DLSSP North Press Release
March 31, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tyler Bowman
cnhcki.outreach@gmail.com
CIRCLE K INTERNATIONAL LEADS VOLUNTEERS IN SERVING OAKLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
OAKLAND, California; February 13th, 2016 –– Circle K International (CKI) members will come together once again to host one of their major annual service events. The event will take place at East Oakland Pride Elementary School on February 13, 2016 and will be a continuation of the restoration projects CKI started at the school last year.
The annual service event is planned by students from California, Nevada, and Hawaii, to bring together college student volunteers from multiple colleges and universities to make a direct impact in a single day on the community.
District Service Chair Edison Xu, a fourth year public health major at UC Berkeley, spearheads the committee, which has overseen every step of the planning of the event, from selecting the volunteer site to obtaining donations. With a record-breaking number of 190 volunteers registered for the event, Xu looks forward to going back and finishing what the organization started last year.
“Revisiting a project site and continually providing them service helps establish a strong bond with the community with which we work, reinforcing meaningful service among our members,” Xu said. As an active member of UC Berkeley’s chapter of CKI throughout his four years of college, he also feels a personal connection working with and serving the local Oakland community.
East Oakland Pride Elementary School was nominated as the project site by Connie Lam, a UCLA alumna and member of Berkeley Kiwanis. Lam, a teacher at East Oakland Pride and former CKI member, helped coordinate the event with CKI one year ago. Projects from last year’s events include creating a mural, repainting pavements, organizing the library, and much more.
Because East Oakland Pride is a high-poverty elementary school, Lam emphasizes the significance of the service project, “Circle K being here at our school for the second year in a row says so much more than the paint you will put on our walls or the litter you will pick up off the ground. It shows that you care. It shows that our school matters.”
This service project holds special significance, not only for its large size, but also because of its contribution as part of the family of Kiwanis International’s goals of serving the children of the world, one child and one community at a time.
Founded in 1934, Circle K International is an international collegiate service organization, sponsored by Kiwanis International, that aims to promote service, leadership, and fellowship to all communities alike. CKI currently has over 13,000 members across multiple districts around the world. The California-Nevada-Hawaii District, formed in 1954, consists of over 2,800 members from all over the three states. For more information on the California-Nevada-Hawaii District of Circle K International and its events, please visit www.cnhcirclek.org.
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