Harvey

Club looks to expand playground project

By JILL SCHRAMM Senior Staff Writer jschramm@minotdailynews.com

The Harvey Kiwanis Club wants to see a playground for toddlers in their community, and they are working hard to make it happen.

The club hopes to raise $54,000 to purchase new equipment to be installed in Harvey’s Centennial Park in 2022. It’s an ambitious goal, but the club has experience with meeting ambitious goals. In 2016, the club raised around $130,000 to build a playground that it now intends to expand by adding equipment for the younger children.

“The new playset will add another dimension of play to the already dynamic playground,” said fundraising chairwoman Sandy Teubner. “It will give toddlers an exploration area and age-appropriate equipment for muscular development.”

Youth have been the focus of Kiwanis International and the focus of the community-minded volunteers who have represented the Harvey affiliate over the past 98 years. The club was chartered by a Minot Kiwanis club and established on Nov. 15, 1923.

“We are proud that we have maintained a stable volunteer membership of 15-19 members for the past five years. We would still welcome new members to infuse our club with new visions and dreams,” Teubner said.

The Harvey Kiwanis has been involved in a long list of activities over the years. Examples are supporting student-of-the-month recognitions, providing coupons to enable teachers to buy classroom supplies, reading with elementary students, sponsoring a Boy Scout

HARVEY

ABOVE: Kiwanians Delvin Hansen and Sandy Teubner visit the playground July 13 that the club installed in Harvey’s Centennial Park in 2016.

LEFT: Children play on playground equipment July 13. The Harvey Kiwanis Club raised money to erect the playground in 2016 and is working on an expansion for younger children.

Photos by Jill Schramm/MDN

troop, collecting toys for a toy box in the medical center’s waiting room, conducting a Coats for Kids drive and accompanying elementary students on University of North Dakota Aerospace field trips. Members have volunteered with the food pantry, meals on wheels and in serving food at the hospital’s annual health fair and Christmas caroling at the nursing home.

Current projects include Welcome Back to School events, ditch cleaning, serving concessions at the local movie theater and taking tickets at high school football games.

Thanks to community backing, the club has been able to raise money for a number of causes, including the local Dollars for Scholars, Children’s Miracle Network, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, Harvey Chemical Health as well as a prom party and elementary field trips.

Another area where the club has invested significant funds over the years is in student scholarships. The Harvey club contributed to the Kiwanis’ Minn-Dak Educational Foundation, which now returns dollars each year for local student scholarships. The club supplements those dollars with additional funds to provide for four $1,000 college scholarships annually.

An annual pancake feed to raise money for student scholarships was a tradition until several years ago. Another long-standing fundraiser has been collecting deer hides and antlers from the community’s hunters to sell to a fur and hide buyer.

Teaming up with the Eagles, the club is conducting a fundraiser at the Eagles Club on Oct. 23 that includes a meal and a presentation on the history of rock and roll and country music by Kiwanis Club President Delvin Hansen.

The club spent a year writing grants and raising money for its first playground. It hosted a fun family event to raise money in bringing in the Harlem Ambassadors, known for their comedy as well as basketball skills.

“When we have big projects like the park playground project, we get a very, very good response,” Tuebner said of the community support. “They were excited about the Harlem Ambassadors. We had a very good turnout of people coming to that because they knew we had a big project.”

Teubner, club president at the time, said some Kiwanis members had identified a need for a more modern playground, and the existence of the City of Harvey’s Centennial Park created a location. The playground enhances the city parks’ other offerings, which include a walking path, exercise equipment stations, frisbee golf and a gazebo. A new bridge was under construction this past summer.

Hansen said the value of the club to the community is not measured so much in money raised but in service hours delivered. Club members donate a total of around 230 hours of service each year.

Dollars contributed annually to local and international causes total about $5,000 a year. The affiliation with an international organization offers the club a chance to be part of a larger mission to benefit children worldwide, Hansen said. A past international project raised funds to fight iodine deficiency, and a current project is raising funds to vaccinate for maternal and neonatal tetanus.

A 40-year member of the club, Hansen said he joined as a newcomer to Harvey primarily because he was asked, but also because it was a means to meet other people. At that time, the club met weekly rather than monthly.

Teubner joined about 13 years ago at the invitation of a co-worker and became her employer’s representative to the club. Since retiring last year, she continues to stay involved, making the trip from her home in Cando to participate.

“I believe it’s just the friendships and the relationships I formed over the years,” she said of her strong connection to the club.

Hansen and Teubner say the ability to recruit and retain members is key to the Kiwanis continuing to have an impact in Harvey. To address busy schedules that might create hesitation, the club is encouraging business memberships in which employees of a business can share responsibilities, such as attending the monthly meetings or participating in the various projects.

Teubner said she also is encouraging members to display the Kiwanis logo and wear the Kiwanis apparel.

“I don’t think the community of Harvey recognizes really what Kiwanis does or who is in Kiwanis. We’re always kind of behind the scenes,” she said.

The Harvey Kiwanis Club is a member of the Minn Dak District, which includes Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota. The district has more than 3,300 members in 119 clubs.

Kiwanis International has 180,000 members who stage about 150,000 service projects and raise nearly $100 million every year for communities, families and projects worldwide. The organization estimates every new member to a Kiwanis club touches another 206 children in some capacity.

Kiwanis International also offers service leadership programs that include Circle K for young adults, Key Club for high schoolers, Builders Club for 11- to 15-year-olds, K Kids for primary school students and Aktion Club for adults with disabilities. There also are programs addressing bullying, character building, academic success and global youth exchanges.

Submitted Photos

ABOVE: Dave Voeller represents the Harvey Kiwanis at a Trunk-or-Treat event hosted by First Lutheran Church in Harvey, providing treats to local children at Halloween. LEFT: Kiwanis member Pam Stewart engages her junior high students in cleaning up a roadway ditch in 2019.