April-May-June 2019 Happenings
June 28, 2019  Sunshine City Kiwanis meeting with Ann Rogers, president of National Alliance on Mental Illness Pinellas County Florida. Ann talked about how became involved with mental illness support, education, and advocacy. She described her son’s situation with mental illness. As a result of attending NAMI classes she offered to give back. That meant she trained to teach the family classes... and the rest is history.

We also welcomed Dorothy Wren, a fitness and health advocate, who ran us through stretching exercises.
Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people standing June 21, 2019  Sunshine City Kiwanis meeting with Montana District Governor-Elect, Jim Greene. Jim gave us some insights to how their District runs including joining with Western Canada on occasion. 39 clubs over 8 divisions means the average club is 150 miles away from the next nearest. Thanks for joining us, Jim. #kidsneedkiwanis
 
 

 
May 24, 2019  Sunshine City Kiwanis meeting with Sylvia Pino, founder of Parents for Parents of Florida. The organization focuses on handicapped children, especially those diagnosed with autism. Sylvia worked with the Center for Autism for 7 years and continues to seek opportunities to support autistic children.
Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people standing May 17, 2019  Sunshine City Kiwanis meeting with Chris Mathews, outreach coordinator for the Kinship Children’s Home Network. Kinship is an organization that helps grandparents or other relative raising a family member’s child. All the state and federal programs usually do not include assistance for grandparents who had children dropped off by irresponsible relatives. What is such a care provider to do? Kinship helps. #childrenshomenetwork
Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people standing May 3, 2019  Sunshine City Kiwanis meeting with Joshua Wolfenden, assistant Principal of the Richard O. Jacobson Technical High School. Tech High has only been open for one year. The school is a magnet school for many technical industries such as Building & Construction, Commercial & Digital Arts, Electricity, Marine Mechanics, Nursing, Veterinarian Science, and Gaming Programming. Student population is small right now (only 175). Each area of expertise has an advisory board of people actually in that field which has proven to be a huge advantage for students. Adding about 175 students a year the school will eventually top out at 600 students. www.techhigh.pcsb.com #techhigh
4/26/2019...Sunshine City Kiwanis meeting with Rachel Arndt, volunteer coordinator with Tampa Bay Watch. As an estuary, Tampa Bay is a fragile ecosystem which is being threatened by development. Their mantra is “Restoring the Bay Every Day”. Located near Fort Desoto Park, they have 22 employees. They use volunteers to help with planting grasses and restoring marshes and habitats. So far, they have restored over 170 acres of salt marshes. Oyster restoration is another big ongoing project because oysters help filter water, improving water quality.#tampabaywatch
4/5/2019...Sunshine City Kiwanis meeting with Brittany Peterson from Suncoast Center. Brittany works as a child advocate for kids that have been physically or sexually abused. They counsel and support the kids through the whole process including meeting with the state prosecutor. Brittany also goes into the schools to talk about social safety. She preaches on 5 safety rules. #suncoastcenter#kidsneedkiwanis