Circle K club makes a difference on and off campus
On their way to making a difference, members of the Circle K International pledge, according to their constitution, to “foster compassion and goodwilal toward others through service and leadership, to develop [one’s] abilities and the abilities of all people, and to dedicate [one’s self] to the realization of mankind’s potential.”
The student officers of the club first admitted a request to establish the club to the Inter-Club Council on Jan.14 and now the club is building across campus.
“What is Circle K? No, it’s not the gas station mart where you go to buy some gum. Circle K is the largest collegiate community service, leadership development and friendship organization in the world,” Michelle Ngu, president of CKI said. “We are a part of an international nonprofit organization Kiwanis Club, which is where our “K” comes from, and we span across 17 nations.”
Kiwanis Club is a worldwide collection of volunteers who aspire to positively impact the world. Members of the organization come together to, according to the Kiwanis Web site, “help shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, mentor the disadvantaged and care for the sick.”
Each year, clubs within the Kiwanis Club sponsor roughly 150,000 service projects and raise more than $107 million. At Saddleback College, CKI “does volunteer work around the community, from marathons and trail cleanups to playing with orphans and packaging food for the needy,” said Ngu.
The primary objectives of the CKI include to emphasize the democratic way of life, to serve on the campus and in the community, to promote good fellowship and high scholarship, to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic service and to build better communities. The organization exists to meet the personal needs of the individual collegian through the aforementioned objectives.
Participants of the club, and others who practice similar good deeds, live by one basic rule: treat others the way you would like to be treated. This “Golden Rule” promotes the positive influence and power of the club, in addition to embodying the organization’s morality.
The masses of volunteers do so, according to the official Kiwanis Web site, “because working together, members achieve what one person cannot accomplish alone. When you give a child a chance to learn, experience, dream, and succeed, great things happen!”
Circle K International is open to every part-time and full-time student at Saddleback, after a $35 fee and completing the appropriate paperwork. Meetings are held weekly in BGS Room 200.
With an established constitution and laws, the 15 members practice democracy. Each edict may be challenged or amended by a majority vote of both the club’s general members and board members.
“The best part about joining Circle K is definitely being able to make a difference and meeting people at the same time. It’s all about helping out and having fun doing it,” said Ngu. “Circle K is all about working with others and supporting one another. We often work with the other branches of our clubs…Between service projects, conferences, conventions and plenty of leadership training opportunities, making new connections and friends is guaranteed to happen.”