Feature

Her new role: lifesaver

A Kiwanian’s first experience as a Kiwanis International Foundation Trustee

By Lynn Seeden

Lori Bryant sat in a room on the second floor of the Kiwanis International Office in Indianapolis, and there she saved the lives of 100 children.

Lori Bryant	See: List of Kiwanis International Foundation grants

As a new Kiwanis International Foundation Trustee, Lori and her fellow grant committee members meticulously doled out nearly US$75,000—funds from Annual Club Gift, Skip-A-Meal, Disaster Relief, and the Kiwanis Children’s Fund donations—to help children around the world. One of those grants will rescue impoverished children in Haiti, some who live on the streets.

“I never dreamed I could actually, personally, save a life with a donation,” Lori says. “This experience absolutely changes my perspective of Kiwanis. I have gone from helping with a school reading program in my very comfortable community, to saving 100 little lives. This changed my heart.”

Kiwanis magazine asked Lori, a Puyallup, Washington, Kiwanian, to give her personal account of what it was like to participate in choosing the grant recipients.

Here are her words:

“First, I wanted the money to go to needs, not wants.

“All of us were looking carefully for requests that were directly related to children, for forms to be filled out correctly, and we wanted to see deep, deep Kiwanis responsibility and commitment for the projects.

“And as I read through the requests, it became very easy to decide which ones were just wants. Then we came across a few requests that were very important children-based needs.

“Two requests came to my heart immediately.

“One was the boots and shoes for the 600 children. That was from Des Plaines, Illinois, where they had been doing this for years and years. They needed to expand the program.

“They asked for $4,714.50.

“They give families vouchers to get boots and shoes for the first of winter. The whole committee loved that. We immediately agreed to fund that grant.

“That was an easy one. We were all quite pleased with ourselves.

“But the other one was one we kept passing over.

“It was from a fellow from Haiti who we did not understand what he was saying. The translation was so difficult.

“What did ‘seams for children’ mean? What was ‘wheat for professors’? What did he mean by ‘stripped children’? What was he asking for?

“We read it and read it, and some of us—myself included—didn’t want to work that hard at understanding this. We’ll deal with that one later, I thought.

“When we came back to the request from Haiti, foundation staff member Connie Anoskey asked if she could give us some insight.

“She explained that ‘stripped kids’ was exactly that. These were street children—orphans—who were truly, absolutely stripped of everything. This man wanted to build a school for these children, giving them clothing, education, food, love. He would go out and choose the healthiest children from the streets.

“‘Wheat for professors’ was food for the teachers. ‘Seams for children’ was clothing.

“Then Connie told us she has worked with this man, David Latour, for three years, as he got his application in order. He’s had to wait for three years to help these children, I thought.

“One problem was he didn’t have a Kiwanis club sponsoring this project. He asked Connie how to start a Kiwanis club. Last year—get this—he started a Kiwanis club in Jeremie, Haiti, just to save these children.

“Latour felt his new Kiwanis club could take in 150 boys and girls for $47,000.

“We immediately gave this man everything we could, which was $20,000. Honestly, we would have given more. We simply didn’t have more funds to give him.

“The children are in poverty because of (the effects) of unemployment and drugs. Some don’t have parents. I was sitting there thinking to myself, ‘We all want to go in there and fix it. But maybe we can go in and educate 100 little children. Maybe that changes it.’

“I wasn’t prepared when I joined Kiwanis that I could change the world. I knew I could help my community.

“Now I’d like to go meet these children in Haiti.

“I can actually see those little faces. Wouldn’t it be great if some of us Kiwanians could spend a week down there helping the new Kiwanis club with this project? And to be partnered with this man? David Latour absolutely changed what Kiwanis is: It’s no longer a meeting; it’s helping children.

Information: John Sloan, Executive Director,
Kiwanis International Foundation: 317-217-6155.