Press release from Kiwanis of Asheville:
In celebration of their 100th anniversary, The Kiwanis Club of Asheville will give a signature gift of $85,000 to help homeless women and children. It’s the largest single gift by a civic organization in Asheville’s history.
Please join us on Tuesday, March 12, at 1 p.m. at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, where Kiwanis of Asheville will have a special program by Ms. Katie Beth Caswell on the progress of Transformation Village and a presentation of a $55,000 check to ABCCM. This gift will help with Phase I of the Transformation Village building project as they expand from 50 to 150 beds, ensuring that every woman and child can have a safe, stable place to be. This will also help reduce the number of homeless children in schools. In the past school year alone, there were 804 homeless children.
Kiwanis is committed to building stronger communities – one child at a time. Over the past 100 years, Kiwanis has helped children grow in leadership through their school-based Key Clubs. In 2000, the Carolinas District of Kiwanis raised $300,000 to build family rooms in the Mission Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Between the school systems and local projects like the Chess Tournaments, Sleep Tight Kids, the Boys and Girls Club, and helping ABCCM over the past 50 years, Kiwanis has helped tens of thousands of children.
Reverend Scott Rogers, Executive Director of ABCCM, “This gift from Kiwanis, the largest from a civic organization in Asheville’s history, is a great example of how they have helped feed children and cared for homeless people over the past several decades. Kiwanians have volunteered at our Crisis Ministries and shelters, they have given food, and have taken our homeless children on Christmas shopping sprees over the last 25 years. Their commitment to help the most vulnerable children in our community is a wonderful legacy.”
Windell Camanse, President of Kiwanis says, “We are a club that takes service seriously. We welcome anyone to come to a meeting on Tuesdays at noon, at St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Chestnut St. (off Merrimon) to learn more about what Kiwanis does in our community.”
There is a picture of Kiwanis leaders on the steps of the Battery Park Hotel 100 years ago, and now we will start our next 100 years on the steps of Transformation Village that will welcome homeless children and women to a safe place in our community.
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