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By Ina Beavers

For the Clemmons Courier

The winter months have proved slower and less hectic for our club. There has been some time for fellowship, learning more about our members and opportunities for service.  

In the Jan. 2 meeting, the speaker was Mike Foster, executive director of the Winston-Salem Street School. The school provides alternative educational opportunities for at risk youth. These students tend to have difficulty in the traditional high school setting. The students’ problems are usually impacted by lifestyle issues such as lack of family support, finances and transportation. The school helps to fill in those gaps to allow the student to attend regularly and achieve their diploma. The Winston-Salem Street School has a 93 percent graduation rate. There have been 320 graduates from the school so far. They are hoping to expand their reach in the community to assist more at risks teens. Mike informed the club members that they could be of assistance to the school through tutoring, providing lunches and financial support.

The club held its monthly highway cleanup on Jan. 13. Joel Shanker stated that the interclub meetings would resume with he and Chris Flynt attending a meeting at the Twin City Club in February. West Forsyth Key Club contact Jim Brosovic announced that the Key Club had an official membership of 285 members. Special thanks to Theresa Bryant who does an amazing job as director of the Key Club.

At the Jan. 16 meeting, Barbara Shanker brought over 9,000 pens and markers donated by The Winston-Salem Industry For the Blind. IFB could not sell or use the pens/markers due to expiration. Our day’s activity was packing 5,000 loose Sharpie markers into Ziplock bags of 25 each. The intent was to donate them to our local schools and children-oriented clubs. Members enjoyed the time packing and chatting and managed to get all 5,000 sharpies packaged. All the pens and markers were given to area schools and other educational programs. 

President Thao Sommerville informed the club that one of the Chamber of Commerce Leadership Small Groups would be assisting our club to improve operations and attract more members. We are looking forward to their suggestions.

The Kiwanis Club of Clemmons meets the first and third Tuesday of each month. We meet at the Trinity Elms Apartment Complex Community Building at 7543 Fair Oaks Drive, Clemmons. Meetings start at 8 a.m. Anyone interested is welcome to join us.

Breakfast items and coffee available. For more information contact Membership Chair Ina Beavers at thebeav1973@outlook.com