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Overcast Lynbrook Kiwanis Club meets for 1st time in over a decade
“Kiwanians believe that our communities can become a family,” David Morse, the New York district chair for the formula, told the new Lynbrook Kiwanis Club members at their first meeting in more than a decade on March 22 at the Atria Lynbrook on Peninsula Boulevard.
Morse donated $40 to the club and said he hopes that they can expand by 40 members by Sept. 30 when the term for the club ends. The club currently has 24 members. Stephen Sirgiovanni, the district governor for the New York district of Kiwanis International presented the club with an official flag.
Morse, Sirgiovanni and Lieutenant Governor for Long Island’s Southwest Division Thomas Cesiro III explained that the New York district has helped the Pediatric Trauma Center at Cohen’s Children’s Medical Center in Queens, has a summer camp for disadvantaged children and has even helped an abused child find a new home.
On more local levels, Long Island Kiwanis clubs have held scholarship dinners for graduating seniors and Thanksgiving dinners for school-aged children. They also work with students in the K-Kids club in elementary school, the Builders’ Club in middle school and the Key Club in high school.
This appealed to Jevon Shmitz, who works at the Army Career Center at Atlantic Avenue and Sunrise Highway. “I am in the Army, so helping others is just part of the mission,” he said.
At the meeting, Shmitz was voted in as the club’s treasurer. He said he decided to become the treasurer because of his sense of duty. “As long as you tell me to do something, as long as you provide me with the purpose, direction and motivation, I’ll get the task done,” he said.
Denise Rogers, the branch manager of the Astoria Bank on Merrick Road, was elected as the club’s president. Rogers attended a divisional meeting in which members from clubs from throughout the area discussed their good deeds. This inspired her to help develop the Lynbrook chapter.
“I define this as a feel-good organization,” she said to the club members.
Also present at the meeting were Andrew and Jennifer Derrig, the co-owners of the Lynbrook Irish Shop, and Chief of the Lynbrook Police Department Joseph Neve, who joked that he was there because he “was asked by the mayor.”
There were also Lynbrook residents who decided to join the club. Charlene Raytek, for example, said that she thinks it is vital to give back to her community. “It’s important that the people who live here remain in the community,” she said.
Lynbrook Kiwanis will hold its next meeting at the Atria of Lynbrook on April 19 at 7 p.m.
