A Day in the Circle K Club

When a person says “Circle K,” the first words that come to mind are community service, fellowship, and leadership.  These prove to be an acute description as each meeting opens with their motto, “Live to serve, love to serve,” followed by their weekly donation to Project Eliminate, an organization working to provide women in third-world countries with tetanus vaccinations.  Every Monday afternoon, this group meets to discuss future volunteering opportunities ranging from a weekly trip to Feeding South Dakota to park cleanups to larger projects, such as this organization’s upcoming event, Trick or Treat for Canned Goods.  This upcoming food drive takes place on October the 30^th and includes prizes for groups that collect the most food and have the best costumes and is organized and run by students here at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.  Indeed, the amount of initiative displayed by these students lends itself to a rather impressive list of projects completed as this group works to serve both within the school and in the outside community.  Members of this group also work at the district level and in committees that range from Membership Development to Service to relations with their parent organization, Kiwanis:  Circle K is the college-level branch of this larger volunteering organization.  When attending meetings, one not only has the chance to sign up for a variety of community- and campus service opportunities and meet with these officers, but also attend district meetings and leadership training conferences.  The group recently presented about its trip to this summer’s international conference held in Vancouver, Canada, where its members were able to learn more about Circle K groups from other regions and countries, as well as ways to improve each region and local club.  Finally, each meeting concludes with the ringing of the club’s bell, as each member goes off in his or her way to help better the community.