Starting with service
It’s Tuesday afternoon and the sound of the 3:05 p.m. bell sends kids running to the doors of Liberty Lake Elementary School. As their peers quickly shuffle by, a group of budding philanthropists assembles in the cafeteria. Amid trays of paint and reams of colorful paper, more than two dozen student volunteers hammer out posters promoting the “Kids for Kids” penny drive, benefiting Spokane Guilds’ School.
“My favorite part about it is it’s helping the community but you’re having fun at the same time,” said Cassie Kaplan, 11-year-old president of K-Kids, an elementary school service club.
Now in its second year, K-Kids, sponsored by Liberty Lake Kiwanis, has 33 members in third, fourth and fifth grades.
Meetings begin with roll call and segue into a recap of the previous week’s minutes.
A report from the treasurer updates members about the status of two bank accounts totaling about $120. The club isn’t flush because most of the money they raise is donated to charities.
Although the entire meeting takes about an hour, the procedural part is just long enough for one of the younger boys to be a little squirrelly.
“Sometimes it’s hard to keep everyone in order,” Kaplan explained, “but Pat usually helps me.”
“Pat” is Pat Lutzenberger – K-Kids’ leader extraordinaire.
Exuding an energy that’s in sync with charges one-fifth her age, she steers kids toward planning, fund-raising and implementing projects that better the community and world.
Volunteerism is wedged between school, soccer games and homework. Yet, in the midst of busy lives the kids found time to give a collective 570 hours of community service last year.
Lutzenberger tracks and verifies those hours, providing kids with a community service record they can use when applying for jobs and colleges down the road.
“We’re rocking and rolling,” she said, while sitting at Starbucks Coffee in Liberty Lake recently.
Like a proud parent, she pulls out a scrapbook packed with photos of K-Kids doing volunteer projects and holding fund-raisers and drives.
Between pages of photos, Lutzenberger saved thank-you cards sent by groups that benefited from the club’s efforts. Also included are clippings of stories about K-Kids that were featured in the Liberty Lake Splash, a weekly newspaper.
“They do learn a lot. Most of the things they do are community oriented,” she said.
While most high schools have Key Clubs, also sponsored by Kiwanis, elementary school service clubs are rare.
Members of the Liberty Lake Kiwanis hope their early efforts will spark a lifelong commitment for community activism.
“The idea is to teach kids about service organizations early on so it gets to become a habit,” said Pat Dockrey, president of Liberty Lake Kiwanis.
Each of the area’s 14 chapters sponsors another club, he explained. In addition to K-Kids, Liberty Lake Kiwanis supports a Key club at Barker High School, an alternative school.
“We put a lot of time and money into both these organizations,” Dockrey said.
In the past year, K-Kids held a baby food drive, collecting an estimated $600 worth of food to donate to parents at Barker High School and to Spokane Valley Food Bank.
They toured the food bank, because Lutzenberger wanted them to learn about how poverty affects families.
When the tsunami hit, the kids made large posters advertising a fund-raiser to help the victims. Club representatives visited classrooms and collected donations, in addition to setting up a drop-off area at the school.
They raised more than $1,300 for UNICEF and donated another $100 of the club’s money.
Recently, the members sorted and stuffed more than 5,000 plastic Easter eggs for Liberty Lake’s community egg hunt. They sold more than $400 worth of tickets for a pancake breakfast fund-raiser, and helped at both events.
Last week the children hosted a teacher and staff appreciation breakfast at Liberty Lake Elementary School. They decorated the cafeteria with a summer beach theme and waited on their teachers.
While making posters, Elsa Moore, 11, said she wants to become a teacher when she grows up. Helping others makes her feel good.
“I think it gives me confidence that I can work hard for my community,” Moore said.
Aspiring veterinarian Julie Crawford, 10, agrees: “I get to help the environment while being here with my friends and just having fun.”
When 10-year-old Patrick Crumb first joined the club, he worried that the group was all procedure and little action.
“At first I thought it was boring, after a while I got to like it, and here I am,” the animated youngster said.
Still, part of the draw for some kids is the chance to spend time with good pals. After meetings, Crumb and his friend, Logan Brassington, 9, often hang out together.
Crumb – who hopes to study volcanoes and earthquakes someday – admits the two occasionally lapse into chit-chat.
But in the midst of writing letters thanking soldiers serving in Iraq and delivering Valentine’s Day cards to elderly residents of Guardian Angel Homes, Crumb got hooked on helping.
“We basically get a thank you when they have a smile on their faces.”