Category: Blog

8 Mar, 2013

4th Annual BNYP Garage Sale Fundraiser for Autism Camp

The Bloomington-Normal Young Professional Kiwanis Club (yes, that’s us!), will be hosting our 4th annual Autism Society of McLean County (ASMC) Garage Sale Fundraiser on Saturday, April 6th, 2013 (Kiwanis One Day – learn more about Kiwanis One Day here).

All proceeds from the garage sale will be given to ASMC for Autism Camp.

Autism Camp is dedicated to providing a valuable experience for children on the autism spectrum in a natural outdoor setting on Lake Bloomington. Children have the opportunity to engage in typical camp activities, including, canoeing, swimming, horseback riding, games, and much more in a safe and supportive atmosphere.

The cost for camp is $200-$225 per child. The money raised by our fundraiser will help pay the way for kids who could otherwise not afford to attend camp. You can read more about Autism Camp here.

Here are the details:

The garage sale will be on Saturday, April 6th, 2013 from 7:00a to 2:30p @ 1717 RT Dunn Drive in Bloomington (near DQ, The Great Escape, Razor’s Edge, etc.)
The garage sale itself will be a “name your own price” garage sale – no listed prices. The goal is to sell each and every item.
All unsold donated items will be given to the Mission Mart, Home Sweet Home, ReStore, etc.

Here’s how you can help:

Donate garage-sale worthy items for the garage sale. If you’re interested in donating in advance of the garage sale please contact Craig Luchtefeld, at craig@2400baud.com or 309-319-6006. The more items donated, the more money we can raise, and the more kids we can send to camp!
We will have early drop-off for donated garage sale items on Saturday, March 30th from 8:00a – 10:30a, Wednesday, April 3rd from 5:00p – 7:00p, and Friday, April 5th from 5:00p – 7:00p at the garage sale location. We’ll have volunteers to help unload and sort your items.
If you’d like to volunteer to help unload or sort items at any one of the early drop-off times, we’d very much appreciate the help!
If you’d like to make a monetary donation in lieu of donating garage sale items, we’d welcome the donation!

So, please, help us get the word out for this fundraising event and do some garage sale-ing!… read more

Blog

28 Nov, 2012

Holiday Embrace

Hello Internet Friends!

Yes I know this was not in the queue for my upcoming blogs, but it is very important and a rather big event for our district.

Holiday Embrace is a fundraiser event put on the the I-I District CKI. It is a fundraiser that has dinner, dancing, silent auction baskets and much more.

Below is the flyer for all the specifics. If you have any questions please feel free to email me! jillhaacke@gmail.com

We will be back to our normal blog schedule soon. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Living life one Kiwanis day at a time,

Jill

The BNYP Club and how much we love acronyms.

Blog

17 Nov, 2012

The BNYP Club and how much we love acronyms.

Hello Internet Friends!

As we grow and learn more about Kiwanis and all of its branches, we start seeing and making up more and more acronyms. It is an addiction for all Kiwanis clubs and districts, and I feel they are going to be around for a long time. So for this blog I am going to do a rapid fire list of the most common acronyms that we will see around the Kiwanis world. Feel free to use this as a reference to understand what is going on.

BNYP – Bloomington/Normal Young Professionals

SLP – Service Leadership Programs

CKI – Circle K International

KC – Key Club

SPRF – Spastic Paralysis Research Foundation

MNT – Maternal and Neonatal Tetnus

LTG – Lieutenant Governor

CLE – Club Leadership Education

DCON – District Convention

ICON – International Convention

OTIC – On To International Convention

HE – Holiday Embrace

I-I – Illinois Eastern Iowa

That is all I can think of off the top of my head, but I am sure there are more out there. And if we want to make more up, we can! That is the magic of Kiwanis.

Here is your preview of the upcoming posts!

The 6 Objects of Kiwanis International. (aka, the Bill of Rights to our Constitution)
Branches of the Kiwanis Family – There is no age limit.
How to be the perfect Kiwanis member.

If there is a topic you would like to see me discuss, please email me at jillhaacke@gmail.com. (Also, please feel free to email me any comments or concerns on any of the blogs!)

Living life one Kiwanis day at a time,

Jill

Blog / Meetings

20 Oct, 2012

Traveling Gavel from El Paso

Our friends from the Tuscola Kiwanis Club state it best:

“Each October, the Illinois-Eastern Iowa District Governor presents each new Division Lt. Governor with a handsome, personalized gavel. The Lt. Governor sets up a schedule for the clubs in his or her division to pass the gavel from club to club within twelve months. The purpose is to generate Interclub visits. The gavel must be delivered in some unique way, and finally returns to the lieutenant governor before the end of his or her term.

Great creativity or culinary expertise is appreciated when presenting the traveling gavel. Clubs have presented the gavel with customized chocolate and caramel gavels, built into a bird house packed with birdseed, frozen in a block of ice, suspended in a pan of lime Jell-O, dropped from an airplane in a bag of flour, and buried in a basket of Easter eggs. Clubs enjoy this tradition both for the creative ideas and the opportunity to enjoy the delivery!”

Check out the pictures of the bird feeder / traveling gavel we received from our friends at the Kiwanis Club of El Paso and a description:

“Rex from the El Paso club has built the bird feeders for many many years. He cuts out enough parts to make up the number of kindergarden kids in our schools – there were 90+ this year. Rex and and about 7 other club members go to the kindergarden classes and help the kids put their bird house together.”

Thanks so much to our friends from El Paso!

Blog

11 Oct, 2012

Haacke, Jill – a member with a blogging addiction and much more.

Hello Kiwanis Friends,

I am sure you are all thinking, “who is this girl, and why is she blogging about Kiwanis?” And that is a good question. Hopefully in this post I can prove to you my qualifications and my addiction with blogging and the Kiwanis family.

Here we go…

December 2008 : Attended first Circle K International (CKI) meeting at Northern Illinois University (NIU).

February 2009 : Became an official member of CKI at NIU.

March 2009 : Attended first I-I CKI DCON. Applied to be Spastic Paralysis Research Foundation (SPRF) Chair.

April 2009 : Chosen as SPRF District chair for I-I CKI.

April 2009 – March 2010 : Spent an amazing year serving as SPRF chair.

February 2010 : Elected Governor for I-I CKI for the 2010-2011 year.

April 2010 – March 2011 : Had a fantasitc year as CKI Governor.

April 2011 – Appointed I-I District On-To International Convention Chair.

June 2011 – Appointed Circle K International Awards Committee Chair.

March 2012 – Became a member of Bloomington/Normal Young Professionals.

I have spent the last four years, visiting Kiwanis, CKI and Key Clubs. Giving presentations and talking with people just like me, who have a passion to serve. I have also had the pleasure of working in the district office, both in Dekalb and Bloomington. And now I am an Assistant Administrator for the I-I CKI District.

Being the age that I am, I have had the pleasure of growing up with technology and media being a part of my daily life. For as long as I can remember I have been taking classes on computers, websites and social media. From there my social media skills have developed from Facebook to Twitter and now Blogging. Luckily these two worlds, Kiwanis and Social Media, have finally collided for my club and I am more than excited to be a part of it.

Here is your preview of the upcoming posts!

The BNYP Club, and how much we love acronyms.
The 6 Objects of Kiwanis International. (aka, the Bill of Rights to our Constitution)
Branches of the Kiwanis Family – There is no age limit.

If there is a topic you would like to see me discuss, please email me at jillhaacke@gmail.com. (Also, please feel free to email me any comments or concerns on any of the blogs!)

Living life one Kiwanis day at a time,

Jill… read more

Blog

5 Oct, 2012

What is Kiwanis, besides a funny word.

Kiwanis (ki-wa-nis): noun

a north american organization of men’s clubs founded in 1915 to promote community service. [alleged to be from an American Indian language meaning: to make oneself known]

Above is the dictionary.com definition of Kiwanis. Of course Kiwanis is not in the 21st Century and has since started letting women become members of the clubs, but that only happened 25 years ago. I feel if you ask any member throughout the world for their definition, you will get a different answer. Below you will fine may other definitions of this organization.

Jill’s (that’s me!) definition : a group of people with common interests, but from different places, can get together share an experience to better the world, one child and one community at a time.

Illinois Member : people working together to achieve what one person cannot accomplish alone. When you give a child a chance to learn, experience, dream and succeed, great things happen.

New York Member : the ability to be a part of something bigger than all of us to help the world grow and come together.

The most amazing aspect of this organization is that, as you can tell by above, the members each have their own experience and have the ability to make the most of it. They are the ones in charge of the clubs and all the amazing differences that are being made across the world. We hold the fate to our hands.

So I guess the answer to the question “What is Kiwanis?” is – whatever you want it to be!

Here are some links to the official websites just in case you would like some professional answers, and not some rants of a person who has been brainwashed by the most amazing organization out there!

Kiwanis International – wwww.kiwnias.org | BNYP Kiwanis Club – www.bnyp.org

Here is your preview of the upcoming posts!

Haacke, Jill – a member with a blogging addiction and much more.
The BNYP Club, and how much we love acronyms.
The 6 Objects of Kiwanis International. (aka, the Bill of Rights to our Constitution)

Thanks for reading!

Living life one Kiwanis day at a time,

Jill

Blog

4 Oct, 2012

Hello World!

Greetings World Wide Web and Friends Reading!

Welcome to the blog of the Bloomington/Normal Young Professional Kiwanis Club.

My name is Jill Haacke and you will have the pleasure of seeing and following all the wonderful adventures that I take being a member of this amazing club throughout the next year.

Stay tuned for more information on what Kiwanis is, who the heck I am and why our world is a better place with this organization.

Upcoming Posts: