Mass Meeting

September 11th and September 17th

The Mass Meeting will be held to inform interested students about Circle K. The Board will try to highlight the three tenants of Circle K and the Mass Meeting Video will show students what it feels like to be member of the club.

Humane Society of Huron Valley

Mission Statement: Celebrating Animals, Confronting Cruelty
Project Description: Volunteers will help take care of a wide variety of animals doing a wide variety of jobs including, grooming, feeding, walking, cleaning up after and playing with the animals!
Paperwork/Training: All potential volunteers must fill out an online volunteer application. Before you begin volunteering, you must schedule and attend an informative, hands-on orientation session. The available times are on the application. You must also pay a $35 program fee at the orientation. If the fee is a financial hardship, this can be discussed with the Volunteer Coordinator and the fee can be waived.
Time Commitment: 8 hours/month minimum
Circle K Contact: Zachery Gizicki

826 Michigan

Mission Statement: 826 Michigan is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.
Paperwork/Training: There is a mandatory online application which can be found here: 826 Michigan Application . Next, you will attend an information session where will you choose what type of projects to get involved in. These range from everyday tutoring to creative writing workshops with the public schools in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.
Time Commitment: At least 1 day a week for on-site tutoring for six months.
Circle K Contact: Mona Fayad

Back Door Food Pantry

Mission Statement: We are committed to helping citizens in need by supplying food to all those who come to our door in a welcoming, friendly, and non-judgmental environment.
Project Description: The volunteer will help the client go through and pick out food options at the Back Door Food Pantry. They will be directly interacting with the people they are helping. When there is down time, the volunteer will help restock the pantry and gets to have great conversations with the other volunteers from around the community.
Paperwork/Training: There's an informational powerpoint and quiz regarding interacting with clients that all volunteers need to read and take.
Time Commitment: Thursday 4:45-7:15pm
Circle K Contact: Taylor Sullivan

Washtenaw County Head Start

Mission Statement: Our mission is to coalesce, inspire and support the Head Start field as a leader in early childhood development and education.
Project Description: Helping out in preschool classrooms!
Paperwork/Training: Background check
Time Commitment: Weekly
Circle K Contact: April Wesolowski

Leadership Connection

May 6th-May 9th

Alex Novo, External Vice President, writes of her time at Leadership Connection:

Leadership Connection is a four day event hosted by the University of Michigan to connect leaders of various organizations together and discuss how we see and would like to improve our campus. It was great being a representative of Circle K since a lot of the organizations were already familiar with our name and wanted to learn more about what we do. There were several workshops geared towards our personality traits (we took a quiz before leaving for Camp Michigania), leadership skills, and club building. I really enjoyed getting to learn more about other organizations on campus. I'm really involved in Circle K, and it was a lot of fun to meet people who were equally passionate about their clubs, and learn more about how various clubs operate. I am most looking forward to collaborating with MSA and their Fast-a-Thon! I've never fasted before, and I am really excited to see what we can accomplish together. Overall it was a great weekend, and I'm looking forward to seeing the leaders of various clubs on campus this year!

By far the most rewarding experience of all of LSSP was the Thank You ceremony the schools held for us. During our lunch break, the students held an assembly to thank us for our volunteer efforts. Not only did this include a choir of young students singing, "We appreciate you," and a line dance performed to a Shania Twain song, but it also included cards and books that the schools had put together to thank us. It was SO CUTE to hear all of those kids literally singing our praises and reading all of the adorable cards they wrote too. Having the opportunity to come into their community and serve them was impactful enough by itself, but this act of gratitude really made me realize what a unique and life-changing opportunity this was for everyone involved.

There is so much more about LSSP that was so much fun, and there could be volumes written about how AWESOME Vancouver is, but all in all LSSP 2013 was a one-of-a-kind experience. Not only did I make lasting friendships with an outstanding group of individuals, I also had the wonderful opportunity to team up with a group of some of the most optimistic and easy-going people I have ever met, to make a real difference in only a few days. For anyone considering attending, LSSP 2014 in Nashville, I only have one piece of advice for you: Do it. It will change your life and your only regret will be wishing you could stay in Circle K longer to attend even more LSSPs to continue making a lasting impact in the world.

ICON-International Convention

June 26th-June 30th in Vancouver, BC Canada

Jonathan Pevarnek, International Trustee and Kiwanis Family Relations Committee Member, describes being a part of ICON:

This summer, I got to go on the best vacation ever! Not only did I have a chance to spend time in the wonderful city of Vancouver (in Canada), I got to spend my time there with Circle K members and Kiwanians from all over the world. Learning more about this organization, and the other people in it, made this not only a fun vacation, but a useful one. I did all of this at the annual Large Scale Service Project (LSSP) and International Convention (ICON), two awesome events that helped make my summer the best one ever.

Of all the things we did at the International Convention, the best part was having the chance to hang out with other Circle K members. No matter where these people were from, they were members of Circle K and this organization does a fantastic job of drawing the best people into it. Everyone there was very different, but we were all united by this organization and everyone was an awesome person. Even better than meeting new people was getting the chance to see old friends again, and grow much closer together with new friends. I already knew some people from other events in the past, or from going to LSSP right before ICON, and it made me incredibly happy to have the chance to see all these people again.

Another thing I enjoyed about convention this year was how many chances we had to interact with Kiwanians. The past couple years, Circle K ICON has been held at the same time and place as the Kiwanis one, which means there are some great chances to bring the organizations together! Whether it be ones we have never seen before, or old friends from Michigan, Kiwanians are some of the nicest people and getting a chance to see them, to talk to them about the amazing things we are doing, to participate in the conversations they have about the future of the organization overall; it all really helped to make the whole trip feel worthwhile.

It would be completely impossible to talk about this convention without mentioning the house of delegates, especially for me. House of delegates is the business session where we get a chance to vote on proposed amendments, as well as to elect the leadership of the organization for the coming year. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I get really geeked about dealing with policy issues and this was no exception. This year, some of the amendments even came from a committee I was on so it was especially cool watching those pass. I am thrilled to report that some amazing results came out of the House of Delegates: we still have subregions, the LSSP “sub-”committee is now official, dues are more reasonable for two-year schools, and we elected the sassiest president in the history of the organization! Being a part of the house of delegates, and knowing the decisions made there are going to affect the organization for years to come, is an amazing experience that everyone should have the chance to participate in.

International convention was an absolute blast this past year and was one of the highlights of my summer. Next year, the convention, themed CKI X, will be in Nashville Tennessee. This is even within driving distance of Michigan! I am looking forward to this convention already, and to the exciting changes it will be bringing from years past. I guarantee you will not want to miss the revamped workshops or the rethought service fair! If you have any questions about last year’s convention, or the equally awesome one that will be happening next year, feel free to contact me or any of the other members who attended!