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NONPROFIT
VOLUNTEERING IN THE WORLDWIDE COMMUNITY
KIDS ARE THE FOCUS OF THE KIWANIS INTERNATIONAL MISSION
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BY KYLE DOWLING
The Kiwanis Club of Delta Township awarded scholarships at the Westside YMCA.
The needs of kids — from combating hunger to improving literacy to providing mentorship — are at the heart of the mission of Kiwanis.
Kiwanis International is a global organization of individual service clubs that work to improve the lives of children in their communities. Kiwanis has more than 550,000 members worldwide, with groups ranging from school clubs to community clubs.
The Kiwanis Club of Delta Township is just one of the local Kiwanis Clubs in the Greater Lansing region. Service projects and fundraising efforts from the club have benefitted such nonprofits as Ele’s Place, St. Vincent Catholic Charities and The Davies Project, just to name a few.
The club’s Cash Award program is designed to fund projects that provide support and enrichment for children and families in Eaton and Ingham counties. The program’s purpose is to assist local nonprofit organizations in their efforts to create projects and fund events that directly benefit children and families.
The Kiwanis Club of Delta Township also facilitated its first Art Lopes Winter Golf Outing this year in honor of Art Lopes, who was part of Kiwanis for more than 50 years in multiple clubs. Proceeds from that event are being given to local restaurants within the region.
The Delta Township service club also has a yearly fundraiser by selling tins of nuts and chocolates around the holiday season.
“The proceeds from these sales go toward supporting several organizations throughout the year including, R.J. Scheffel Toy Project, Kiwanis Michigan Foundation that supports Mary Free Bed, Key Club and any other organization that need our help,” said Tim Barry, Delta Township club member.
In addition, the Kiwanis Club of Delta Township helps support the Key Club of Grand Ledge, the high school-level of Kiwanis that encourages volunteerism and helping the community. Key Clubs set their own projects and agendas with support from a teacher and Kiwanis volunteer overseeing the group. The students are free to decide what projects or programs they would like to support.
“One of my favorite projects this year was writing thank-you letters to health care workers in the COVID unit, thanking them for their efforts,” said Camryn Nauta, incoming lieutenant governor of District 7 for Key Club.
The Kiwanis Club of Delta Township extends further support to students at Waverly and Grand Ledge schools through a high school scholarship program. High school students participate in an essay competition and write about how they have impacted the community in a positive way, embodying the essence of Kiwanis.
Kiwanis is about people coming together to give back, and it is always looking for new members and volunteers. For more information about Kiwanis or your local club, visit kiwanis.org.
LIVING
WITH INTENTION
THROUGH SELFLESSNESS, MASON TEACHER FINDS THE HERO’S JOURNEY
COURAGE IN FACE OF CANCER:
A CANCER DIAGNOSIS BROUGHT MARK AND ANDREA SUNDERMANN CLOSER TOGETHER.
It’s the moments of tragedy and distress where the mettle of character is forged.
For longtime Mason High School English and creative writing teacher Mark Sundermann, that test came on Christmas Eve when an oncologist confirmed his wife, Andrea, was battling three forms of breast cancer. The months of pain and chemotherapy and worry that followed seem like they should have created an unbearable amount of stress on the couple and their two children; however, Sundermann takes a different view of the time — even going so far as to call it a gift — because it provided him with a heightened awareness of the power and purpose of selflessness.
“The pandemic threw us together a year ago. That was hard on all of us. I still had to teach and do all those things. My son had to figure out how to go to school remotely. Andrea had to build an office in our
THE POWER OF BEING SELFLESS:
MARK SUNDERMANN SAID HIS TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE BROUGHT A RENEWED BOND OF UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATION FOR HIS WIFE, ANDREA, AND CHILDREN, ALANA AND JACOB.
daughter’s old room. It put a lot of stress on the family because we were spending a lot more time together than we had in a while,” Sundermann said. “But since the diagnosis, it all has kind of shifted to something that was beyond ourselves or greater than us. It stopped everything from moving. I would say it has been a gift for the family because it was an opportunity to reconnect. That’s the best way to describe it.
“Everything I do now is a bit more intentional,” he continued. “Like today, going to the grocery store, I know that we’re nearing the end of the part of the week that’s really bad for her. She’s going to start feeling a little bit better. I think I can make her some white chicken chili. Now it’s about going out and doing things with much more intentionality than there was before.”
Sundermann opted to use to family medical leave for the remainder of the school year to care for his wife and family as well as meditate and reflect on his own life and how he perceives the world around him.
“The biggest thing that happened to my family as a result of this was realizing the tremendous amount of social capital that we had no idea we had fostered. Shortly after we let everybody know about the diagnosis, it was an incredible outpouring of help and acts of kindness that we certainly didn’t feel we were deserving of or expect,” he said. “What I keep thinking about is that I’m so happy that this was something we had that I had no idea was there. But then I keep thinking about the people who don’t have that. How can I in some way, shape or form help those people?”
Providing the bright spot in a dark space makes a difference, Sundermann said, and a trickle of small acts of kindness can quickly build into a cascade.
“It’s not even necessarily a money thing,” he said. “It’s just thinking about ways the community can help each other and the importance of that. Not only during a pandemic but after that. What things can we take with us as a society that we didn’t have going in?”
The concept is something Sundermann has been incorporating into his passion for screenwriting. He already has completed a semiautobiographical, 30-minute, multi-camera comedy about a first-year teacher called “In the Mind of Mr. McApline.” His current project is a 60-minute sciencefiction drama called “The Twelve,” in which the consciousness of each character is sent back in time 24 years. “This story picked me,” Sundermann said. “That idea of social capital, being selfless, that’s what these characters have to learn. They can’t move forward on the hero’s journey. … When they choose the selfish path that goes against what they were shown to do, that causes conflict — and that’s where they have to learn the importance of selflessness. ART IMITATES LIFE: They have to learn that we, MARK SUNDERMANN IS USING as human beings, are all HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF one. Look at how divided we SELFLESSNESS IN HIS SCREENWRITING. have become politically and socially. This illusion that we have of separateness is something we have to overcome. That’s what I’m trying to get across as the takeaway from this: ‘Look what happens when this character is selfless. It moves them forward. Maybe that will work for me.’”
The prognosis for his wife is positive, and Sundermann noted the team at Sparrow’s Herbert-Herman Caner Center have been incredible. He said the time away from work and with his family has been a transformative experience and opened his eyes to how to live life with purpose and intention. It’s a hero’s journey Sundermann said he’ll never forget and never regret.
“It’s been amazing. We spend a great deal of our life reacting. We don’t spend enough time actually being awake and living,” Sundermann said. “I’m experiencing things that I normally wouldn’t pay attention to like the color of Andrea’s favorite flower. The really small things that I never would have noticed are the things I’m paying attention to now. That is a gift I will always take with me.”
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WEEKEND
Swing into action at Groesbeck Golf Course
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REASONS TO PLAY p.44 OUT & ABOUT p.46
ARTIST’S UMBRELLA
