The Kiwanis K-Kids Club at Westfield River Elementary School recently raised more than $600 to support The Thirst Project, a non-profit that works to provide permanent fresh water wells in third-world communities where no local water supply exists.

The elementary school club has been working with The Thirst Project since 2020. Club members place empty 16.9 ounce water bottles in the school’s classrooms and invite their schoolmates, teachers, and school staff to fill the bottles with dimes. Each filled bottle holds about $100 in dimes.

The K-Kids at Westfield River Elementary, and at the school’s predecessor, the former Franklin Avenue School, have raised more than $3,000 for The Thirst Project since the program began. This year’s effort was kicked off with a video club members produced with the help of faculty advisor Scott Labrie. The video is linked above. Learn more about The Thirst Project at the organization’s website, https://thirstproject.org/.

Westfield Kiwanis Club members delivered 20 cases of prepackaged, ready-to-cook meals to the Westfield Food Pantry on Monday.

The meals were packaged on April 18 by a team of volunteers from Western Massachusetts Kiwanis Clubs, including the Westfield, Springfield, Southern Berkshire, Northampton, and Easthampton clubs. The project was coordinated with The Outreach Program, a national non-profit that works to alleviate food insecurity. As a result of the packaging event, meal kits have now been delivered to food banks across Western Massachusetts, including the Westfield Food Pantry. Each of the 20 cases contains 36 bags of high-nutrition, easy-to-cook food, and each bag contains six servings.

Addressing food insecurity is a major priority for the Kiwanis Club of Westfield, and more projects are in the works.

Griswold, a student in the Communications program at Westfield State University, was recently selected to receive the award, named in memory of the late Dr. Edwin Abar, Jr.

Dr. Abar, who was president of the Westfield Kiwanis Club in 1987-88, founded the Westfield State communications program and was instrumental in its development. He retired in 2004 and passed away in 2011.

Griswold is president of the Lambda Pi Eta National Communications Honor Society at Westfield State. She is a member of the Commonwealth Honors program and serves on its executive board. She is also vice president of WSU’s Student Honor Association, serves on the communications department’s curriculum committee, and is a member of the ethics committee of the Westfield State University Equestrian Team.

In the photo from left to right are Westfield State University professors Mark Nimkoff and Maddy Cahill, Dr. Sylvia Abar, who chairs the Abar Scholarship Committee, recipient Allison Griswold, and Kiwanis Club President George Delisle.

Club members were joined by members of the Kiwanis Clubs of Springfield, Southern Berkshire, Northampton and Easthampton in a meal packaging event held at Westfield State University.

The Westfield club donated $5,000 to the Outreach Program to provide the food and other materials to package nearly 15,000 meals. The Springfield club donated an additional $500, and the total of $5,500 was matched by a grant from the Kiwanis Foundation of New England, bringing the total to $11,000.

The food packaging line was manned by volunteers from the Kiwanis clubs, the Kiwanis Circle K clubs at Westfield State University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the West Springfield High School Key Club, and the HEC Academy Key Club from Northampton.

Also participating were members of the Kiwanis-sponsored Connecticut River Aktion Club, a club for adults with developmental disabilities, and from the nursing program at Westfield State University.

The volunteers packaged approximately 15,000 meals in a two-hour period. The easy-to-prepare high-nutrition meals will be distributed this week to food pantries and relief programs across Western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut.

Shown in photo L-R: Daniele Sturmer, Cathleen Bastible, Christine Humason, Tamson Westcott, and Geana Delisle.

Westfield Kiwanis Club members received a briefing at Thursday’s meeting on the very latest tools and techniques for recognizing and dealing with the symptoms of a stroke.

Christine Westscott and Tamson Humason, members of the Stroke Resources team at Baystate Noble Hospital, presented a very informative program, providing details on how to recognize a potential stroke and how to respond.

The program was presented at the club’s weekly 6:00 PM meeting at Emma’s Everyday Gourmet, Washington St., Westfield.

Each member present received a packet full of information sheets and brochures on stroke facts and prevention. The presentation centered on the latest on recognizing stroke warning signs, using the acronym “B.E. F.A.S.T” – Balance loss, Eye (vision) changes, Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty and Time – to call 911.

Christine and Tamson emphasized the important of recognizing the signs of a stroke and of calling 911 for emergency assistance promptly. They noted that there are very effective interventions that can minimize the damage caused by a stroke, but cautioned that those interventions are only effective if they are applied immediately.

Information on stroke prevention was also presented.

The Noble stroke team is available to speak to civic groups and other organizations in Western Massachusetts. For more information or to schedule a presentation, contact Christine Humason at christine.humason@baystatehealth.org.

The Westfield Kiwanis Auction returns to television on Sunday for the first time since 2020 as we celebrate the event’s 57th year.

The annual Auction was presented as a live, all-day event for more than 20 years after originating as a three-night radio event in 1969. The auction has raised millions of dollars for Kiwanis, which has reinvested all of it back into the community in the form of donations and grants to service and charitable organizations.

All auction bidding will remain online, as it has been since 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the event out of its former home at the Westfield State University television studio. However, potential bidders will be able to see and hear more about some of this year’s big ticket items on Sunday, March 8, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM when the auction goes on the air once more.

The program will originate from the television studio at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield, one of the Westfield institutions that was founded by the Westfield Kiwanis Club with the help of funds raised through the annual Auction. Auction fans who are Comcast customers will be able to tune in to the city’s Channel 15 to watch the program. Everyone else can view the live stream on YouTube by clicking this link: 2026 Westfield Kiwanis Auction Livestream. Auction previews are live now. View all our offerings and register to bid now at https://kiwanisauction.com.