Main photo: Kiwanis Club of Huntsville Muskoka members present a cheque to the YWCA Muskoka Girlz Unplugged program at Riverside Public School (back row from left) Mallary Duncan, Rick Brooks and Janice Larade from Kiwanis, Stacey Schat from YWCA Muskoka, Martin Mann from Kiwanis, Girlz Unplugged facilitator Marcy Hill; (front from left) and Girlz Unplugged participants at Riverside Public School Brianna Sinnige, Myah Perkins, Kelseigh Petterson and Paige Leney
A new Kiwanis Club chapter formed in Muskoka last year and it has since been enthusiastically raising funds for programs and charities supporting children.
Members of the Kiwanis Club of Huntsville Muskoka were at Riverside Public School yesterday to present a cheque to representatives from YWCA Muskoka in support of its Girlz Unplugged and Quest programs.
With government funding and grants increasingly difficult to come by, YWCA Muskoka appreciates the support of “organizations like Kiwanis that see the value in these programs,” said Girlz Unplugged facilitator, Marcy Hill.
One of the participants told a Kiwanis member, “Marcy helps me believe in myself.”
Hill added, “Instead of focusing on what’s wrong with you, which society wants to do, we focus on what’s right with you. What’s your superpower, what rocks about you?…Each girl celebrates each other. It’s a positive environment.”
Girlz Unplugged is a life skills program for girls in grades 5-8. The program helps girls to thrive, identify healthy relationships in their lives, build confidence and self-worth, and teaches them strategies to cope with stress and anxiety. The Quest program helps boys explore their individual strengths and uniqueness, learn about character, build life skills, develop positive peer relations, and learn how to navigate challenges. YWCA Muskoka also runs programs at the high school level, and has a youth program running in every school in Muskoka.
The $2,000 donation comes from the Kiwanis Club’s most recent fundraiser, a Dinner Anywhere in the World draw in which ticket holders had the chance to win the grand prize of a travel voucher and cash to jet off to dinner in the city of their choice, second prize of a two-night stay at Hidden Valley Resort, and dinner for two at Birches restaurant, or dinner anywhere in Muskoka. A similar draw will be held again next year.
Funds from the draw also supported the Salvation Army’s youth programs.
“This is the kind of thing we like to be involved with, anything to do with kids,” said Rick Brooks, secretary for Kiwanis Club of Huntsville Muskoka, adding that they plan to look for other ways to work with local schools.
Last year, the Kiwanis Club also supported Huntsville Theatre Company’s Theatre is My Passion children’s program, a free after school program for children between the ages of 8 and 17, and the accessible playground project at Huntsville Public School. It also hosted the Kiwanis Sap Run, a kids’ fun run, at the Muskoka Maple Festival in March—watch for it again next year.
For more information about the Kiwanis Club of Huntsville Muskoka, contact Rick Brooks at [email protected]
Find more information about YWCA Muskoka youth programs at ywcamuskoka.com.
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Betsy Rothwell says
Thank you Kiwanis! The Girlz Unplugged and Quest programs are more important than ever now. These programs give our kids the skills they need at a vulnerable time in their lives, particularly now as the sex-ed program (wrong name for a very broad based program, but that’s what it has been tagged) was repealed. Our Muskoka kids will get what they need through Girlz Unplugged and Quest!