The T-O Today - Issue 5

Final Letter from the Editor Dear Mighty T-O District, I am so humbled to have been appointed your editor this past year.

You all have truly inspired me to become a better person throughout this entire process. Before coming into CKI, I never thought I would have a second family throughout college. Y’all have been my rocks and have completely changed my life. To the board, thank you for giving me a chance. Thank you for believing in me in times when I did not even believe in myself. You guys constantly lifted me up and pushed me to work harder. Committee Chairs you all have worked so hard this year and grateful for the opportunity to learn from you and watch you grow. Thanks for always throwing that sass when I needed it (Robert) and always having warm smiles for me when I walked into the room (Tori, Lauren, and Kristina). Martha, you already know how much you have helped throughout the year.

I was so grateful for your vast knowledge and always helping me produce the best issues I could. LTG’s you all are the REAL DEAL!! You have worked so hard to better the district we all love. Thanks for the ugly snapchat pictures (Jesica) and the laughs (Emily) and the “not killing me with your driving skills” (Pablo). Thanks for always making me hungry with food pictures (Vanessa) and the words of encouragement (Megan) and for the best partner I could have had during fall retreat (DeMarkus). Seriously though, I absolutely cannot wait to see all you accomplish with your life. To my staff, you three are my whole heart. You have accepted all my flaws, my endless tears (which was worse than an ugly Kim K cry), and the endless amount of sass that was always in mass supply. Robbie, I don’t need to remind you how amazing you are and how much you mean to me. Imelda, God knew I needed a girl who always told me push the boundaries and NEVER settle for less than what you want or deserve. Miti, I have been so blessed by you this year. From the first moment I walked into the board meeting I knew we would be friends for life. You have inspired me to do so much more with my life than to just sit back and let it happen. Your constant encouragements and reassurance (because I needed a lot) were always the right words to say. Staff, it has been real, it has been fun, and it has been real fun. To my home chapter, especially the officers, you guys always were willing to lend a hand or eye whenever I needed your help. To the district admins, you don’t get recognition or take time to accept it. You guys have gone above and beyond for me this year. You always stuck by my side even when I was not being the most level headed.

You guys are the real MVP. Lastly, I cannot wait to see what my next year holds as OK LTG, but I am extremely excited for the opportunity and all the challenges. I am so BLESSED by the countless members I have met and the ever growing family I have through Circle K. “Live to Serve, Love to Serve”

Dylann Lowery

Table of Contents Final Letter From the Editor

2

Final Letter From the Governor

4

International Convention Promo

5

District Convention Recap List of Award Winners Final Thoughts from our LTG’s

6-7 8 10-12

Final Stats for the Year

14

WOW Promo

15

A Year in Review

16-17

Your Board Most Likelies

18

International Service Partner

19

CKI Mission

21

Final Letter From the Governor Dear Texas-Oklahoma

District,

As another Circle K year draws to a close, I am reminded of and am beyond grateful for everything this organization has given me.

It has brought me some of my closest friends, taught me more about my place in the world, and given me memories of a lifetime.

The end of the journey is near and I hope that you not only spend time reflecting on the achievements our district has accomplished this pat year because of all your hard work and dedication to Circle K, but also are propelled to start preparing ourselves for what is next. This year has been a wild ride and the members of our district have transformed the lives of many in their community and on their campus, but I cannot wait to see what the future holds. I am confident that under Governor Robbie and the District Board’s leadership alongside the efforts of our dedicated leaders and members, our district will continue to reach new heights.

Once again, this year has been an incredible journey and the reason why is you. Each of you have made this year one of the best because of your selflessness for serving others. I truly am thankful for everything you have done and am so proud to have served as your District Governor. To the presidents and chapter officers, thank you for spending countless of hours recruiting, planning for meetings, organizing service projects, and much, much more, to ensure that your chapter is successful.

Our members are able to realize the mission of CKI because of your support. To the District Board, thank you for bringing your love for this organization, insight from past experiences, and passion for service to the table. Thank you for challenging me. Thank you for using your knowledge to move our organization forward. Thank you, above all, for being such wonderful friends. To the Administrators, thank you for teaching us and giving us unparalleled guidance. You gave us the tools to serve our district, pushed us to think outside the box, and allowed us to learn from our mistakes. Lastly, thank you to our lovely District Editor, Dylann Lowery, for putting her heart into creating incredible newsletters to teach others about Circle K. “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.�

Thank you, Miti Patel

District Conv

Animated Ab

vention 2017

bout Service

2017 Award Winners Dennis Hodgkiss Advisor of the Year: Sarah Kircher (advisor to the University of North Texas from Denton Breakfast Kiwanis Club) Outstanding Sponsoring Kiwanis Club Kiwanis Club of College Station ( for sponsoring the Texas A&M University CKI chapter) Walt Parker K-Family Relations Southwestern Christian College CKI Clinton Althaus Governor Support Award: Colleen Biggerstaff (Kiwanis Advisor for UT Dallas) Outstanding District Board Member: Robbie Day (Cameron) Outstanding Lt. Governor: Jesica Rios (UNT) Impromptu Essay: Hector Quintanilla (UTRGV) Oratory: Ethan McBride (SFA) Outstanding Traditional Scrapbook: Lamar University Outstanding Non-Traditional Scrapbook: Texas A&M at Galveston Outstanding Chapter Video: University of Texas at Austin Outstanding T-Shirt Award: University of Texas at Dallas Outstanding Single Service Award: Texas A&M University for Mural Project Outstanding Website: Victoria Erb (Texas A&M University) Outstanding District Project Involvement: Texas A&M University for Aggie Green Fund Project Outstanding Governor’s Project Involvement: Lamar University Outstanding New Member: Manuel Lugo (Lamar University) Outstanding Membership Development and Education: University of Texas at Dallas Outstanding Chapter Committee Chairperson: Lawrence Robins (SWCC) Outstanding Chapter Secretary: Henry Lu (University of Texas at Dallas) Outstanding Chapter Secretary-Treasurer: Christina Civis (West Texas A&M University) Outstanding Chapter Editor: Victoria Erb (Texas A&M University) Patrick Simms Outstanding Newsletter: Brittney Handoko (University of Texas at Dallas) Outstanding Chapter Vice-President: Ethan McBride (SFA) Howard H. Hendrick Leadership Award: Matthew Riley (SFA) Fred & Dottie Seals Circle of Service: John Miller (West Texas A&M University) Tim Clipson People Builder Award: Bethany Williams (SWCC) Outstanding Chapter Improvement: Oklahoma State University

Wow! DCON 2017 was certainly an event to remember. Not only did we have a lot of fun, but we managed to raise over $1100 for the St. Baldrick’s child cancer research foundation! I think the theme really captured the spirit of this weekend because everyone that came seemed to definitely be Animated About Service. Thank you to all of the forum speakers and volunteers who enhanced this year’s DCON tremendously.

Your volunteerism has inspired many. A special thank you to Scott Sheley, who fired up Circle K through his impressive speeches. Thank you to all of the Kiwanians and special guests who came to support us. We are so grateful for your consistent generosity. Thank you to the District Board who selflessly worked to make DCON run smoothly without ever complaining. Thank you to the District Administrators who constantly shed sweat, blood, tears, and sleep into this organization. And lastly, thank you, the Circle Kers, for choosing to attend DCON and helping us to celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of our District. They would not be possible without all your hard work and dedication. Because of you, I have been honored to serve as the District Events Vice Chair for this past year. Best of luck to next year’s members, chapter officers, and District Board!

-Lauren Harrison

I would just like to take this time to say thank you all of you members of the T-O District. It has been such an honor to serve as your District Events Coordinator this past year. All the way from Fall Retreat to District Convention it has been such an amazing experience getting to know every single one of you that attended an event. It hasn't been easy planning all these amazing activities you guys go through, my co chair and I, Lauren Harrison, have learned and grown so much through the planning and implementing this year's events. It has been such an honor and a blessing to serve every single one of you.

Thank you so much for this opportunity, as always be sure to Stay Sirius and to Get Animated about Service!

Robert Orr

Divisional Wishes and Tha It has been an honor to be able to serve as the Southeast Texas Division Lieutenant Governor this past year. Seeing each chapter grow and overcoming their weaknesses to make an impact in their communities has been inspiring to me, and I know that they will only continue to achieve greater things in the next year. Thank you to the chapter presidents – Judy Y., Judy L., Elizabeth, Matthew, Linda – for all your hard work in growing your chapters this past year. I know from personal experience that being president can be overwhelming, but all of you have made me proud to represent you as your LTG. I am sorry if I didn’t always have the solution to your problems, but thank you for always supporting me. Thank you to my fellow lieutenant governors – Jesica, Pablo, Kathleen, Vanessa, Demarkus, Megan – for making our Google hangout meetings enjoyable and for being the best group of people I could have asked to be LTGs with. I couldn’t have done it without you guys. Thank to you the District staff – Miti, Robbie, Imelda, Dylann – for always being there when I had questions. I know I had a lot. Finally, thank you to the district administrators – Hunter, Chris, Kelly – for all of your guidance and advice. Despite your busy schedules, you put CKI first and continuously serve as a role model for all of us in Texas-Oklahoma. Thank you, Texas-Oklahoma CKI for an amazing year. I wish for every chapter in the Southeast Texas Division to continue growing and making a difference in their communities. I wish Matthew Riley, the incoming Lieutenant Governor, the best of luck in all his endeavors! Go Southeast Texas Sea Otters!

Although this year has brought some difficult challenges, I'm SO grateful for the time that I have spent as the Panhandle LTG. We may be small, but our passion for service is shining as bright as ever! This year our division has come together more than we ever have in recent years, for our interchapter events. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the success of our division, it was an honor to serve you. Now that this cki year is coming to a close, I wish all the best for all of the Panhandle division. I am confident that your new Lt. Governor, Venu Thirumala will do wonderful things for our division. Love you all! ~Live to Serve, Loveto Serve~

ank You’s from Our LTG’s “I will most likely not be very sentimental during DCON, or do my best to not be, so I’ll do that here. From the moment I started this position I knew I would not be the greatest LTG ever, I knew I would have a lot of work to do and that I would make a lot of mistakes. It was evident that my strength was being social while my weaknesses were, well quite a few to say the least. I had a bunch of giant ideas as a fresh, gullible, and ignorant LTG, like charter 5 new chapters and double the membership in my district, or getting 60% of my division members to go to district events. Unknowingly, in the back of my head, I had a more reasonable goal that I would be able to recognize if achieved, and that at the time I did not know how important it was to me or what it was. As my year started, I knew my weaknesses would hold me back and my strength would only take me so far, this became evident as the first third of my year as LTG came to an end. I panicked, and I stressed knowing I was on a path to not meeting expectations. My personal life, school life, and mental stability were not contributing positive notes to the situation at hand. As I struggled to find a drive, to stop my procrastination, to stop making excuses, and to deal with my problems, a cavalry of support and aid was closing in. This cavalry came in the form of Robbie’s contact with chapter presidents and secretaries, Dylann’s reminders on things due (like this farewell), Imelda’s reminders and contacts with chapter treasurers, Miti’s help with chartering chapters, District chairs’ ideas and planning, or LTG’s advice, experience, and support. I can go on forever stating all the ways that district board helped me, not counting the incredible amount of support and resources our admins provided. Given that I am very thankful for all this, I am more thankful for the friendship they have given me. Whether they realize it or not, they helped me get over a hard time in my life, that without out them or the people in my division I do not know if I would be out of it right now. Given that my battle with procrastination and other problems continue (as many people in CKI can attest to), this same people ultimately helped me realize the goal whose great importance I was not aware of. While statistical goals are important and should be sought after, my personal goal for my division was for them to see that they can support each other, for them to be closer as a division, regardless of distance, and to bring them closer as friends. Because in reality that is why we are here, we love our friends, because we love people, and because we love people we do service. Creating this within your division makes the statistical stuff just a little easier. Service hours should go up, membership, participation, event attendance and even chartering should be just a little easier. Even if not everyone can show up to your events, you know that just because they’re not there, does not mean you don’t have their support. We all have our lives away from Circle K, we all have different situations and problems, but in the end we seem to find a way to bring two States, dozens of schools, and hundreds of people together. Although not all my chapters showed up to this past spring rally, I think we took a step in the right direction. The goal I set for myself was visible when everyone was joking around as they were saying their farewells to each other. Hill Country was brought a bit closer and made a bit stronger thanks to everyone’s help, support, and participation.

Therefore to everyone who directly or indirectly supported me and my division, thank you and I hope we did the same for you. Hill country it was a privilege, an unforgettable experience, and a tremendous opportunity being your Lieutenant Governor, thank you. ”Hill Country I wish the best for you. I did what I could with what I had, and I am positive that your future LTG will do much greater things than I did. I hope you guys are comfortable enough with each other to ask for help and to help each other out. You guys have so much untapped potential that I know you will find a way to tap into it and do great things with your chapters and for the T-O district as a whole.

Divisional Wishes and Than My wish for the Oklahoma division is to see a continuance in growth and for the chapters to rise up stronger than ever. I hope to see new members getting involved and expanding their leadership abilities while touching the lives of others. I hope that are Oklahoma members are able to meet other people on a district and international level and be able to see the change that they have so greatly made. I hope that next year's lieutenant governor Dylann Lowery will serve her division with kindness and lead the division to greatness! Overall, I hope that the OK division will continue to blow us away with their passion for circle k. Let me start off by saying that there is no way to personally mention all those who have helped alongside me as LTG this last year. So many people have been there to mentor and guide me as well as support me. I'd like to say thank you to my fellow board members for all the jokes and laughs. Y'all kept it real and funny at the same time. Also to my home chapter, specially the 2017-2018 board of officers. You guys have always been there for me and have always been there to support me. You four will do great things, not only in your time as officers but as you move forward in your lives. I'd like to thank Miti, Hunter, Chris and Kelly for always bring so supportive and encouraging. You guys have helped me be a better leader and I'm so thankful for all the phones calls and frantic text messages. I'd also like to thank Robbie day for dragging me into this organization in the first place. If it wasn't for you Robbie, I would not have grown out of my socially awkward Shell and would not be who I am today. Lastly, I would like to thank my family and Zabastian for all the moral support and encouragement through out the year.

You are my corner stone and I love you all so much. I’d like to give a huge thank you to Brian Walker. Brian has been a huge help to me this year with my division! Thank you so much for all the support!

Serving as an LTG was honestly the most stressful but fun experience I’ve had this past year. Time passed by faster than I wanted it to but together with the rest of district board, I have grown as a servant leader. As the year comes to a close, I just want to say farewell to you guys. I hope to still see you around and get to be a part of whatever life has in store for you. Thank you for giving me the chance to serve you. Getting to see firsthand what the division has to offer, I believe South Texas has great potential to grow and make an even bigger impact on the community than it already has. I wish for us to get stronger and closer as a division and to really put forward our best foot in whatever we decide to tackle as a division. I wish for us to be there ready to encourage and support chapters & projects that might need it. I wish for South Texas to flourish. We can only get better from here. Go South Texas!!!

nk You’s from Our LTG’s It has been my absolute honor and pleasure serving as the 2016-17 Red River Lt. Governor. I’ve learned many things, met many new faces, and explored new places throughout my term. Circle K has been the one to keep me sane through my college career and I’m so glad I was able to experience it with you all. When I first began the process of starting a CKI chapter at UNT and you told me that I would soon be the next LTG, I would have told you, that you were crazy. But nonetheless, because of the love and support of my fellow Circle K members I grew as a leader and was able to be elected as a part of the District Board. I’d like to thank my home chapter for all their encouragement this past year and to those members that I dragged along to other chapter visits with me, y’all rock! It’s a bittersweet feeling knowing that my term is coming to an end but I’m excited to see where the rest of my K-Family experience will take me in the future. Thank you to all the Kiwanians and CKI members that helped me along the way, because of y’all I was able to find my second family that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Red River Rattlesnakes, ssssssssssss! Thank you for being absolutely the best division I could ask for! All chapters in the division had an exceptionally well year in numbers as far as service hours, membership, and report submissions. I hope you all continue the drive and passion for Circle K and continue it next year. In addition, I also hope you all continue the tradition of the chants we have for our division and grow fond of our mascot. Be on the lookout for it to visit your chapter next year! I’m excited for the division to stay strong with the current chapters of Midwestern State, UNT, and Cameron but also grow. Special recognition to the Texas Woman’s University chapter that I know will soon become officially part of our division and join our K-Family. Your hard work throughout the year has not gone unnoticed. Best of wishes to my division, I hope you all continue making a positive difference in your communities and grow your love for service. It has been a blast working with you all this year, thank you Red River!

Its been a wild 3 years on the district board and it all came full circle (pun intended) with me being the Metro LTG. I love my division and can't wait to see what growth and service they are able to accomplish. My wishes for the Metro division are continued growth, long lasting friendships and especially meaningful, dynamic service.

Blessing to you Metro and continue to soar high above the rest. GO MONARCHS!

Final Stats for 2016-2017 Service Hours: 10,018 Interchapters: 395 Kiwanis Family Relations: 179 Reporting: 95.4% FR Attendees:120 DCON Attendees: 160 Chapter Growth: 6/7 Chapters so far

A Year in

n Review

Your Board’s Most Likelies Most Likely to become a comedian: Pablo Ortiz and Jesica Rios Most Likely to plot an evil scheme: Robert Orr and Kathleen Franks Most Likely to become an angel when they die: DeMarkus Rule and Miti Patel Most Likely to have superpowers: Chris Pennington and Emily Tran Most Likely to become famous: Matthew Riley and Jennifer Tuggle Most Likely to find out they are royalty: Robbie Day and Imelda Tristan Most Likely to get ID’d when you’re 30: Lauren Harrison, Mariana Garay, and Vanessa Marquez Most Likely to run away with the circus: Andrew Liguez and Tori Gadney Most Likely to win the superbowl: Hunter Faubion and Kelly Godfrey Most Likely to dance in a Beyonce music video: Megan Williams and Dylann Lowery Most Likely to wind up in the book of Guinness World Records: Justine Jordan and Kristina Bunn

We Love You Miti!

When the "storms of life" Gather darkly ahead, I think of these wonderful words I once read.

And I say to myself As "threatening clouds" hover, Don't "fold up your wings" And "run for cover."

But like the eagle, "Spread wide your wings" And "soar far above" The troubles life brings.

For the eagle knows That the higher he flies, The more tranquil and brighter Become the skies.

And there is nothing in life God ever asks us to bear That we can't soar above "On the wings of prayer."

And in looking back over The "storm you passed through," You'll find you gained strength And new courage, too.

For in facing "life's storms" With an eagle's wings, You can fly far above Earth's small, petty things.

~ Helen Steiner Rice ~

CKI Mission: Developing college and university students into a global network of responsible citizens and leaders with a lifelong commitment to service.