A few years back, a 15-year-old girl in the community was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Both of her parents quit their jobs to take care of their daughter and to spend as much time with her as possible.
To support the family, the Brooklyn Division of Kiwanis International, a global volunteer service organization with nine chapters in Brooklyn, held fundraisers to help them get through their troubled time.
Additionally, the teen knew she wasn’t going to make it to her 16th birthday and was devastated she wouldn’t have a Sweet Sixteen, so the Brooklyn Division made it happen for her at El Caribe Country Club Caterers, a year early. When the girl died shortly after her party, a Kiwanis member who owned a funeral home provided her parents with a family plot and burial services free of charge.
This is the kind of hands-on, community-based work that the Brooklyn Kiwanis Clubs do. The area covered by the Canarsie Courier is served by the Kings Plaza-Canarsie Kiwanis Club.
“It was just tough for them to make ends meet, and we helped them out,” Mark Pohl, Kings Plaza-Canarsie Kiwanis secretary and Brooklyn Division lieutenant governor, said.
The club’s mission is to identify needs on the ground in neighborhoods and provide services that meet those needs, such as through fundraising events.
“There’s just so many needs around, both on a family level and an organization level,” Pohl said. “We look to find people that can really benefit, whether it’s money or schools that need book bags or kids who are coming without any coats in the winter.”
The Kings Plaza-Canarsie chapter, along with the rest of the Brooklyn Division, is always open for new members and volunteers, who can get involved in a couple of ways. The easiest way is to attend the weekly meetings on Wednesdays at 7:15 p.m., where you can learn what the club is all about and hear about upcoming events. Even without becoming a formal, dues-paying member, you can get involved with the club’s events.
Additionally, Pohl is hoping to expand the Brooklyn chapter offerings, though all the clubs cover outside their official reach to support neighborhoods that don’t have their own clubs.
“Kiwanis is willing and able to help all the communities in Brooklyn,” Pohl said. “There are neighborhoods that could definitely use our help, and all we need to start a club there is people who see the needs and want to work with us to meet the needs of the community.”
Kiwanis also has student chapters in schools — K-Kids in elementary school, Builders Clubs in middle school, Key Clubs in high school and Circle K in college.
Recently, the club held a Community Baby Shower on Sunday, May 4th, at P.S. 276, where expectant and new mothers were given supplies to help care for their newborns, educated by area hospitals on neonatal care and offered free sonograms and blood pressure tests. Another previous event honored local veterans at Menorah Nursing Home.
A fun annual event is the Winter Wonderland, pictured in this article, which is held at area schools for children to meet Santa, get presents and eat festive snacks.
“It’s just to help the community at the holiday time and we got a lot of parents who said to us, ‘Thank you, because I didn’t have money to get my kids presents this year,’” Pohl said.
This summer will see more events with the Kings Plaza-Canarsie chapter, including a Bingo and Baskets Fundraiser at the Cort Club on Saturday, June 7th, and a visit from the Kiwanis New York Division governor at the Brooklyn Yacht Club on Tuesday, June 17th.
“Kiwanis is the best kept secret in Brooklyn,” Pohl said. “By doing these events and by getting coverage in the media, it helps people become more aware.”
Photos courtesy of Mark Pohl, Kings Plaza-Canarsie Kiwanis Club
