pilipiliĀž»­

 

Special K

Student group pledges to serve

- April 25, 2008

Members of the newly formed Circle K: (front) Alex Wawer, Ashley Fairfax, Katherine Strynatka, Karla Bray, Samar Ali; (back) Vikram Rai, Megan McInnis, Karie Bryenton, Jessica Garwood (Bruce Bottomley Photo)

While Circle K is one of oldest and largest university service and leadership clubs in the world, the Dalhousie chapter is just taking baby steps. Dal Circle K celebrated with a chartering banquet earlier this month.

Dr. Bonnie Neuman, vice-president of Student Services, and Mike Tipping, DSU president, attended the banquet to formally welcome Dal Circle K as a society. Many executive members of Kiwanis International, the sponsor of Circle K clubs, also took part.

Even though the society is brand new at Dal, members have been warming up to Circle Kā€™s community service aims throughout the year.

ā€œIn October we did Trick or Eat with the student union... We ran around and collected non-perishable food items on Halloween night,ā€ says Michael Kennedy, the newly minted Dal Circle K president and founder. ā€œWe raised 160 pounds of canned food items. That was our first big pilipiliĀž»­. We were really excited about that.ā€

Dal Circle K pitched in to raise money for Spread the Net, as part of a campus challenge that brought Rick Mercer to campus and raised money for mosquito nets for Africa. Then, it partnered with Breaking Bread and raised $1,800, which will go towards the salaries of two teachers in Afghanistan.

ā€œThis year was mostly about building membership, so we havenā€™t had a whole lot of projects,ā€ said Karla Bray, a 19-year-old member. ā€œI think next year once we have more members we will be able to do a lot more.ā€

Upcoming plans are for Dal Circle K to partner with the Canadian Red Cross and Blood Services Canada to go to high schools and raise awareness about donating blood.

ā€œI think that it is a really great organization and that itā€™s going to get a lot better as the years progress,ā€ predicts Ms. Bray.Ā Ā