Photo courtesy of Erin Hickey
As an organization whose main focus is community service, Hofstra’s Circle K is frequently hosting and participating in events to assist the Hofstra and Long Island communities at large. Members of Circle K joined together to create superhero capes to donate to Cohen Children’s Medical Center on the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 26.
Circle K is the collegiate branch of the Kiwanis organization. Its main values are leadership, service and fellowship.
Though members of Circle K are always serving their community, this was their first time making capes to donate to the Northwell Health hospital located in New Hyde Park.
“We have our set projects that we do pretty much every semester,” said Caroline Peers, a junior neuroscience major and president of Hofstra’s Circle K. “We do peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; we started doing no-slip socks for a children’s hospital.”
Peers said that the executive board was looking for something new to do to help the community, and when Kyla Garcia, secretary of Circle K and sophomore criminology and geography double major, found the idea to make superhero capes, everyone knew it was the right fit.
“We had done a lot of the same things, so I thought, ‘What can we do? How can we change this up a little bit?’” Garcia said. “I just put in a Google search for service events and this was a really cool idea. [It’s] super simple and super fun, it’s a good way to get people engaged and excited.”
The capes were easy to make – all it took was some fabric, markers and scissors. “Ever since I was little, I always wanted to work with kids,” said Rachel Rea, a junior community health major. “I think that making them happy is really important. If a cape can make them happy, then spending five minutes of your time to make one is the least you can do,” Rea said.
The event was held in a very laidback setting, with everyone talking and laughing while making the capes.
“I’ve only ever been to one Circle K event before,” Rea said. “So I thought I would feel awkward at first because I didn’t know anyone, but everyone was just so nice.”
The welcoming environment displays one of Circle K’s main values: fellowship. They are an organization that not only supports their community, but also supports each other.
“My favorite part [of Circle K] aside from the service, which of course is what Circle K is about, is getting to meet different people on campus, actually being able to make friends and find a place here,” Garcia said. “You meet a lot of people who have the same mindset, that’s really one of the best things.”
Everyone in Circle K is like-minded in that they want to help others. Many were members of service organizations in high school or also are members of the community service fraternity on campus, Alpha Phi Omega.
“My favorite part of doing service events like [making superhero capes] is probably how accessible it is to people,” Peers said. “People can kind of just come after class; it really doesn’t take a lot of time; there’s no driving to get there; and it’s just really easy for people. It’s just kind of a fun craft and it’s a fun activity. It’s kind of like a bonding experience for us, especially since it was our first time doing this, we kind of all figured it out together and had fun with it.”
Events Circle K hosts on campus, such as this cape-making event, are especially appealing to people who want to help their community but may not have a lot of time or may not be able to get off campus to volunteer.
“There’s something really awesome about simplicity,” Garcia said. “Sometimes you don’t need to do anything too complicated to make someone happy. So this is a really great way, and a really easy way, for people to come together and do something really good. It’s simple, but it does the trick, and it’s going to make some kids really happy.”
