No kidding around for service-minded youth

You often hear about “watershed moments,” those turning points in the lives of people and organizations. For the Bessie Weller Elementary School K-Kids club in Staunton, Virginia, that moment actually occurred in a watershed.

As one of its first projects, the recently chartered K-Kids club cleaned up Asylum Creek, which runs alongside the school. Joining a city effort, students spent a brisk day clearing out twigs and brush, picking up trash, driving tree stakes into the ground, and sowing grass seed.

“People have been throwing trash in the creek,” K-Kids member Jamila Thomas told the Staunton News Leader, noting she found a pizza box and bike in the water. “We’re hoping to clean it up so it will look nice and not trashy.”

Though it wasn’t chartered until this past March, the club went to work early during the winter months, including taking part in a movement to keep a movie theater open in downtown Staunton. “They’ve also cleaned up trash in their neighborhoods and raised about US$1,600 for Relay for Life,” notes Joan Swift of the Shenandoah Valley, Staunton, Kiwanis club, the K-Kids club sponsor.