By Vanessa Broadbent (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 26, 2014
The Circle K club, a sponsored leadership program of Kiwanis dedicated to helping the community through service projects, has officially come to UFV. The organization is internationally known and has branches on every continent, as well as in nearby universities including UBC and SFU.
This is the first semester of the club, and so far they have hosted various events on campus, including the Halloween and the Operation Christmas Child drives. UFV Circle K president Sahil Chawla has been busy planning upcoming events such as Christmas caroling and a secret Santa project, which will be coming up in December.
“We’re still in the process of developing the ideas, but basically it will be where we want to give students a gift. It will be like a random act of kindness,” he said.
Circle K is dedicated to raising funds for various causes and charities, and the UFV branch has a goal to raise $4,000. Although all of their events have been focused on student engagement, Chawla is planning on having more fundraising events in the future.
“We really want to be able to fundraise a lot of money and donate all of that over the whole year, and actually raise $4,000 and be able to donate that much,” he said.
Not only are fundraising events beneficial to the community, but also to the people involved. Chawla explained that by volunteering, “you actually feel like you’re part of the events taking place and you’re having a contribution. Overall, when you look at it over the year, you’ll feel really good [about] it.”
While Circle K would love to have more members, Chawla understands that it can be hard for students to find time to commit to clubs and associations.
“I noticed that in university, everyone’s really busy, so they won’t be able to come to every single meeting, and that’s fine,” he said. For the remainder of the fall semester, meetings are held in U-House at 10 a.m. on Thursday mornings. Chawla explained that students can still access meeting minutes and get involved if they are unable to attend. “We also have our Facebook group [where] we post the minutes up so if someone can’t come they can read up and see how it was and if they missed anything,” he said.
Students interested in joining can contact Circle K through their Facebook page. Chawla explained that the Circle K club is “a really good opportunity for students to get out and meet more people, as well as try something new.”
