Midwestern natives might mistake a Circle K flier on campus for an advertisement for the popular chain of convenience stores that goes by the same name. Look again folks – the Circle K referred to in this flier is not a convenience store but a service club here at USM. Affiliated with the Kiwanis, Circle K is the largest collegiate service club in the world.
Its mission statement stresses its “dedication to the realization of human potential.” To achieve this goal, Circle K members commit themselves to servicing their community in as many ways as possible.
Last Monday, Circle K members gathered in the Husky Hut at the Brooks Student Center in Gorham to discuss upcoming events. President Tabatha Dorr, a junior therapeutic recreation major, conducted the meeting and discussed the upcoming “Food Chain.” The event raises awareness that hunger in Maine exists, Dorr said.
Circle K, primary organizer of the Food Chain, has sponsored this event for the past seven years.
The event is a three-step process.
First – Circle K recruits area grade schools to sponsor food drives for the event, as well as for their own communities. This year’s participants include Narragansett School and Village School.
Next – Circle K gathers volunteers to participate in the actual chain. The chain consists of volunteers lined up to pass the food from the beginning of the human chain to a truck located at the end where all the food will be gathered. This will begin on
Nov. 23 at 1 p.m. at the Gorham Municipal Center on Route 25.
Dorr said the event usually takes anywhere from one to two hours.
The “hope is to stretch the chain one and a half miles back to the Gorham campus,” said Dorr in her letter to local businesses.
The last step in the three-part process is to donate the food to area shelters and soup kitchens such as Saint Anne’s in Gorham and the Preble Street Resource Center in Portland.
Circle K is also putting on a campus-wide food drive, which is geared toward students who live in residence halls. Circle K plans to place a drop-box for donations on each floor of every resident hall. The hall that collects the most donations will receive a thank-you in the form of an ice cream social or possibly a pizza party. Circle K also plans to place a drop box in the Woodbury Campus Center in Portland.
If you would like to volunteer or for more information about Circle K or the “Food Chain,” go to www.geocities.com/usmcirclek.