For students who want to participate in community service activities, Circle K is one of many options available to them. Circle K is an on-campus community service club that is the collegiate equivalent of the Kiwanis Club, a group that organizes community service outside of schools.
“Circle K is a club that is devoted to doing community service,” Circle K President Laura Andersen said.
Circle K does a community service activity once a week, usually on the weekends. Their club activities range from outdoor service work such as park cleanup and clearing invasive species, to volunteering at food drives and helping feed the hungry.
“Circle K is different from other clubs on campus because we provide a variety of different service activities for all students,” Circle K secretary Hannah Butensky said.
This year the club has done a lot of restoration projects, participating in Green Tacoma Day, Green Kent Day and Green Seattle Day. The club also volunteers and participates in walks and other volunteer opportunities.
“We will also be helping out at the Tacoma Toy Rescue Mission. We will probably help them decorate their store this year,” Andersen said.
The Tacoma Toy Rescue Mission is a local foundation that gives toys to children in need on Christmas, Easter, and their birthdays. Circle K cleans and prepares the toys after they have been donated, then the foundation distributes them to the community.
“We’ve done Friday Night Feed where we make sandwiches the last Friday of the month for the homeless, because that’s when their pay checks run out and they can’t get that last weekend meal, so we make sandwiches,” Andersen said.
Circle K does a variety of volunteer work to help make a difference for the hungry and homeless community in Tacoma, offering relief to food pantries and helping at food drives as well.
Circle K also helps to connect students with the greater Tacoma community. When the club signs up to do community service, they will often be working alongside other members of the community in places that students might not normally go. Students are able to explore and help their community at the same time.
“My best memory from Circle K was doing a creek cleanup activity freshman year,” Butensky said. “At this event I was teamed up with a Tacoma local, so we got to talk and know each other. People always say Puget Sound is in this bubble, but doing community service with other community members allows us to exit the bubble and see what the rest of Tacoma is like.”
One thing that is unique about Circle K as a group is that there are no weekly meetings, just volunteer days.
“I think the important thing is the community service, not sitting in a meeting for twenty minutes talking about what we are going to do next week when I could just send that out in an e-mail that members can read at their leisure,” Andersen said.
The club meets as needed to discuss what members would like to do as far as community service. After that, the president organizes the events and carpooling and sends the information to members in an email. Members can then choose to go to the community service or not as their schedule allows.
Circle K also does fundraisers on campus to help raise money for a foundation that the club decides on.
Fundraisers in the past have included Fruitbags, where a parent can buy a healthy option care package for their children around finals and candy grams during the holidays.
To find out more about or join Circle K, email Andersen at lmtandersen@pugetsound.edu.
