Month of April
St. Johns Kiwanis Club, along with its middle school Builders Club, will be spending the month of April assisting Military Moms of St. Johns while the latter sponsors the annual Socks for Soldiers campaign. The ‘Socks’ event is an annual effort on the Military Moms calendar and while the emphasis is on the collection of black socks for military personnel, many other high-value items such as beef jerky, trail mix, peanuts or foil packets of tuna or chicken are accepted.
Since April 1 collection boxes have been located throughout St. Johns and after a month of gathering, all items will be packaged and sent to deployed military personnel in Afghanistan. Past experience places the delivery costs to range in the neighborhood of $700.00, so in addition to items, cash donations are also solicited. Donors may issue checks to “Builders Club” and mail to St. Johns Middle School, 900 W. Townsend Road, St. Johns, MI 48879. Military Moms sponsorship in the program is being coordinated by Debbie Gould.
Ms. Gould explained that along with black socks (only black will do!) and the many other items that may be welcomed by the troops, it has been found that movie DVDs, sports magazines and auto, motorcycle, hunting and general topics of male interest publications are well received. New or used are of equal value.
Kiwanis and Builders Club support is chaired by Jan Havlik, who said that locations where collection boxes are placed include: Kroger’s, Big Boy Restaurant, all Firstbank offices in St. Johns and DeWitt, Cellular Connections, Clinton County Federal Credit Union, PKSA Karate school and Citizens Bank.
The Builders Club is a gathering of students at the middle school level founded by Kiwanis to inspire the value and merit of participation in community programs and projects. Aside from the group’s assistance in the Socks for Soldiers program, another recent activity of the club was its help in the “Walk for Warmth” campaign sponsored by the Clinton County Center of Capital Area Community Services. The club will be working closely with Military Moms throughout April to ensure a timely delivery of the collected items sometime by mid-May.
Additional information may be obtained by contacting Debbie Gould or Jan Havlik. Ms. Gould can be reached at 517 669-8441 and Ms. Havlik at Firstbank, 989 227-8383. Additional information may be secured at the St. Johns Military Moms web site, www.sjmilitarymoms.com.
The collection requires a cadre of big boxes and these girls are prepared for the task. From left, Riley Peterson, Alissa Longoria and Chelsea Longoria.