Mineola Kiwanis Sends 13 to Camp to Cap Off Year

The signature event for the is the annual Kamp Kiwanis, a week-long, non-competitive camp for children 8 to 14 with special needs. Throughout the year Kiwanis members raise funds to afford these youngsters a chance to experience a fun-filled week in a picturesque location.

On August 7, 13 campers sponsored by the Mineola chapter were among the 60 who boarded a bus destined for the camp, which is housed on 102 acres of open and wooded land in Taberg, NY, in the western foothills of the Adirondack Mountains.

If that weren’t enough, the camp is followed five days later with the annual at Wilson Park. Sixty pounds of frankfurters – 480 hot dogs and buns – were provided courtesy of Kiwanis Member Phil Fortunato of . The event fed more than 400 youngsters from the village’s summer recreation program, the largest turnout in recent memory, according to Kiwanis Club president Edgar Schutz.

Eight Kiwanis Club members served the hot dogs and the provided a king-sized gas grill with eight burners. “Everyone pitched in, it was a good day,” Schutz said.

At one of their recent meetings, Schutz announced that the group has agreed to provide funding for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Specifically, Kiwanis is focusing on neonatal tetanus, which can occur when a baby is delivered in unsanitary conditions especially when the cut umbilical cord is contaminated after birth.

Before immunizations were available, neonatal tetanus was a common cause of newborn death because the disease is almost always fatal in infants. While improved surgical procedures and techniques for cutting the umbilical cord have greatly reduced the incidence of newborn tetanus in developed countries, Africa continues to suffer astronomical losses.

“We will supply the money to the U.N. and they will supply the doctors and the medical staff,” Schultz said.

This morning the Kiwanis Club plans to vote in its new board of directors for the new year.