Charlottesville Kiwanis Paints Picket Fence for Youth Services Agency

by Jim Hart

Continuing a cooperative arrangement that has lasted nearly 90 years between the Kiwanis Club of Charlottesville and the stellar agency now called Children, Youth & Family Services, Inc, (CYFS), two dozen Kiwanians came out for their Fourth Monday service work night on May 23 to put paint on a picket fence that surrounds a large playground at the agency's new headquarters in downtown Charlottesville. Founded in 1921 as the Children's Home, CYFS continues as a leader in addressing the issues of poverty, child abuse and neglect, parenting, child care quality, teen runaways, and early learning. Last year, more than 4,000 children benefited from the services CYFS provides. According to the archives of the history of the Charlottesville Kiwanis Club, which was founded in 1922, the residents of the Children's Home back in the 1920s enjoyed Christmas parties organized by the Kiwanis Club and very often was the beneficiary of fund-raising projects conducted by those early Charlottesville Kiwanians. In recent years, two of the annual Kiwanis Dogwood Pancake Breakfasts were dedicated to the support of CYFS. The Kiwanis Club will return to CYFS for its Fourth Monday service work night in June to put a second coat on the fence and finish the project.

Pictured is Kiwanis board member Joyce Lesich admiring her work and the work of her colleagues such as Past President Don Foss (at left).

A troika of Kiwanians, from left Dr. Jim Masloff, Service Work Night Coordinator Charlie Krizek, and Bill Hall, reenact a scene from Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.