University
California, santa cruz of
Winter 2015-2016
Volume 1 | issue 3
Introduction………………………3 Service…………………………………………4 Leadership…………………………….9 Fellowship…………………………….12 Miscellaneous………………14
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Hello, hello! Welcome to the third edition of UC Santa Cruz Circle K’s newsletter, “The Monthly Clam!” Read on and see what exciting things our club has been up to in the past couple of months. it’s been a busy winter/new year for us! Some of our service events include Go West and Sunset Division’s Holla-Day Open Mic. ALSO, we’ll be talking about the exciting things we’ve done with our local Kiwanis groups. As we approach our term’s end I hope to see everyone finish strong as we still have so much more in store! Real quick shameless plug, if you’re thinking about running for an officer position in our upcoming elections, DO IT. We need leaders like you to keep our club going! Wise up. Rise up. Bless up. Don’t ever play yourself. Joshua Pe Publication Editor, 2015-2016
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Scott’s Valley Kiwanis Shopping Spree
For the Scott’s Valley hosted event we and the Kiwanians shopped for children's clothing, in which they would be gifted to kids who do not have the luxury of getting presents. We arrived at K-mart around 8:30 a.m. and received the names of the children and the clothing we would need to buy for them. I had three boys and three girls to shop for. At first, I assumed that the shopping was going to be easy, as I knew how to shop for myself, but I was very wrong. There were many different kinds of styles and fabrics that I would choose for children in my generation, but clothing styles change throughout the years. I didn't want to pick clothing that would make the children of this generation look unfashionable or have their clothing not be practical. I ended using the whole two hours finding the right clothing, but I was very satisfied with the result. Over 50 children had received presents, and with the K-mart cash earned from the clothing bought, even more children received Christmas presents that year thanks to the help of the Kiwanians and the Circle K’ers. By: Brianna Lustan
Scott’s valley Kiwanis Gift wrapping Spree
Of course, the Scott’s Valley Kiwanians were faced with the daunting task of wrapping up all the gifts they had bought for the children. The Circle K’ers helped out to wrap all of the presents and everyone had a fantastic time!
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Surf City Kiwanis Shopping Spree
During finals week of Fall Quarter, I attended a really fun service event that I found very meaningful: the Kohl's Holiday Gift Shopping. On December 10th, following the Thursday morning Surf City Kiwanis general meeting, a group of other Circle K members and I traveled on over to the Kohl's at the Capitola Mall Shopping Center, where we met up again with the Kiwanians. The Kiwanians gave us slips of paper with the names and descriptors of the children that we were to shop for. These children were young people who did not have the luxury of getting presents during the holidays. From what I remember, most of these kids asked for simple things that we tend to take for granted: shirts, pants, socks, and the like. I really appreciate what Kiwanis was doing, of providing support and a sense of community to these children. The other Circle K'ers and I spent roughly a couple hours choosing items for each child and then helping out with the check out process. I myself picked out clothes for two girls, and I found it really fun to try to think about what they would want to wear and like. I also found it fun to talk to the other members in both our club as well as the Surf City Kiwanis club. Overall, it was a very enjoyable event and I was only glad to help give back to the community and those in need. I hope to do such an event again in the future! By: Camara Chea
Homeless Garden Project Fix-Up A beautiful Circle K’er prepping the window and building for paint. à
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Holla-day Open mic
The Sunset Division December service project was held at Innvision Opportunity Center in Palo Alto. Innvision is a center that offers food and other amenities to the homeless. Us Circle K’ers helped put together goodie bags and set up for their open mic event by making paper snowflakes and garlands to decorate the center. Everyone had a blast hanging out and singing karaoke!
GO WEST
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A few of the Sunset Circle K’ers that live in Southern California attended Go West 2015, hosted by Pasadena City College. I highly recommend this event to anyone who is able to go! It’s a great bonding experience and you get to work on all of the wonderful floats that you see in Pasadena’s Rose Parade. Pictured to the left are a few of our Circle K’ers in front of the Kiwanis float!
Fungus fair
It's always so quirky to have our club volunteer with super niche organizations like Santa Cruz's Fungus Federation. Why? Because when you tell your friends when you did over the weekend, you find yourself struggling to explain how your "playing around with mushrooms" really isn't a drug reference... And that is exactly what the Fungus Fair was: a fun and education weekend of all things mushroom! This being my 3rd time volunteering with the Fungus Fair, I was definitely excited to come back and volunteer in the Kids' Room again this year! In the Kids' Room, there were literally eight events going on all at the same time: clay molding, water coloring, face painting, button making, silk dyeing with mushrooms, paper bag decorating, book reading corner, and a touch-and-learn mushroom display. I was stationed to watch over clay making, so it was great to see the creativity at work (in both kids and parents alike)! However, I think the highlight of this event was hearing how enthusiastic these people were about mushrooms. I mean, what's more interesting that hearing a 4 year old girl be able to recite everything there is to know about the morel mushroom? To say the least, it was most definitely a treat! (Speaking of treats, I also tasted "candy cap mushroom ice cream" ... tastes EXACTLY like maple syrup ice cream. I was having a great time.) By: Hannah Tuong
No-cost book fair
I signed in with the service coordinator, filling out all forms of conduct and such, too many to the notion that the service coordinator kept on apologizing for how many forms needed to be signed. Once I finished signing those forms, I started unloading books from a car to a classroom quietly, since the children were taking their afternoon nap. Setting up the books by reading levels, I was truly shocked to see how many books they had to give away, old and new. I was told that there was over 500 books to be given out for free and that the organization was expecting at least 70 families to attend this event. Once the event truly started, with kids grabbing their limited amount of books, four new books and four old books for each kid, I felt the joy that these kids were experiencing, especially with one kid. The service coordinator told us to help suggest books to the kids, since they might not know what choices of book we had. This kid was looking at the books very puzzled and sad, and it was then that I approached him with a Star Wars book, because I enjoy Star Wars and want people to enjoy what I feel is the best thing in the world. To what a great coincidence! The kid squealed with joy when he saw that it was a Star Wars book. His father came running to the room to see what happened to him, but laughed seeing what just occurred. The kid asked me, “Do you have any more Star Wars books?” I looked around and looked, but there was no more to be found. So, I went back to him, and with regret and sadness, I said, “No….” The father told me that his son is obsessed with Star Wars. I was so “geeked” out that I was talking to him about Star Wars for a while. Then, his father was trying to give him other books, but the kid did not want them. He was holding to the Star Wars book tightly, as tightly as if it were a check for a million dollars, even as they left the event. Though the event had little family attendance, it was a blast to see that I made a happy huge difference in a person’s life and that of other. Is that not what service is supposed to be about…? Thank you, David Liang and Dalton Sparks for coming out to this event!!!
By: Aston nalls
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Chocolate Festival I’m just gonna go ahead and call it, this was the single most delicious service event I have ever been too. Santa Cruz hosted their annual chocolate festival where vendors from all around showcased their wonderful chocolate creations. Rita’s frozen ice, Coldstone, and many other local shops came out to the event and let our volunteers sample out their delicious chocolates. Overall it was a great event and we look forward to doing it again next year!
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FUNDRAISERS
Ahhh yes, the UNICEF fundraiser! I’m sure most of you are familiar with those little orange boxes that float around during Halloween time, but do you know where all the change goes to? The money raised helps fund children’s rights, survival, development, and protection in developing countries. Trickor-Treating for UNICEF is always a good time!
One of the District Fundraising Initiatives (DFI) for Circle K is the Kiwanis Family House. The Kiwanis Family House provides housing for families of ill or injured children staying at the UC Davis Medical Center. We sold yummy cupcakes in a cup and all of the proceeds helped provide resources and improve the stay for the families in the Kiwanis House.
With the holidays in full blast, UCSC CKI decided to offer to wrap presents at Barnes and Noble. A bunch of us took the trip out to the nearest Barnes and Noble in San Jose and accepted donations which went towards one of our DFIs, the ELIMINATE Project, which aims to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus.
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November DCM
Sunset Division’s November DCM was hosted by SJSU and took place in San Jose. The DCM was followed up by a Friendsgiving where everyone brought a dish to enjoy with each other.
December dcm Our Sunset Division December DCM was originally supposed to be held at Cupertino Ice Center but due to an unfortunate scheduling error we ended up having it at Christmas in the Park in San Jose! After the DCM we decided to walk around downtown San Jose to grab a bite to eat and hang out and enjoy Christmas in the Park by riding rides, going ice skating, and drinking some delicious hot chocolate!
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Golden Griffins Sardines Social
For the first family social of the winter quarter, the Golden Griffins hosted a sardines game. For those who don’t know, sardines is reverse hide-and-seek where one person goes and hides while the rest go out and search for that person. Once a person finds the hider, they hide with them until only one person is left searching. Sounds easy, right? It’s actually pretty tough because most of the hiders get super creative, add in the cover of nightfall and you have a super fun social!
Scrapbook Committee
Those of you who have attended DCON know how important it is to have a scrapbook. Luckily, this year, UCSC Circle K has 2 Co-Historians to make the traditional and non-traditional scrapbooks. Making a scrapbook, however, requires a lot of work and that’s where the scrapbook committee comes in! Our first scrapbook committee discussed our ideas for the two scrapbooks and landed designs for both. Now we’re trying to keep the scrapbooks a secret for now bust just know that it’s going to look FANTASTIC. Also, it just happened that the webinar was occurring the same night as our scrapbook committee so we did a little multitasking where we watched the webinar and brainstormed ideas at the same time.
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NEW MEMBER INSTALLS
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Friendsgiving General Meeting
White Elephant General Meeting
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Upcoming Events: -January Service Project/DCM Who: Sunset Division What: Beach Clean-Up/January DCM When: January 30th, 2016 9 A.M. Where: Half Moon Bay -District Large Scale Service Project North Who: CNH District What: Elementary School Renovation When: February 13th. 2016 8 A.M.-4 P.M. Where: Oakland, CA District Convention Who: CNH District What: Leadership Training/Term Recap When: March 18th-20th, 2016 Where: LAX Marriott
Shameless Plugs: -Turn in your DCON money to Aly!!! We need to get it in ASAP -Check your MRP status and see how close you are to receiving MRP status -Assassins is coming up so if you want to play, make sure you speak with our MD&E Chair, Albert Chang to sign-up -Elections are coming up, so if you’re interested please, please, please do so!
A special thank you to those who contributed to the newsletter! Aston Nalls Brianna Lustan Camara Chea Daniel Tjandra
David Liang Hannah Tuong Justin Ayala Victoriya
Circle K International Pledge
I pledge to uphold the Objects of Circle K International, to foster compassion and goodwill toward others through service and leadership, to develop my abilities and the abilities of all people,
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AND TO DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE REALIZATION OF MANKIND’S POTENTIAL!
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Website: http://ucsccirclek.wix.com/ucsccki
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ucsccirclek/ Snapchat/Instagram: ucsccki
President: Hannah Tuong pres.ucsc.cki@gmail.com Vice President of Administration: Chris Hetzler avp.ucsc.cki@gmail.com Vice President of Service: Aston Nalls svp.ucsc.cki@gmail.com Treasurer: Alison Chan treas.ucsc.cki@gmail.com Secretary: David Liang sec.ucsc.cki@gmail.com Fundraising Chair: Patty Garcia pgarciaa@ucsc.edu Historian Co-Chair: Victoriya Balashova vbalasho@ucsc.edu Historian Co-Chair: Daniel Tjandra dtjandra@ucsc.edu Kiwanis Family CO-Chair: Brianna Lustan blustan@ucsc.edu Kiwanis Family Co-Chair: Colleen Lustan clustan@ucsc.edu MD&E Chair: Albert Chang ucsccirclekmde@gmail.com MRP Chair: Norma Vazquez njvazque@ucsc.edu Photojournalist: Justin Ayala jumayala@ucsc.edu Public Relations Chair: Josh Pe jpe@ucsc.edu Service Chair: Michelle Tran mtran19@ucsc.eduu Spirit/Social Chair: Brandon Vasquez bJvasque@ucsc.edU Technology Chair: Jason Chou jchou7@ucsc.edu