For a number of years, schools in Washington state have emphasized that students become involved in community service. That connection has been great not only for the kids, but for entire communities.
It’s the kind of mindset we should all have.
Students have helped in all types of endeavors – from working in food banks to tutoring younger kids in schools. It has helped these young people learn that giving back to a community can be rewarding. That is so important to learn in this otherwise “me first” society.
There is so much joy in helping others. They are so happy, and that makes it so fun. When these kids get older, I hope they continue what they have learned and join a service club. And I hope their parents, even if they didn’t do community service in school, may have learned the value of helping others through their children.
Joining a service club is not what you might think. There are not a bunch of crazy rituals or anything like that, and it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. And, best of all, many of the organizations don’t require you to sacrifice a lot of your time. In most of the clubs, you can go to meetings when you want and volunteer as much as you want. The key is to help when you can. You can still have a life away from volunteerism.
There are many great organizations in this town. The noon Rotary is made up of business and local leaders. The morning Rotary is similar, just at a smaller scale. The Soroptimist Club is a powerful woman’s organization. And I personally have been a member of Kiwanis for a few years now, and have just taken over for City Councilman Tom King as president.
I am honored and humbled to be in this role. I know that I will accomplish nothing without my fellow team members. I have asked them to help me get more members involved, work to get new members and to try to raise more money for scholarships. We provide money for graduating Marysville boys who want to attend college or vocational school. We’d like to help more of them.
I joined this group, frankly, because it was a little less costly than the others and because of all the good works they do, with lots of help from the Marysville Getchell Key Club: Popcorn in the Park movies, Touch a Truck, Strawberry Festival beer garden, Fishing Derby, the Oyster Run Pancake Breakfast (which is Sunday), Easter Egg Hunt, Concerts in the Park, Live Music at the OH, and more.
Kiwanis was founded in 1915 with the motto, “We Build.” In 2005, that was changed to “Serving the children of the world.”
To do that, we plan to do even more community service work this year, helping with other events when we can, such as Poochapalooza, Relay for Life, Splish Splash, the Marysville Food Bank and Community Lunch. If you are putting on an event you need help with please give me a call at 360-654-4157. We’ll see if we can help. And please, if Kiwanis isn’t for you, please join one of the other great organizations in town. They are filled with wonderful people who just want to make this community better. Even if you don’t think you have time, make the time to at least check it out. Even if you could only help once a year that’s once more than you’re doing now. And you will feel so much better for it. Steve Powell is the managing editor of The Marysville Globe and The Arlington Times
Note from the editor
The past few years The Marysville Globe-The Arlington Times have won awards for their websites. We post news daily to compete with other media. We feature many more photographs and more in-depth stories because we don’t have space constraints. Check us out at www.marysvilleglobe.com and www.arlingtontimes.com.
