Kiwanis Club of Mount Vernon
by Bruce Malkin
On February 16, 11 members of the West Potomac High School's Kiwanis community service Key Club joined by 10 Key Clubbers from South County Secondary School co-sponsored a Valentine's Day dance at the Hollin Hall Senior Center on Shenandoah Road. A large number of seniors participated in the dancing, games, and dinner together with the teenagers. Music was supplied by the emcee, Mr. Zdebski, and a delicious barbecue dinner was catered by Famous Dave's.
The students organized every aspect of the event, including the decorations, the dance, the contest to "Pin the Heart on Cupid", and other fun activities. A senior King and Queen of the Dance were crowned by the students. Door prizes were awarded by Hollin Hall staff, Ms. Ellis and Mr. Maguire. A great time was enjoyed by old and young alike.
These two Key Clubs as well as those at Mount Vernon High and Hayfield Secondary are sponsored by the Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club. For more information on how you can help others in our areas, see www.mtvernonvakiwanis,org or send an e-mail to brucemalkin1@gmail.com.
Participants from South County Secondary School's Kiwanis Key Club. Pictured: Kaylyn Duda, Peter Ta, Zsharlene Jimeno, Cezar Bagonton, Shana Kim, Joyce Kwon, Elly Slugg, Jeffrey Cheng, Kelsey Cummings, Karina Aulakh, Judy Cummings, Megan Pitts and her son.
Students and seniors eat dinner together.
Contest Participants
Participants from West Potomac High School's Kiwanis Key Club. Pictured: President, Julie LaBelle, Evan Rajadhyaksha, Stephanie Fiedler, Treasurer, Laura Jacobs, Charlotte Hayes, Communications Officer, Karley Zdebski, Vice President, Kelsie Whalen, Secretary Hong Wang, Kristin McCready, Liz Bobo and Kharis Schrange
On February 7, the Kiwanis Circle K (or CKI) Club at the Alexandria campus of NOVA Community College spent most of their after-school meeting drafting letters and pictures to make children with very serious illnesses smile. This club is sponsored by the Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club (MVKC), and the MVKC Advisor for this club, Immediate Past President Bruce Malkin, was on hand both to participate in the discussion of the agenda and the service project as well as to introduce a new MVKC member, Greg Engelking, who recently retired and moved to the Mount Vernon area. Greg has a lot of experience with Key Clubs and CKI Clubs from his own family's history and his work with Kiwanis in Ohio. Bruce found the project very difficult, as he tried to imagine what would make him smile if he knew he suffered from a life-threatening illness, but he was able to write something positive to each of the two children the CKI Club had identified to receive the letters. At the end, the Club members (and Bruce) posed with home-made red crab hats in honor of the school's mascot. For more information on the MVKC and how you can help others this year, see www.mtvernonvakiwanis.org, or send a messsage to brucemalkin1@gmail.com
CKI members and MVKC's Malkin pose with red crab mascot hats
CKI members at work on their service project.
CKI members draft letters to make sick chidren smile.
On February 2 at the Mount Vernon Country Club, the Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club (MVKC) was very pleased to welcome the entry of Greg Engelking, a 28 year veteran of Kiwanis clubs, as a new member here.
Greg has a strong interest in working with Key Club students, and will soon be introduced to several more of the 4 Key Clubs that MVKC sponsors at Mount Vernon and West Potomac High Schools, and Hayfield and South County Secondary Schools. He also is familiar with some fundraising events that have not been tried by MVKC yet, so after the successful introduction of a night at the Little Theater of Alexandria in 2010 (watch for announcement of a comedy in June) and the staple Xmas tree sale, there may well be more fundraiser fun events coming up later this year. See our website at www.mtvernonvakiwanis.org.
Joanne Malkin, MVKC's Membership Chair, welcomes Greg Engelking as a new member.
On February 2, the Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club (MVKC) invited the Faculty Advisers from the 4 high schools where it sponsors Kiwanis Key Clubs (namely, Mount Vernon, West Potomac, Hayfield, and South County) to brief its members on its recent achievements and vision for the rest of this semester. Unfortunately, several teachers were home sick that night, but Kamy Bodaghi of West Potomac manfully took control and gave a great explanantion of what the stuent members do, how they plan activities, and what they will implemnt in the near future. Past President and Chair of the Student Leadership Committee, Bruce Malkin, also used briefing notes sent from South County and his experiences with the other 2 Key Clubs to fill in some more details.
The MVKC is very proud of what these outstanding teenagers are doing to give back to their communities in the MV areas, and is heavily subsidizing both their District Convention in March and the Key Leaders teambuilding and leadership training retreat in May. If you would like to work with these bright and idealistic teens, send an e-mail to brucemalkin1@gmail.com. Also see the MVKC website, www.mtvernonvakiwanis.org for a schedule of their meetings.
MVKC Past President Bruce Malkin thanks Faculty Adviser Kamy Bodaghi for his presentation on Key Clubs
West Potomac Faculty Adviser Kamy Bodaghi explains how his Key Club operates.
On February 3, Mount Vernon Kiwanis Club ((MVKC) Past President Bruce Malkin presented a check for $600 to Larry Padburg, Director of Development, and Chris Bramante, Volunteer Coordinator, at New Hope Housing to continue to further the goals of NHH's Teen Program, which offerrs healthy and safe activities to the teenagers in the low income housing and homeless shelters that NHH manages. Some of it will be used to allow the teens to visit Virginia state schools that they hope to attend. Past grants allowed the teens to participate in the teambuilding and leadership training activities at Hemlock Regional Park, visit DC museums, and enjoy some social events. If you would like to volunteer to help us help others in 2011, please visit our website at www.mtvernonvakiwanis.org, our FaceBook page, or send an e-mail to brucemalkin1@gmail.com.
MVKC gives $600 to NHH for Teen Program
