Elkton Club and Kids for Coats
Dale Collins
Our goal this year was to expand this vital service project in terms of hours volunteered, number of Kiwanians involved, and involving more schools and organizations. This was in part due to the request of the Capital District Kiwanis to have all club increase the total number of community service hours by 15% for the administrative year. Our Strategic Plan for this project included:
- Better accuracy of reporting
- Greater member participation
- Increased service hours
- Analyzing ways to expand the project
In all respects the club achieved the 4 objectives for this project.
This year's project can be heralded as a success. We will not have an accurate count of coats until we receive a letter from the Help Center sometime in January. However, based on the information received from the Kiwanians involved, we believe we collected over 2000 items again this year.
Our first meeting was held in October at the home of John and Sharyn Jodlbauer where we addressed packets to all public and private schools in Cecil County inviting them to participate. Address lists for the public schools was acquired via the internet by going to the Cecil County Web site. The inclusion of non-public schools was an expansion of our project from last year. Information for the packets was forwarded to us from Delegate Dave Rudolph's office. He initiated this project 22 years ago. With his encouragement our club agreed to take over the project last year. Based on the success of the project last year, we agreed to continue sponsoring it again this year.
Sharyn Jodlbauer was our key person for obtaining school information, providing mailing envelops, and being the point person for communications. Bill Alphin, the McQuiston's, the Jodlbauer's, and the Collins' were involved in the initial mailings. Once the packets were completed, they were delivered to the Cecil County Board of Education where they were delivered to each school via their in-house mailing system. In addition, Sharyn sent an email copy of the same information to Michelle Dowdell, communications officer, at the Board of Education, who in turn forwarded the information to each school. Only one school in the county did not participate this year, down one from the year before.
Dale Collins was interviewed by the Cecil Whig and the article was printed in a timely fashion. As a result of the article, Dale was invited to speak at the North East Rotary Club. They pledged to participate by taking coats to the area North East Schools. A visiting Rotarian from Elkton was present at that meeting and pledged the support from their club as well. The coats collected by the Elkton Rotary Club were taken to Thompson Estates Elementary School.
Last year we divided the county into four regions for the pick-up for coats. Only 5 people were involved in actual coat pick-ups last year. This year we created 7 pick-up runs involving 14 members. They included Dale Collins, Joyce Collins, Frances Collins, Bill Alphin, Maureen McClelland, John Jodlbauer, Sharyn Jodlbauer, Carolyn McQuiston, Bill McQuiston, Dave Hollis, Terry Sprout, and Bill Moore Sue Garafola. Ford Hamilton acquired a number of coats from his workplace. Rich Garafola also participated. A total of 81.5 hours has been recorded, more than doubling last year's numbers.
Each school was visited at least twice for coat pick-ups. Some schools requested additional pick-up dates as well. The Kiwanis Club was well received at each location.
This was a successful project.
- We set up a system to record the number of service hours donated.
- We increased the number of members involved from 5 to 14.
- We increased the number of hours volunteered from 30 to 81.5.
- We analyzed the project and increased the number of schools involved from 26 to 29.
