Helping Hands: Kiwanis Brings Essentials to Kids

One simple act of kindness could make all the difference for a child in need. The Farmington Rio Del Sol Kiwanis Club is dedicated to providing support to children across San Juan County. You're watching the Local News Network brought to you by Home2 Suites and The Big Idea Makerspace at San Juan College. I'm Sadie Smith.

Kiwanis is an international organization that helps a lot of children from individual states and cities as well as around the world. So, like our group does a lot of support locally in San Juan County, but it also, we have the African Library Project where we help children in Africa with books and libraries. So, it's main goal is helping children.

The Kiwanis Club organizes several fundraisers each year to support children in need. From pancake breakfast, benefiting local kids, to funding school books and drug-free education programs, their efforts make a big impact.

Currently, our big one each year is called Dining with the Dead. And if you've never heard of that, we take local history in a cemetery, feed people, give them a tour of the cemetery, and talk about characters from back in the day from this local area. It's a big fundraiser for us and it sells out every year.

Rio Del Sol Kiwanis recently wrapped up their Clothes for Kids fundraiser held throughout October and November to provide warm clothing for children in need ahead of the winter season.

So, we work with the schools, with principals, counselors, teachers that identify the most needy children in our community, and we select those children to come shop with us. We do it for two days at Target with 50 to 60 volunteers each day, and we shop around Target, and Target gives us 10% off of our total bill, and we take them to buy clothes. And then, they go to the mall and the mall helps us store our coats and they get to pick out a coat. And then, we partner with the local Boys and Girls Club who serve pretty much all of these children, all the children most in need in our community. And we buy hundreds of children free pairs of shoes and they get a pair of socks with them as well.

Through their fundraisers and services, the Kiwanis Club supports children throughout San Juan County. With generous donations, they typically provide coats for 300 children and shoes for 400 children each year, ensuring kids have the essentials they need.

We don't turn any children away. So, just last week, for the Clothes for Kids, we had another organization in town refer a family that wasn't on our list. We were like, send them, we'll buy them clothes. So, as many kids as we can serve, we don't want to turn that away. But to also do that, it takes funding. So, it's kind of a give and take.

If you're feeling generous this holiday season, you can donate to help their cause on the Rio Del Sol Kiwanis website. There are also opportunities to volunteer. For more information about this and other stories, visit farmingtonlocal.news. Thank you for watching this edition of The Local News Network. I'm Sadie Smith.