CIRCLE K CONVENTION: MORE THAN JUST SPEAKERS AND SEMINARS

With paintbrush in hand and a few small splatters of white paint on her sweatshirt, Circle K member Sarah Greaves said she was enjoying her first few minutes of painting at the Cape Girardeau Head Start.

"Come back later, though," she joked.

Greaves, a student at Southeast Missouri State University, is one of over 60 Circle K members from Missouri and Arkansas who spent Saturday doing various projects in the Cape Girardeau community as part of the Circle K International District Convention.

Circle K is a collegiate branch of the Kiwanis Club. The Southeast Missouri State University chapter of Circle K hosted the convention.

Circle K members participated in projects at five sites around Cape Girardeau and one in Jackson, including picking up trash at Jackson City Park, assisting with a neighborhood home beautification project, cleaning out apartments for the Women's Safehouse, assisting with Red Cross mailings and pulling out weeds and picking up trash around the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

Kevin Sexton, community service representative for Cape Girardeau county office, said projects like these really help out programs like Head Start. He said that even though Head Start is a federally-funded program, only 75 percent of the budget comes from the federal funds. The rest of the budget comes from in-kind contributions, volunteer work that would normally cost money the program doesn't have.

"Parents volunteer their time, people in the community volunteer, and projects like these -- they all help out," Sexton said.

Throughout the year, Circle K members participate in several community service projects, such as holding food drives, planting flowers at homes for abused women and cleaning stretches of highway.

Jennifer Johannsen, a student from the University of Arkansas-Mountain Home in Mountain Home, Ark., said there should be more projects to help communities in general.

"There aren't enough people doing this," she said. "We need more organizations that will do this work. Either that or we need more people in Circle K."

Greaves said she enjoys helping out. "I think [projects like these] are really fun," she said. "Since (Head Start) helps so many people, we thought they deserved a little relief. We're more than happy to help them out.

"Personally, I think it's nice to be in the business of helping people who help others."