We packed over 100 bags filled with green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, and stuffing to be given out with the Polk Sheriff’s Turkey Drive.

On November 19th, our club hosted the first DCM for Division 15 for the 2024-2025 Kiwanis Year. DCMs are a great way to bring together our division’s clubs and hear from various speakers. We had the Florida District of Key Club Lieutenant Governor for Division 15A speak about the Service Leadership Programs (SLPs), the Florida District of Kiwanis Lieutenant Governor for Division 15 talk about legacy, and the Florida Kiwanis Foundation Trustee for Division 15 speak about ways clubs can donate to the foundation. We thank all who spoke and the Winter Haven Chamber for allowing us to use their auditorium. Also, thank the Key Clubbers from Winter Haven High School, Chain of Lakes Collegiate High School, and Discovery High School for attending.

On November 16th, we participated in ROAR’s first 5K Color Run. We had a blast with the participants who stopped by to interact with our booth. We are honored to have been a part of this event and cannot wait for next year.

Our club participated in PSC Fall Fest today. We provided the kids attending with free books and candy. They also had the opportunity to decorate their paper hat. We coordinated with Winter Haven High School’s Key Club, one of our sponsored Key Clubs, to create the hats for the kids.

On August 1st, the last Divisional Council Meeting under Lieutenant Governor Jackye was held at the Children’s Museum at Bonnet Springs Park. We had a fabulous time mingling with Kiwanians from our division and learning more about the Children’s Museum.

Kiwanis is a global organization that serves the community one child at a time. The organization itself is broken into Districts, with each district being broken down in to Divisions. Our club currently is within Division 15 of the Florida District. Our division is comprised of Kiwanis clubs from Polk, Highlands, Hardee, Desoto and Glades county. Our District is comprised of clubs in the State of Florida, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.

There are many opportunities to interact with clubs from across our entire organization through conferences, service projects, fundraisers, or interclubs. Interclubs are when multiple members of one Kiwanis club participates in an event or meeting with multiple members of another Kiwanis club. Over the past two months our club has conducted three interclubs with the Kiwanis Clubs of Bartow, Lakeland, and Citrus Center.

On July 20th, a few members cleaned up the trash around Kiwanis Park. We are currently in works with the City of Winter Haven to revamp this park over the next 5 years. Follow our journey as we continue to give our park a make over.

We enjoyed hearing from Holly and Christine from The Visual Bucket List Foundation. They provide opportunities and experiences to children with visual impairments diagnoses. These opportunities are intended to be a special visual memory that will last a lifetime. They are down in Winter Haven this week meeting Lilly and her family; they are providing Lily and her family with an amazing experience of visiting the Great Barrier Reef this summer. #helpingothers #thevisualbucketlistfoundation #winterhaven #kiwanisinternational

On 5/11, we participated in Winter Haven’s Saturday Market, which takes place in the parking lot across from Grove Roots. We provide a children’s activity for all the kids in attendance. As part of the activity, we gave the kids candy and books.

May the 4th be with you! Yesterday, in honor of the Kentucky Derby and Star Wars Day, we combined two opposite themes to bring one fantastic event. We held an open house at Grove Roots Brewing Company to showcase what the Kiwanis Club of Winter Haven is all about. We want to thank everyone who stopped by and spoke about their lives and Kiwanis. We hope you decide to impact our community by joining our club.