New club brings service to campus

Nov. 18, 2004
By Allie Meyer
Guest Writer

Some St. Ambrose students are getting the opportunity to give back to their community.  A charitable service organization has regrouped on campus and is ready to donate their time to help others.

“A lot of people on campus don’t know about Circle K and we want to make it more known and get more involvement,” club president Dav Nowinski said.  “Circle K is a group of people that want to get together and help the community.  It is a very rewarding organization.”

Circle K International is organized for colleges and sponsored by the Kiwanis Club, a world-wide service organization.  It is self-governing and elects its own officers.  Circle K creates its own service activities and promotes leadership development, fellowship and scholarships.

“We’re hoping to serve and help the community and other people overall,” club secretary Ashley Tonkin said.

At least twenty members are required for the international club to charter, and this was exceeded at the first meeting in September.

“I had no idea so many people would be interested. It’s overwhelming and very exciting.” Circle K advisor and Kiwanis Club member Liz Berridge said.

The club brought in the money needed for the re-chartering from two sponsoring Kiwanis clubs, the Davenport Noon Club, represented by advisor Brian Burke, and the Bettendorf Kiwanis Club, represented by advisor Bill Boom.  They put together a four person committee, two from each club, to attend the Circle K meetings so that both Davenport and Bettendorf could be represented at every meeting.

Circle K is now working at getting their bylaws written, getting forms signed by sponsors, and creating activities.  It is required by the bylaws to do joint work with organizations.  The club has been approached by Big Brothers and Big Sisters and also is working with World Relief.

“The focus of World Relief is to help refugees adjust to and understand our society, and to get households and jobs set up,” Berridge said.  “We are finding projects that can help their kids from ages six to 13, such as tutoring or mentoring.”

Other officers for this year’s Circle K club are vice-president Kayla Tramp, treasurer Jill Glenzinski, and bulletin editor Catt Foy.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm with the new officers,” Berridge said.  “Many of them were involved in Key Club in high school and already know what they are doing.”

Circle K is part of the Division 4 and the Illinois-Eastern Iowa Circle K District, along with Augustana College and Franciscan University of the Prairie.  Several of the new officers attended the Illinois-Eastern Iowa District Circle K Leadership Training Conference.  The event was held at the Streator Baptist Camp in Streator, Ill., on Oct. 15-17. The goal of the conference was to help the officers learn to keep minutes, run the meetings, and gain some leadership skills.

“We learned how to make our group work together with different social activities and ice breakers that would take less than ten minutes,” Glenzinski said.

Circle K is off to a great start, with a lot of excitement and activities being planned. Anyone interested in joining can attend their meetings every Tuesday at nine p.m. in the Ambrose Hall board room.

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