety of local agencies mainly serving children and youth. "Add to that the fact that approximately 400 local high school and college youth are learning and practicing the values that are essential for improving this community and you get an idea of the impact Kiwanis and the K-Family produce in this community," Foss noted.