Thank you, from Steve and the homeless in our area

Yesterday we delivered 32 packets to Steve Brigham to distribute to the homeless in the Lakewood and Jackson area. The packets are holiday gifts to encourage them during the National night of Remembering the Homeless, Dec. 21st, and Christmas.

The packages included items like soap, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste, powder, disposable razors & shaving cream, socks, hats, gloves & scarves, feminine hygiene products, and McDonald's gift certificates.

Every Saturday Steve distributes clothing and food at the Lakewood Town Center to the poor and homeless. In addition to the packages we gave him clothing, insulated vests, coats and sneakers to distribute.

Steve wanted me to pass along thanks to our Kiwanis club on behalf of the homeless.

It really was our pleasure to help. We had a lot of fun assembling the packages. Thank you for the opportunity to help.

2015 KCOJ Community Dinner at OCL's the Lakewood branch

 

For five of the past six years the Kiwanis Club of Jackson has sponsored a community dinner at Ocean County Library's Lakewood branch. I wanted to share some of the reactions from Wednesday’s dinner.

"What a great success!  Nights like that remind us why we do this and why it is great to be part of the Kiwanis Club of Jackson. Our guest were wonderful and very thankful.   Special thanks to our two key clubs who came out in force and made the night special.  We look forward to working with our two great Key Clubs throughout the year.  Too many people to thank personally in this email, many who were there and some who worked behind the scene, but that is a good problem to have!   Maybe we can do a dinner in the spring as well?

Great job everyone" Fran
 

I wrote the following to Cathi Sheridan, Ocean County Library’s Lakewood branch manager: "I wanted to say thank you from the Kiwanis Club of Jackson for allowing us to hold our annual community dinner at the Lakewood branch last night.  10 of our member and 21 students from the youth programs we sponsor were able to feed 147 men, women and children (the youngest this year was four-years old) a warm meal. I don’t know who received more from the dinner, the people we served or us who are privileged to help out."

Larry

Cathi replied: "Thanks for continuing to have your Community Dinners in Lakewood.  Please forward my gratitude to the Kiwanis Club of Jackson as well.   Community members starting asking if you all were hosting the dinner again this year weeks ago.  They really look forward to it."

 

Thank you for all who helped out and donated items for the dinner: Fran  & Ed, Fran Diane, Lou & Claire, Bernadette, Ralph, Robin & Mateo, Dan, Colleen, Pam, Glenn, Matt, & Larry.  11 Key Clubber from Memorial and 9 from Liberty, and 1 member from the Goetz Builders Club were a great help!

And a big thanks to Jo & George. Their turkey soup will once again be the talk of the town this year. What a great soup! It was so popular.

And like ever year we seem to have just enough. It was a blessing for us to help out.

 

 

 

Breakfast with Santa

Great turnout at today's Breakfast with Santa.  A lot of nice members helped out, along with Key Club and Brookdale Circle K members.  Thanks for making this such a great success.

Thanks to event chairperson Carol; to Santa Floyd; to Donna; our cooks Fran, Bob, Paul, Dan, Laura, Glen, and Ralph; and our support staff Pat, MaryJo, Mrs. Johnson, Bernadette, Lois and Angie.  And I got to do the photos.  (If I missed anyone, let me know.)

And thanks to Jo and George from Jackson Helping Hands for joining with us.

Photos can be at http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157628376606867/ or the slideshow at http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157628376606867/show/ .

Community Dinner @ the Lakewood library branch

The Kiwanis Club of Jackson sponsored the fourth annual community dinner at the Lakewood branch of the Ocean County Library Thursday Nov 17.  Doors opened at 6 p.m.  When we finished we served about 110 people from the community.  We brought the extra food to Tent City and fed about 25 more people.

We had a lot of KCOJ members, their family members and friends help out by donating food, cooking the food and serving the food.  We also had help (and a donated turkey and two-gallons of soup) from Jo  & George of the Jackson Helping Hands club, members of our Key Club, and members of the library's Teen Advisory Board (TAB.)  Library staff also donated food.

The menu included several turkeys, 50 pounds of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, dessert and a sheet cake, mixed vegetables, corn, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs (12 dozen!), stuffing, soda, joice, coffee & tea.  And I know I've forgotten some items.

Thanks to all who helped us with the food and supported the community.

Thanks, too, to my photographers Dan, Pearl and Samantha.  A slideshow of their photos can be found on my Flickr account: http://bit.ly/uA86i7

Funnel cakes & wine? You bet!

So how did you spend last weekend?  A few of us sold about 500 funnel cakes as a fundraiser at the Laurita Winery's 2011 Harvest Festival.  Saturday was clear and cool, Sunday was on eof the best weather days one could ever hope for!

So who helped out?  Lou & Clair, Dan, Fran & Diane & Pearl & Sam, Laura, Donna and me.

Great jazz.  Great wine. Great funnel cakes.  And I'm so glad for Randy & Ray: great crowd!  And everyone had a great time.

A slideshow of photos taken by Pearl, Sam and I can be found on by Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157627875696847/show/

A Busy Day of Service

We had a split squad out there today, attending at least two service projects.

We had representation at the Susan Komen walk at Great Adventure for breast cancer awareness.

And we had people cooking at Celtic Charms horse ride-a-thon in Howell.  Members Stan, Fran, Donna & Larry, along with Stan's friend Joe and six Key Club members served hot dogs and hamburgers to about 300 people.  The rain stayed away but we were under a heavy cloud all afternoon.

To view a slideshow of our team at work click on this link: http://bit.ly/qnRnpT 

National Night out Against Crime

We were cooking!  We were out there cooking hot dogs for the annual event.  We cooked up 600 in the first hour and ended up serving a total of about 900 throughout the night.

To view a slideshow of photos from the night click here  And just in case that doesn't work here is the Web address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157627219500277/show/

Whitesville Firehouse cleanup

Hey all,

Eight of us showed up for the Whitesville Firehouse cleanup yesterday.Many hands make short work.  We did windows, bathrooms, kitchen and the meeting room.  A slideshow of 7 photos taken can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157625762660109/show/ 

Larry

KCOJ helps with Lakewood library's 3rd annual community dinner

I am so proud of our club!  We helped the Lakewood branch of the Ocean County Library with their third annual community dinner Nov. 18, the Thursday before Thanksgiving.

Our club donated $100 towards supplies at our meeting Nov. 11th, provided a dozen and a half people to help serve the food (8 club members and 10 family members), and cooked food (3 turkeys, a  ham, 50 pounds of mashed potatoes, 30 pounds of sweet potatoes, several types of vegetables, cranberry sauce, cole slaw, stuffed eggs, and dessert.)

In 2008 the library had about 80 people attend.  Last year it had about 170, and this year we served well over 200 people!  This is the second year KCOJ participated.

Here is a link to about 3 dozen photos I took at the dinner.  Enjoy.  And Kiwanis, thanks!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157625320283329/show/

East Veterans Highway sparkles thanks to Kiwanis

Oh, East Veterans Highway, you look mah-vah-lous!   Thanks to the Kiwanis Club of Jackson's efforts, we collected a bunch of transh from alongside the roadway.  Abd doesn't it look great?
Thanks to (left to right) Vivian, Donna, Ralph, Fran and Stan.  And me, I'm the photographer in the front row (see my shadow?) Larry!
Our next highway cleanup is scheduled for the first Sunday in December (Dec. 5) at 9 a.m.  But be sure to contact our community services chair Ralph or Secretary Donna to let them you know you'll be helping.  We only have a limited number we can let help.  If you're too late, sorry, but you'll have to wait till next time. 

November Board of Directors meeting

We held our Board meeting Monday, Nov. 1 at Whitesville Firehouse.

Among the items discussed:

1. Named seven committee chairs:
Youth Services: Floyd
Community Service: Ralph
Sponsored Youth: Donna
YCP1: Laura
Programs and public relations: Larry
Fundraising: Carol
Membership and nominating: Lois
Also, the Human & Spiritual Values subcommittee on homeless: Larry and Ralph.

2. The service account budget was approved.

3.  Approved the four faculty advisors to our Key Clubs and Builder Club, along with Stan's cousin Walter as honorary members.

4.  Future board meetings have been moved to the first Thursday of the month @ 6 p.m.  The next meeting will be held

5.  Discussed Breakfast with Santa (Sunday Dec. 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. @ Whitesville Firehouse.)  We need club members to sell placemat ads.  Other fundraisers include the PBA dinner-dance March 4th and Breakfast with the Easter Bunny April 24th (the day before Easter.)

6. We got our bills from Kiwanis International (club bill, insurance bills) and we need to get money into the admin account.  If you haven't done so yet, please make that effort to pay your bill.

Kiwanis 1 Day

Members of the Jackson High School Key Clubs and the Brookdale Circle K Club joined the Kiwanis Club of Jackson for Kiwanis 1 Day projects at the library.

We made lap-quilts, flower arrangements, painted keepsake boxes, greeting card and even recorded some stories for the kids at the Children's Specialized Hospital facility in Toms River.

We had seven club members, seven Key Clubbers and 1 Circle K-er help out. Work began around 9 a.m. and ended around noon.

Thanks to all who helped.
Photos from the event can be found at my Flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157623704195151/show/

Breakfast with Santa

We hosted our annual Breakfast with Santa Sunday morning (Dec. 13) at the Whitesville Fire House. Great turnout! We had at least 200 people and 35 "good" students redeemed their certificates.

We created another You Tube video (4:30) and you can see it:

KCOJ helps out at the Lakewood library community dinner

The Kiwanis Club of Jackson assisted the Lakewood branch of the Ocean County Library the Thursday before Thanksgiving by donating time and food at the library's community dinner. Members helped prepare the food (3 turkeys, 40 pounds of mashed potatoes and 20 pounds of sweet potatoes)and serve it alongside the library staff and the branch's Teen Advisor Board (TAB.)

We served about 175 people in an hour and a half.

Thanks to Fran Polito, Laura Johnson, Al Manus, Lois Kapp, Dan Black, Donna Corman, Dolores and Larry Meegan.

A slideshow (with audio) can be viewed on You Tube @
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqw52KmAu2U&feature=player_embedded

Operation Highway Cleanup complete!

We completed our five months of highway cleanup yesterday morning. West Veterans Highway hasn't looked that clean in years thanks to the work of about a dozen members and friends during that time. One member, Stan, attended all five cleanups (what a glutton for punishment!) and he earned a gold star from Donna. Michael, Donna and I were there for four of them.
As a result the club will add $500 to its service account, enabling us to do more for the community.
Thanks all!

August Highway Cleanup

Thanks to Stan, Michael, Donna, Melissa and Larry for doing a highway cleanup along East Veterans Highway this morning. I must always pick the trashy side because once again the other "team" finished before us and came to our side of the roadway to help us finish up.

There were lots of motoercycles on the road today. I'd bet there were at least 200 of them in packs of 8 to 12, roaring down the road.

Nothing much of note picked up today but we did play a little. I brought my video camera and I recorded "interviews" with our street walkers. Here is the link to You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUO0dKK6qGs (You may have to copy and paste it into your browser.)

And as Melissa said in the video, one person actually cme out of his house to say, "Thank you." Now that was first.

Enjoy!

Night Out Against Crime

KCOJ once again assisted the Jackson Police and PBA by cooking at the annual Night Out Against Crime. I would say that attendance at the event gets bigger and bigger each year. And with that, so does the line for our hotdogs and hamburgers.

We had two grills and I would be we cooked about 800 hamburgers and 1200 hot dogs. This year we didn't have to worry about cheeseburgers, thank goodness. They take longer and make quite a mess.

We used the new grills again this year and compared to the charcoal grills, they were a breeze to clean up. And we didn't have to worry about taking a long time to cool down like the coals required.

Thanks to all who helped: Dan Black, Carol Hordichuk, Michael and Ingrid Rice, Lois Kapp, President Fran Polito, Stan, Paul Tarantino. And I helped a bit, too.
Hey, isn't that paint job on the trailer great? Thanks Glen. And thanks to you and Lou for bringing the trailer to the ShopRite location. BTW, ShopRite provided the food. Thanks ShopRite.

Liberty Key Club car wash

Okay, it's all my fault. I take full responsibility. If I didn't stop by and get my car washed by the Liberty Key Club yesterday I am sure we wouldn't have gotten all this rain. And the lightning! As Phil Rizzuto used to say, "Holy cow!"
It was nice an sunny around 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon. I read Donna's reminder about the carwash and thought the car needed some attention, and it would be a great photo op. But this rain! Just think, though, if I waxed it we'd probably be in the middle of a full blown hurricane.

The Key Club had a great turnout. About a dozen people participated. And the Italian-American club had a flea market going on at the same time.

Highway cleanup - part 3

Okay, for the third consecutive month we cleaned a portion of East Veterans Highway (the former Lakewood-New Egypt Road for you old timers) Sunday. With six of us it took about an hour. Even after spraying myself (Danny told us it was prime chigger time) I ended up bringing a tick home. I hate ticks.
So here's a photo of the motley crew, taken by our drill sergeant Donna who handed us our marching orders. Up to Meadowbrook Village and back.
Thanks Glen, Mike, Dan, Mary Jo, and Stan.
Larry

Harbor House heroes

Everybody returned safely from the Harbor House 400-mile bicycle fundraiser.
The 5 day ride, which began in St. Al's parking lot 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, went throughout western NJ and eastern Pa. and ended this afternoon at Windward Beach in Brick. Congratulations to our club's heroes Denis, Pat & Lois. Thank you for making that sacrifice to go out and help that great cause. And here's a shout out to Jackson's Kathy Maletti who has been involved with the rides since it all began 13 years ago. Way to go!