Poway Kiwanis Club has new president
The Poway Kiwanis Club’s new president, Dawn Zabriskie, is looking to kick things into high gear this year.
Dawn Zabriskie
A soccer mom at heart, Zabriskie is eager to get out there and promote Kiwanis during her presidency, which began Oct. 1,
“I want to kick it up a notch, and get more involved in the community,” said Zabriskie about her goals for the club, which include the club serving increasing service hours to the community this year.
Zabriskie is an assistant manager at the Solana Beach branch of Mission Federal Credit Union, a company Zabriskie has been with for nearly 12 years. Zabriskie and her husband, Mark, are parents to three children, Melissa, Phillip and Rebecca. She has been a member of Poway Kiwanis for 10 years.
Zabriskie is planning on tackling the effort of increasing the club’s community service on multiple fronts, including their school club programs such as Key Club, continuing their fundraisers and traditional holiday work, and two new community service programs.
Currently, Kiwanis has 50 members, an all-time high for the Poway club, which has been around for 39 years. Zabriskie said she hopes to expand it even further. According to Zabriskie, nine new members joined Kiwanis last year, many several being the parents of students involved in the club-sponsored Poway High School Key Club and the new Twin Peaks Middle School Builders Club.
“They’re making a lot of creative suggestions,” said Zabriskie of the new members.
“How do we get more people to get involved?” said Zabriskie. “We really want to get our name out there.” Zabriskie might have her answer with the club’s two new programs they are sponsoring, a toddler literacy program and a retail donation program for those in need.
The Dolly Parton Imaginary Library is the first program the Poway Kiwanis is debuting. The program, started by singer Dolly Parton, sends a free book every month to children ages 0 – 5 who are signed up by their parents for the program in the 92064 ZIP code. Paid for by sponsors, Zabriskie said it costs about $25 a year per child. The club has applied to be part of the program, which will launch in a few months.
“I’m going to assume it’ll be huge,” said Zabriskie, who anticipated potentially 500 or more kids participating in the first year. “I was excited after reading about it,” said Zabriskie. “It’s a phenomenal program.”
The club is also participating in a Good360 program, where a retailer (Bed, Bath and Beyond in Mission Valley) will donate and the club will distribute returned goods to families in need, including battered family shelters and homeless children. The goods will include returned items, overstock and floor display items.
In the first week of the program, four pickup loads of goods were donated to Marine Corps families aboard Camp Pendleton and to the Poway Soroptimist Club for its transitional housing program.
“They’re taking those extra things and giving them to those less fortunate,” said Zabriskie, who also said the club would consider additional retailers if the initial program goes well.
The Poway club also sponsors the K-Kids Club for fourth- and fifth-graders at Painted Rock Elementary School.
Club members meet for breakfast each Thursday at 7 a.m. at The Hamburger Factory in Old Poway Park. For those unable to attend the weekly meetings a service-only membership option is available.
Visit www.powaykiwanis.org or the club’s Facebook page for more information.
— By Emily Sorensen
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Posted by Steve Dreyer
on Oct 11 2012. Filed under Clubs.
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