Happy Valley Elementary becomes first Carter County school with a K-Kids Club Charter
Published 9:36 am Thursday, November 30, 2023
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Bill Fryar, Chairman of the Kiwanis Service Leadership Programs, has some fun with Happy Valley Elementary's Becky Simerly and Julie Winegar, Faculty Advisors for the K-Kids program at Happy Valley Elementary School.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Charter officers and members were introduced during the Charter Ceremony.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Nicole Moore, Vice-President of the Elizabethton Kiwanis, presents the Happy Valley Elementary K-Kids Charter to Principal Mandy Greer.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Marcida Moore, President of the Happy Valley High School Key Club, presided over the installation of officers during the ceremony.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Julie Winegar hands out member pins.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Bill Fryar draws a laugh as he presents the gavel to Seth Patton, President of the new charter at HVES.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders David LeVeau, a member of the Kiwanis Board, helps President Seth Patton with the K-Kids Kiwanis banner for Happy Valley Elementary.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Dr. Brandon Carpenter, Director of Carter County Schools, attended the ceremony at the school.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders The charter members and officers of K-Kids Kiwanis at Happy Valley Elementary School pose for a group shot.
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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR CORRESPONDENT
Although the Elizabethton School System had already chartered the Kiwanis K-Kids in their school system, there was no county school with the program until Happy Valley Elementary officially became the first one as they held their K-Kids Club Charter Ceremony inside the school library on Tuesday.
Elizabethton Kiwanis Vice-President Nicole Moore began the meeting by welcoming everyone who came out for the ceremony with David LeVeau, a Kiwanis board member, leading the pledge immediately following.
Bill Fryar, Chairman of the Kiwanis Service Leadership Program, reviewed the three key objects of K-Kids which included the following:
To develop students’ service and leadership skills.
To provide opportunities for students to learn, engage, serve, and lead to benefit their school, community, and world,
To foster caring, empathy, and good character in students.
Becky Simerly, Faculty Advisor for the K-Kids Charter, followed by introducing the Charter Officers and members who were nominated by their teachers to be the first members of the new charter.
Those students included: Briley Bowling, Addie Chambers – Secretary, Joseph Corder, Rowan Fenner, Olivia Garland, Lilly Guinn, Logan Johnston, Keaton Orndorff – Vice-President, Seth Patton – President, Cayman Price, Aayla Pritchard, Alexandria Rangel, Weston Rodefer, Kyleigh Scalf, and Ashlynn Wilfred.
Moore then presented the Club Charter to Happy Valley Elementary Principal Mandy Greer and Marcida Moore, President of the Happy Valley High School Key Club, conducted the installation of Club Officers.
Each member then received their club pins from Faculty Advisor Julie Winegar. LeVeau assisted Patton in unveiling the new Club Charter banner.
The club had already began service prior to the Charter Ceremony as the students had written sticky letters of encouragement on all the teachers’ doors, wrote thank you notes to the Kiwanis Club for providing their club shirts which will be arriving very soon, and collecting non-perishable food items which allowed 20 different families to be blessed.
“It is an honor to be able to have the first K-Kids Club in the Carter County School System and I really thank our students for being so wonderful because without them being who they are we would not have these opportunities to put them in leadership positions,” said Principal Greer. “I also want to thank our faculty members, Ms. Simerly and Ms. Winegar for stepping up to the plate. We started out with fourth graders and neither one of these ladies teach fourth grade so they stepped up and said we feel that strongly about the Kiwanis Club and Key Club at the high school level, we have seen what a benefit it is to our own children so we want to help the younger children as well.”
Greer added that the club had already provided assistance with the bus driver appreciation breakfast, helped with the school’s walk-a-thon running the hydration station, collected socks for the needy, and other activities.
The event closed out by the group reciting the K-Kids Pledge which reads: “As a K-Kid, I promise to serve my neighborhood and my school. I will show respect toward my environment, and I will try to make the world a better place in which to live.”
