By Bob Lee
Columnist

Our Kiwanis club had another successful Mustang Raffle and the winning ticket was sold to a lucky guy in Poulsbo. I hope he has a lot of fun with his Mustang convertible and doesn’t have a lead foot. That car is hot.

We elected our new board for the 2013-14 years and I congratulate them for volunteering their time to steer our club in the right direction. They are as follows: Pat Bennett-Forman, president; president-elect, open; Dahlia Malin, vice president of programs and a lot more, along with husband Glenn; Eric Roth, secretary; Judy Osborn, treasurer; Dave Wetter, trustee; Marylou Iverson, trustee; Hal Hoover, emeritus and adviser.

We had a great program that featured Aline Bradley, a member of the Kingston Farm/Garden Co-op. Aline and her husband are fairly new to Kingston, but she jumped right in and got involved in her community. They are a military family and I know just how they feel. Thirty-four years ago when my family arrived in Kingston, after reporting to the new Bangor Submarine Base, I met Mike Wallace (Mike Wallace Park), Cy Wyse (Kingston High School) and Hap Dakota (Kingston Inn) my first night in town. The next thing I knew, I was helping with the 4th of July celebration, building a Kiwanis Club, and I never looked back.

Volunteering is really a lot of fun and rewarding. Aline talked about how much fun volunteers have working in the garden, and that new volunteers are always needed. All the food raised goes to the ShareNet Food Bank. Many hundreds of pounds of fresh produce have been donated, along with information on how to cook and store fresh vegetables for people that are not so familiar with the process. Good for you, Aline, and the Kingston Farm/Coop.

Next meeting, we will be doing our planning for fall and winter — specifically our Halloween Carnival, a huge success that focuses on young children. Our next regular meeting on Sept. 26 will feature Lindsey Phillips of Kitsap Mental Health, who will deliver a report on how they are helping our citizens in Kitsap County with mental health. Come on down to the Oak Table Café and join us.

One thing I like to do is highlight folks that support our children and residents in Kingston. Most of the time it concerns adults, but this time I’d like to talk about the Key Club, made up of students at Kingston High School.

The Key Club mission statement states it is “an international student-led organization which provides its members with opportunities to provide service, build character and develop leadership.” These young people have their own projects supporting our community, and volunteer their time helping our Kiwanis club with food drives, Boys & Girls Club fundraising at our annual gala in February, and many other Kiwanis projects that serve the children of our community.

Margaret LeMay, our Kiwanis adviser for Key Club, reported some things the students were proud of: They built two raised beds using beautiful cottage stone at the Village Green Pea Patch to benefit local families, using funds donated by the Kingston Garden Club. The kids had a lot of fun with this project and a feeling of accomplishment.

They helped with the Food for Kids summer food program and are going to carry on this program throughout the school year.

Key Club members are excited about Homecoming Week Oct. 7-12 and will be involved in helping with the parade, football game, and the homecoming dance.

Besides working on projects all the time, these young people have fun and get to meet new people all the time, with a feeling of belonging to a great organization. Their next project will be collecting funds for Unicef this Halloween to raise funds for iodine deficiency and HIV/AIDS programs worldwide. Key Club members have fun, meet new friends, and support their community. I believe that any student that joins Key Club will make their time in high school much more rewarding and learn skills that they will use throughout their life.

If you are interested in volunteering and getting involved in your community, come on down to the Oak Table Café on Thursday mornings at 7 a.m., or call our president, Pat Bennett-Forman, 360-697-4849, or me, 360-297-4462.

— Contact Bob Lee at GLENCARIN@aol.com