Pictured: Abilene Middle School students with trauma dolls they created, along with Jo Schwartz (second from right) with the Abilene Kiwanis Club, and Michelle McClanahan (far right), Memorial Health System Director of Volunteer Services.
The Kiwanis Club of Abilene recently donated some trauma dolls, made at the Kiwanis Builders Club conference, to Memorial Hospital in Abilene. The dolls can help children feel more comfortable when coming to the hospital in an emergency, and a child can point to an area on the doll where they are hurting.
*Builders Club is the largest service organization for middle school and junior high students, with more than 45,000 members worldwide.
Members learn to work together and develop servant-leaders skills as they serve their school and community. In partnership with UNICEF and March of Dimes, the clubs are able to expand their outreach to babies and children of the world.
The first Builders Club was chartered in 1975. Today, there are more than 1,600 clubs in Aruba, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Martinique, Netherlands Antilles, Philippines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States.
Builders Club is a student-led community service organization that operates under school regulations and draws its members from the student body. Community-based Builders Clubs can also be established at churches, libraries, Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCAs, lodges or similar facilities. A Kiwanis club, composed of like-minded, service-oriented people from the community, serves as the club’s sponsor.
Builders Club is structured on the local club level but is supported by the Kiwanis International Office in Indianapolis, Indiana, which provides guidelines, programs, and opportunities to relate to teenagers from countries worldwide.
The Kiwanis Club of Abilene provides Kiwanis dolls as a service to the community.
*source: buildersclub.org