The motto of the Kiwanis Clubs across the globe has always been “serving the children of the world.”
A global organization, Kiwanis Clubs have been serving communities since 1915 with its volunteers focused on dedicating their time to improving the world, one child and one community at a time.
In an effort to establish a club for Newmarket and the surrounding areas, the Kiwanis Club of Toronto Caribbean will be hosting an information meeting on Saturday at Newmarket Public Library (438 Park Ave.) to inform the community of what the Kiwanis movement is about.
“What we’re aiming to do is to find like-minded individuals around the Newmarket area who are service oriented and don’t mind giving back to their community,” said Sharon Barnes-Simmonds, president of the Kiwanis Club of Toronto Caribbean. “We’re all about service to the community, especially to the children.”
Barnes-Simmonds said that wherever Kiwanis Club goes, it tries to embed clubs in communities so that they can serve more people in need.
“We also aim to build skills such as organization, public speaking, and encourage our young adults,” she said. “We also form clubs in schools because it’s a whole family of service and leadership when we establish ourselves in communities.”
At the information meeting in Newmarket on Saturday, those in attendance will get a better idea of what Kiwanis Club is, how their initiatives positively impact communities, and how they can join and make a difference, said Barnes-Simmonds.
“To establish the club, we need numbers and once we find enough people interested in joining us on this quest, we would coach the club by providing club coaches to get them off the ground,” she said. “We need at least 15 members to start the club and the club works together to elect leaders ,so it’s not just one person trying to do everything.”
A big part of the reason Kiwanis hopes to establish a club in the area is because Newmarket, Aurora and nearby municipalities don’t have one despite there being a plethora of people in the communities who want to serve, Barnes-Simmonds explained.
“We do service projects, fundraising campaigns for different charities, we host drives for the food bank,” she said. “If there’s a situation with refugees, we’ll do a clothing drive. You name it, whatever the need is, we try to help.”
In the last few years, the Kiwanis Club of Toronto Caribbean has helped to establish an annual scholarship for students from the Caribbean who come to Canada to pursue tertiary studies; fundraised in partnership with Global Medic to send hygiene and water purification kits to Haiti to help to combat the outbreak of cholera; and annually provide backpacks with school supplies to schools in the GTA in partnership with Staples.
“Staples asks their customers to donate to Kiwanis and we provide school supplies to schools in need,” Barnes-Simmonds said. “Last year, from the Staples in Newmarket, we were able to donate close to 100 backpacks to a school, but it wasn’t in Newmarket because we didn’t have a relationship with a school there. But once we establish a club in Newmarket, that store would be assigned to the club and the supplies would go to a school in Newmarket.”
The information meeting will begin at noon at Newmarket Public Library and residents from surrounding communities who are interested are welcome to attend.
