The McGeown Mailer Volume I Issue IV

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE NEW JERSEY DISTRICT OF KEY CLUB INTERNATIONAL

The McGeown Mailer

District Governor Luke McGeown Volume I Issue IV

Introduction- 3 August Board- 4 Meet Shinbee Park- 6 K-Family Picnic Recap- 7 LeadCon Recap- 8 Key Club International Partners- 10 CMNH- 12 March of Dimes- 13 UNICEF- 14 The Thirst Project- 15 Vision Partners- 16 Rustic Pathways- 17

To Do List- 18 Important dates- 19

Hello Everyone, I hope you are all excited for August Board!

It is less than two weeks away! In the following newsletter, I will tell you everything you need to know about August Board, and the recent Kiwanis Family Picnic and Leadership Convention.

Our focus is still making sure to equip ourselves with everything we need to enter the school year ready to serve our clubs.

This is the time where we finalize our game plan for perhaps the most important time of the year and make sure we are ready to make the greatest positive change possible in our homes, schools and communities.

Yours in caring and service,

WHEN August 13th from 8:30- 4:00 PM WHERE New Jersey PTA 8 Quakerbridge Plaza, Suite F Mercerville, NJ 08619

Remember to wear your board shirt and khakis. If you do not have your board shirt yet, you will get it at the meeting.

Bring non-perishable food to donate to the NJFoFB!

The main focus for August Board is to make sure we, as a district, are ready to move into the school year with full knowledge and resources for what we have to do. This means planning for: • Promoting Fall Rally • Visiting clubs • Collecting dues • Training officers • Divisional events • Advocating PTSD awareness • Chartering clubs

For your board report, be ready to talk about: • Club Status • Officer Training progress • DCMs, Divisional Events • Club building

I am happy to announce Shinbee Park is our International Trustee for the 2016-2017 Service Year!

At LeadCon, I had the privilege of really getting to meet her.

She was her club’s freshman representative, distinguished president, and a Robert F. Lucas Distinguished Lieutenant Governor for Capital’s division 6A during the 2015-2016 Service Year. She also served on the District Membership Service Committee. She also loves robots and is a member of All State Band for 1st Chair Flute!

I still feel like we have not had enough time together, but I can already tell she is awesome and you will all love her. She cannot wait to meet you all at Fall Rally!

The Kiwanis Family Picnic was quite an experience. We got to meet the Circle K District Board, a boatload (pun intended because we were on a beach) of Kiwanians, and even more food. We did a water balloon toss, which Rohan and I got destroyed in. Congratulations to Meghan and Ciara for winning! We were challenged to a game of beach volleyball before all the Circle K-ers realized we would win. We outright won the sand castle building competition which there are pictures of that I will share with you all as soon as I get them. It was a great experience which we will definitely attend next year, too.

From July 21st to the 23rd, the Key Club International Council (International Board and Governors) got to partake in the 2016 Leadership Conference. In short, we got to do a ton of leadership group activities (which I plan to share with you), went to workshops, toured Kiwanis International Headquarters, played Pokemon Go, met the Kiwanis International Board, and the Key Club International Board!

One of the coolest experiences I had was sitting down and having lunch with Paul Inge Paulsen, International Trustee from Norway. In all of the Norden District (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark), there are no SLPs, but not for a lack of trying. We told Mr. Paulsen how great we are since he doesn’t get to see it firsthand.

I also got one-on-one time with Shinbee, and we talked about how great New Jersey is. I told her all about Fall Rally, and she is pumped. Best news is Wilmington, Delaware is like a stone’s throw away from New Jersey! She is really looking forward to working with us, especially now that she knows we are the district where the Key Clubs are the best.

Above: Key Club International Council Left: Kiwanis Gym and Pokestop is kind of a big deal.

As a lieutenant governor that was not on the International Programs committee, I always felt like I could never appropriately explain KCI’s international partners to people in my division.

Hopefully this helps you all out when you are faced with a similar predicament.

Paraphrasing from the Key Club Guidebook, Policy M classifies our major emphasis as “Children: Their Future, Our Focus.” Any service project with this goal in mind is considered a major emphasis project, and KCI has worked to partner with other organizations to help pursue this goal. In short, any service project or partnership “designated by the Key Club International Board in keeping with the theme [Children: Their Future, Our Focus]” qualifies as a part of the major emphasis. As such, KCI partners with these international organizations to help promote child well-being.

Preferred Charities are the organizations in which the Kiwanis Family does most of our fundraising and service projects: • March of Dimes • UNICEF • Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Our Service Partners provide service and fundraising opportunities for the Kiwanis Family: • The Thirst Project Our Vision Partners, in the words of Devin Sun, are “large scale value-based organizations.” In other words, they have similar goals and philosophies as the Kiwanis Family: • Landscape Structures, Inc. • Nickelodeon • The US Army Co-Sponsors are organizations that work exclusively with Key Club International, whereas others work with the entire Kiwanis Family: • Rustic Pathways

Founded in 1983, CMN now consists of 170 hospitals across the United States and Canada that help save children’s lives. It is a non-profit organization that raises money and awareness of these hospitals to incentivize childcare.

Over it’s more than thirty years of operation, CMN has raised over $5 billion for these hospitals. One in ten children are treated by as CMN hospital annually. As a preferred charity, Key Clubbers raise funds and volunteer at local hospitals.

Childrensmiraclenetworkhospitals.org

The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis was created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1938. Soon to be known better as March of Dimes, the organization pushed a long campaign over many decades to fight polio. After virtually ending the entire polio epidemic, their new focus became birth defects, and most recently, since 2003, they included premature birth. March of Dimes has seen drastic success in their operating history, thanks in part to a quarter of a million high schoolers willing to help fundraise for those who need it most.

http://www.marchofdimes.org/

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (now just the United Nations Children’s Fund, but with the original acronym) was created by the UN General Assembly in 1946 and founded in 1947 to provide aid, mostly food and healthcare for children, following the aftermath of World War II. Now focused on supporting the well-being of children across the world, Kiwanis and UNICEF has worked together in the past to eradicate Iodine Deficiency Disorder in the 1990s and Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus today. UNICEF is now active in over 190 countries and continues to make drastic changes to children’s lives every day.

http://www.unicef.org/

The Thirst Project was founded in 2008 by three college students in Southern California. As the leading cause of death for children across the planet, these students recognized something must be done to solve the lack of clean drinking water for people across the globe. Although they are not the biggest clean water initiative, they have quickly become the strongest proponent of involving teens in the movement. Since 2008, they have raised over $8 million and provided renewable clean water sources to over 280,000 individuals.

https://www.thirstproject.org/

https://www.playlsi.com/

https://www.nick.com/worldwide-day-of-play

https://goarmy.com/officership

Landscape Structures, Inc. was founded in 1971 by Steve and Barb King to design and build playgrounds and public recreational facilities for communities across the world.

They have built over 80,000 playgrounds since they were founded.

Nickelodeon, Inc. is a television network for kids and young adults. They focus on children’s health and well-being, most commonly known for their Worldwide Day of Play.

The US Army partnered with Kiwanis due to shared values of community well-being. Many local battalions serve as members of their Kiwanis clubs and help at service projects, providing both support and resources.

Rustic Pathways is an organization that provides experiences for teenagers to travel and do hands-on work with impoverished communities across the world. Their trips range from Thailand to the Dominican Republic, where high school students spend a week or so participating in building public works and help in any way they can to improve communities.

https://rusticpathways.com/

• Remind clubs about CMRFs • Complete BMRF by August 8th • Share Committee agendas by August 4th • Contact clubs and set up club visits • Promote Fall Rally!

• Aim to have your second or third DCM scheduled for the end of the summer or start of school • Get remaining club rosters before start of school/ ASAP • Follow newsletter schedule • Continue contact with potential charter schools – Reach out again if no response

• Take deep breaths and be happy.

August 13th- August Board Meeting August 20th- Kiwanis DCON September 10th- Bloomfield RTC September 17th- Bridgewater RTC September 25th- Eastern RTC October 9th- Fall Rally