Saturday, October 10, 2026
Alina Castelluzzo recently took over as president of the Valley Stream Kiwanis Club after serving as secretary for the past several years. Following in the footsteps of her mother, who recently completed her term as president, Castelluzzo has spent much of her life volunteering and giving back to her community.
Q: What inspired you to become involved with Kiwanis and take on the role of president?
A: I was always volunteering in some way. My mom was my biggest inspiration because she was always volunteering with the PTA or whatever she was doing, and I always wanted to follow in her footsteps. She had been the president of Kiwanis for so long, and I was her secretary for the past few years. This year, we decided to switch, and I became president. I'm a little nervous, but I'm excited.
Q: Did you grow up volunteering and participating in community service?
A: When I was younger, I was in my youth group in Malverne, where we did a lot of community service. One of the coolest things I ever did was called a Midnight Run, where you drive into the city at midnight and hand out clothes and toiletries to homeless people. That was really interesting.
I like to volunteer with Island Harvest, and at my old company, we participated in something called Canstruction, where we collected canned goods and built structures out of them. It was an engineering and architecture firm, so we would design a structure, like an octopus, and build it out of cans. Then all the cans would be donated.
Kiwanis is another outlet where we can volunteer. The cool thing about the Kiwanis Club is that it's very member-oriented. If you have an organization you're passionate about, you can bring it up to the club, and we can decide to hold a fundraiser or volunteer day for them.
Q: What has Kiwanis taught you about the community?
A: It definitely helps me see how many people are out there who really want to give back and help. It's also rewarding to see that you're truly helping people and actually see how happy they are.
I remember we had a pancake breakfast once. It was a smaller event, with maybe 20 people showing up, but it was amazing because one parent came with his son, who I think may have had some kind of special needs. He had the best time because it was a quieter event where they could take their time and have a one-on-one experience. The parent said, "This was the best event ever. I can't wait to come back."
Even if an event doesn't reach a lot of people, you still reach some people and see the difference it makes. It's very rewarding.
Q: What is it like following your mother into a leadership role with Kiwanis?
A: I definitely see her as a role model and mentor. She has so many connections, and everybody loves my mom.
It's really nice to see that everybody thinks she's this amazing woman. Obviously, I also think she's an amazing woman, so it makes me happy to see everybody else recognize what I see.
I'm sure she's proud that I'm following in her footsteps. I think it helps our relationship in a lot of ways. I'm proud of her, too, so I think it's really great for both of us.
Q: What do you hope to continue or bring to the club during your term as president?
A: There's one event I definitely want to continue. We've hosted it for the past two years, and I helped the president of the East Island Park Kiwanis Club organize it. We worked together to hold a fundraiser featuring line dancing.
We hosted a line dancing event where people paid admission to learn dances. There were also raffles, wine pulls and other activities. Each year, we picked a different organization to donate the money to.
It's such a fun fundraiser. I want to do it again and make it a tradition.
