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About 100 kids spent Wednesday morning prepping Hawthorne Park for an extreme neighborhood makeover courtesy of Kiwanis. Sam Brewington, a Circle K member from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point spent the morning edging pathways.
"We’re taking all that up and bagging it then taking it out in wheelbarrows." said Brewington.
Over two days about 400 college students will perform around 5,000 hours of service as part of Kiwanis International's 100th anniversary celebration. More than 6,000 Kiwanis members of all ages from around the globe are in Indianapolis, the organization’s headquarters, for its annual convention.
Community service is at the heart of the club and Indy’s Near Westside neighborhoods were chosen for numerous beautification projects, says Kiwanis PR Manager Vicki Hermansen.
"They felt like the work that was going on here with the Hawthorne Center for Working Families, this would really help them help the people in this community."
Giving the gift of play to children around the world is a theme of the group’s Centennial Tour that’s wrapping up this week in Indy. Other planned community events include a pancake lunch on Monument Circle and a downtown Birthday Bash. The new playground at Hawthrone Park will be unveiled on Saturday.
Kiwanis’ moved to Indy in 1982. There are clubs in more than 80 nations with members participating in over 150,000 service projects every year.
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