The Bowling Green K-Kids were recently awarded $10,000 in IKEA products, services and donations from IKEA Long Island in Hicksville, to use toward community projects including updating the art center and library at Kamp Kiwanis. The Kiwanis camp services underprivileged children and helps community members. The award was part of a national corporate project, the IKEA Life Improvement Co-worker Challenge.
The challenge is part of the third year of IKEA’s Life Improvement Project, which offers consumers inspiration, and suggestions to help make a positive impact on their homes and lives. Through this year-long initiative, IKEA is encouraging people to share projects of what they do to improve their lives at home, and to learn from the life improvement tips of others, from saving time through better organization, to reducing bills by changing to energy-efficient light bulbs.
Rick Santer, lieutenant governor elect and faculty advisor of the Bowling Green Elementary School K-Kids winners said, “The Bowling Green K-Kids are excited to have been chosen to receive this very generous grant from IKEA. The K-Kids members are looking forward to meeting the IKEA volunteers who will be working with us as we supply the newly constructed Kamp Kiwanis Art Center/Library with much needed furniture and provide gourmet food for needy families in our neighborhood.”
K-Kids is a student-led community service organization for elementary school students, “young leaders helping others.” Service projects include community clean-ups, fundraisers, for various Kiwanis charities, including the ELIMINATE Project, the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Center at North Shore-LIJ and Pediatric Lyme Disease.
“Here at IKEA Long Island, we are committed to providing a better everyday life for the many people; it is an honor to be involved with Mr. Santer and the children in his K-Kids club,” said John Achillea, store manager. “They strive to support our community and we are committed to helping them do just that. We are all very enthusiastic about helping these young children provide charity to our community.”
The Life Improvement Co-worker Challenge received 80 inspiring proposals from IKEA co-workers from across the nation. In the Hicksville store, the steering committee selected two organizations for consumers to vote online for. Thousands of votes were registered and the winning charities were announced on April 10 for each store location. A total of 37 community projects were selected to be supported by IKEA. The total campaign donation across all stores was almost $500,000.
