The Kiwanis Club of Lima is continuing to support local organizations through donations.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Kiwanis presented checks to four more organizations that are serving area youth every day. Two of those groups include the Equestrian Therapy Program and Big Brothers Big Sisters of West Central Ohio, who say that these donations will go a long way to help include more young people in their organizations.
"We are so appreciative of the community and how much they help us, especially service organizations," said Michele Andrews-Sabol, executive director of the equestrian therapy program. "This money will probably go towards riderships for riders that cannot afford a ride. We ask for a nominal fee, but for some we just need a scholarship program for them."
"We’re currently up and running in our school-based program," said Fran Biaglow, executive assistant for BBBS of West Central Ohio. "It’s great to have that money to help with matches, and interviews with the bigs and littles, trying to get that perfect match."
Also receiving checks were the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, who are excited to be back up and running after a year off.
"We’re jumpstarting some new in-school programs - our partnerships with Lima City Schools and Perry Schools are essential to making sure that every girl everywhere has access to Girl Scouts," said Lissa Brown, Director of Regional Services for Girl Scouts of Western Ohio. "We also have really unique opportunities like a summer day camp and spring break day camp, where the girls don't have to participate in a troop, but it's more of an episodic Girl Scout experience."
"This past August, we had over 100 kids participate in a partnership through the Lima Parks and Recreation summer youth program -they got to camp, go on a climbing tower, and got to do archery and other shooting sports," said Colin Earl, Assistant Scout Executive for the BSA Black Swamp Area Council.
The Kiwanis Club will be giving out a total of 12 checks to local organizations this year.
