First time with a Christmas Tree... and no Ice

Hey Everyone!

I am so sorry for the lack of updating this blog but I have had some INTERESTING things happen to me in the past month.

It started out with finals and I got through all four of them... unharmed... but if CKI has taught me ANYTHING it is the ability to take one thing at a time and still multi-task. I feel that as CKI members we really stretch ourselves thin with some of the things that we do, but I also feel that CKI teaches you to take one project and one meeting at a time and know when to move on to the next project. A clear example of this was when I was studying. I would study and study and study, and yet feel like I was going nowhere, but if I used my CKI multi-tasking ability and studied a little bit of this subject and another of this one and then work on my Sub-region C Newsletter I retained/memorized it better.

CONCLUSION: Don't work on something at a long length of time. The quality might not be as good as if you would leave and come back to it and redo some of your mistakes (i.e., proofreading!)

But I came out of the semester with a 3.93 (I got an A-...). WOO HOO overall!

Then I am currently in the Florida Everglades. I came done this past summer to do research on endangered epiphytic orchids (look up Epidendrum amphistomum, Epidendrum nocturnum, Dendrophylax lindenii, Prosthecea cochleata for examples) and got some REALLY good journal material, but I saw a need: they didn't have anyone to finish the greenhouse or the orchid lab here at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge... so I asked if I could come back during December. With an open trailer, I was flown down here to help with those two projects. Now, I think this can go back to my Key Club days and has florished into my CKI days but I see where service can be done. I am not getting paid down here... actually I am paying for everything... so I consider this service to my BIOLOGICAL community. I am trying to preserve the population of all those orchids I had listed.

TWO THINGS TO LOOK FOR WHEN LOOKING FOR PROJECTS:
People say that they are short-staffed.
People mention a project that was started but not finished.

These were the two main things that helped me realize that they needed help. So far, I am installing the watering system tomorrow for the greenhouse and I am checking the lab for sterility.

Hope everyone's Christmas was a good one... just remember those who can't eat, don't have family near them, or don't have a family to go to... it makes you feel proud about being a CKI member. ::Quick story::

Today my supervisor (who I at dinner with tonight) said that he didn't care about how the table was prepared because he is thinking more of the people who don't have anything to eat. (Joking of course as he fixes the plate and silverware arrangments). Then I said to him "Well that is what CKI members are here for." Then I thought to myself... did I just say that?? To my wildlife biologist of a boss?? Sure I did... because it is true. CKI does make a difference, we just don't know about all of the impacts.

Giving Back to the Community during Christmas

Hey Everyone!

Have you ever done anything that just made you feel good? I mean, did you do a service project and leave saying "Wow, this feels AWESOME" and yet, you still feel terrible because they needed the help? What I am referring to is our club did our annual "Adopt-a-Family" where we fundraise for a budget to buy a family presents that normally wouldn't be able to afford them.
I go to the local food bank/charity center and ask them for a family with children that would benefit from us buying their children toys. This year, we were asked to help a a family with SIX children and a mother whose job was just discontinued.

With our great fundraising efforts we were able to spend $500.00 on this family. But with six kids, that doesn't go far, but it did. We asked them what they wanted for Christmas... and we got them that PLUS all new winter coats.

1 DVD player, 4 DVDs, 4 Game Boys, 8 Game Boy Games, 4 outfits (for the little girl), a CD Player, NOW 29, and a box of chocolates.... for only $520.00. After we left from delivering, she called me and kept saying THANK YOU!... and that is why I left thinking.. "Wow, I feel awesome, but I shouldn't have to do this in the first place..."


MORAL of the story: Keep helping people, the world needs it, even if you think there shouldn't be a need.

PS- Don't forget to STUFH your face this holiday season. With Students Teaming Up to Fight Hunger, you can get in contact with your local food bank and help out with their many new customers for the holiday season.

What is the best service organization?

CIRCLE K!

Tonight was Trivia Night in our town and our CKI Club went to represent! The Trivia Night was for our Relay for Life team and we had a GREAT turn out. We did come 12th out of 16 teams, but at least we didn't lose :o). Which is a great service project, because you are helping Relay for Life, but it's also a Fellowship time... especially when the Category is "The Sopranos" and NO ONE on your team had seen the show.

Well I am sorry for the lack of blogging, just been a bit busy with making sure that my flies in my genetics class are mating correctly ;). Which is one point that I would LOVE to say right now: Academics come first! I say it ALL the time to my club and to the members of the other organizations I am involved with. I do this, so that when it comes to the point when I need some leg room, I can receive it without hesitation. [I had a Genetics paper due Friday... and a MRF due Thursday... lets just say that I had to ask for an extension :)] We are all college students and we understand there are limits, so please, serve all you can... but that's all that CKI asks of you.

Some projects that I have been doing are:

Working at the Kiwanis Family Service Day in Wisconsin-Upper Michigan at the Boys Soccer State Tournament as field security... yeah... they DO need security. I caught three people trying to climb over the fence and had to tell people to buy tickets because they were watching the game outside of the fence.. people... c'mon now it's just $5 ;).

I cooked lunch at the Ronald McDonald House close to Jacksonville. We cooked a chicked-fried rice stirfry and they LOVED that it wasn't pasta. When we toured the building, I realized that they needed a new selection of DVDs, more food for the pantry, and greeting cards for the residences to send out for free. So, instead of doing what all the OTHER volunteers do, we have decided to "adopt" this House and make it where they are paying for as LITTLE for the little things as possible.

Finally, I played Bunko... (yeah never heard of it neither) with the Alzheimer patients at a local assisted living homes close to campus. There are two places that I have found that love to have us and we try to switch to the other place every other month. Most of the time we play BINGO with stuffed animals as gifts, but not this time. This time THEY had games for us to play and manicures to give out. It was a great time, and I suggest getting to know your elderly b/c they LOVE to sit and talk :o).

Well until next time (which will probably be after Thanksgiving) so HAPPY TURKEY-EATIN'-DAY!

JJ

Red, White, and Blue...History in the making!

Hey guys!

First off, I hope you voted :o).

Secondly, I had a killer Halloween (no pun intended). As I mentioned before, I was going to help out at a Haunted Trail and Trick or Treat for UNICEF. For the Haunted Trail, I was the scary Dr. Death... Dr. Jones. I did it for three nights and pretty much have the whole creepy chainsaw thing down (even though my fingers are still stained red from that STUPID fake permanent blood). Overall, I think this was a HUGE success for our club when it comes to service projects. We had 10 people total help with it over the course of 3 nights (Wed, Thurs, Fri) with a lot of returners. Also, my chartering Kiwanis Club President was leading it... had to help him out :).

We actually started our Halloween week off on Tuesday (the night of our meetings) as a time to fundraise for TOT for UNICEF. After 1.5 hours, press releases in the newspaper, and a few people at our city municipal building not knowing what TOT was we raised $528.23!!! In our town that is a HUGE accomplishment... I feel.

We also had our fundraiser of selling LIVE Christmas Greenery. We are going to make about $500 MORE from this fundraiser and this goes DIRECTLY to the community through our Adopt-a-Family project. I feel that this fundraiser went over better than ANY other fundraiser at our college b/c:

1. We got something that appealed to the faculty and staff.
2. We could tell exactly what it was used for.
3. We told them how it was used last year and contacted last year's buyers.

So our club is on a very good path with club activities and fundraisers... we just need to have more socials... period.

Until my next post! BYES!

JJ

Spooky Halloween!

Hey guys!

So this past few weeks have been one for the VERY time-managed. I went to I-I's Leadership Training Conference which turned out to be a huge success! A lot of the memebers there had a good time and learned a lot. I even had people asking for the presenters to send them the workshops they presented (!!!). We had a hay ride, service projects... (painting a basketball court again this year ... on a road that gets blacktopped EVERY year...) I met some people from around my area so hopefully we can start interclubbing more.

Yesterday was our Safe Halloween in town. Illinois College's CKI Club was asked to help construct a "non-scary" plot by the local Convalescent Center since we do a lot with them anyways... and it turned out really well. We didn't know that we had a 5'x5' area to begin with, or that the lights would be on the entire time... so it did kill a little of our fun, but on a college budget and time.. I think we did GREAT!

Next Tuesday our club is Trick-or-Treating for UNICEF and being the Service Co-Chair, I invited all organizations on campus... and we got three responses (YAY!). I had a little trouble at the police department because apparently the two people that I talked to had NO idea what Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF was... but I embarrassed the last lady and look around and every said "Yes!" and gave her a look that said... "How could you not know..." By doing it before Halloween I am hoping that the townspeople will still donate to a great cause and foundation!

THEN we have a Haunted Trail that is co-sponosored with our Kiwanis Club and having a frieghtful Wednesday-Friday nights of that... I'll inform you of what happens later.

Well have a great halloween... I'm going to be a college student this year! (Left my pimp costume at home this year :o)).

JJ

M-I C-K-I!

Hey Sub-region C!

I've been pretty busy with my home club, homecoming, and attending Michigan's Fall Leadership Training Conference.

One major project that I worked on in the past few weeks was being an officer manager at a local festival to help take some of the duties off of the other regulars. This seemed like not a lot of work, but to them it was LOADS off of their backs. I took the visitors' questions, made announcements over the big PA, and did little tasks here and there. This year, they called ME to have me get a group together. Which shows that when you have a good group of people, they will call you back!

Homecoming went well. I was the Spirit Committee Chairman, which means that I decorated the entire campus Hollywood-themed. This took 2 hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Unfortunately I missed it, but for a great time in Michigan!

Michigan had a great FLTC where the members learned a few things about themselves and the district that they didn't know before. It was very much a fellowhip/leadership building event with Sunday being a time of service to the camp. On that note, the camp told Governor Ashley that they would allow them to come with a great discount if they do the work that we did that week.

Hmm... AD HOC COMMITTEE APPLICATIONS IN BY WEDNESDAY!

District Board Meetings! AH!

Hey hey!

So, with the beginning of school comes the beginning of the district board meetings. This past weekend was the I-I Board Meeting and being the NCB&R Chair I had to be there... on top of giving my last Lt. Governor's report and the International Update report. At board meetings I have realized that two amin things happen:

1. The most random comment creates a HUGE change in the way things are ran or creates a new idea for a project.
2. When it gets to be 11PM and the board has been working since 8... people get to see each other's true colors and by that I mean their creativeness starts to ooze out.

So what does this mean? Pretty much, let any idea that you have out in public. It may not be good by itself, but with some group dynamics that CKI is great for, there could be something done along those lines. Also, it means that if you give a board Starbucks coffee they will tolerate people until 11PM :o).

This past weekend was also my last duty as Lt. Governor (that I would NOT give up) and that was a Tri-Divisional Fall Rally for Divisions 5,6,&7 of the I-I. This went over GREATLY. There were 42 CKI'ers in attendance with representation from all of Division 7 (my division) CKI's. From my perspective everything went great and I think people had a good time. I have talked to a few people and the #1 complaint was that they didn't know as much about CKI as the others. This is exactly what I had planned it to be, a learning experience for the newer members.

The Fall Rally was held at Illinois College, where I attend, and since we are a new club (1.5 years old) my members aren't the most knowledgable about the larger CKI projects, and by allowing older members to discuss CKI, they picked up on it too! Finally, what is a Rally without some Fellowship? This time, we had Ultimate Frisbee tournaments... well it was about to be tournament before I convinced them to do another game. FYI- if you need to put kids to sleep that you are babysitting... have them play Ultimate... they will be done in 30 mins tops!

So, the moral of the story is...host a fally rally or go to one... they are a blast!

Until next time!

JJ

United Way Anyone?!

Hey!

Just got back from stuffing over 2500 envelopes with my club for the United Way's capital fund. We had 19 people there... and I am stoked!

Tonight we decided to have a Homecoming Float and a Market Table at our Homecoming Game... which leads me to the point that in order to get those last few members at the beginning of school, market at events that a lot of people go to. Also, get some money out of it!

For example, we sell live greenery as a fundraiser on our campus... no one else does it or knows who to go through (so that's a plus)... but we are going to people place orders at the table, pay us, and then we have a fundraiser... but also, we will have information for those members who want to join or have never heard of CKI before. As usual we will have our banner draped over our table and have members wearing t-shirts, but the real kicker is getting their attention! So to do that, we are having a social to creat construction paper wreaths and then placing them at our tables (promoting the greenery) but people will have NO idea what we are doing and make them want to ask us!

Also, we are going to be involved with this year's Homecoming Parade. We decided that we would like to have the Kiwanis Club members' grandchildren/children accompany us since we focus on children, and then pass out candy with a note that says... "Need Community Service Support... e-mail us at_____." Not that straight-forward though :0).

Anyways, got a lot of studying to do for Biochemistry. Have a great night!

HELLO!

Hello everyone!

With my first CKI blogs comes my favorite quote:

"Do not go where the path may lead; instead go
where there is not path and leave a trail."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now, I begin this year with this quote because I feel this is what CKI is always doing. CKI... which only two years ago was only Circle K International... has been creating new paths, walking on them for a few years (or months) and then constructing a new one.

I went to the International Board Trainer in Indianapolis, IN and learned a lot of things and we came up with some GREAT goals and ideas for committees.

I plan on putting up here all the projects that I put on and participate with.

Now a brief introduction of me... I am JJ Sadler and I am an avid Kiwanis family member. I chartered my club in April 2007 at Illinois College and was Club President. I was Lt. Governor only 6 months into my CKI career and now I am the Sub-region C International Representative. I say this... because I would also like to stress that I am my CLUB's Service Co-Chair. I have made it where we had to say "No" to some organizations because our Club's Service calendar was too full.

If you need to contact me, please e-mail me at subregionc@circlek.org and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

LFS,

JJ Sadler

For office hours, check out http://slp.kiwanis.org/CircleK/contact/intboard.aspx.