Above / Fall is just around the corner and that means it’s time again for Kiwanis Peanut Days to begin during the Riverwalk Fine Art Fair, Sept. 17 & 18.
UPDATE: PHOTO GALLERY, Sept. 17, 2016 / It’s Kiwanis Peanut Day! With apron pockets filled with packets of peanuts, volunteers from the Naperville Evening Kiwanis were stationed and ready to welcome visitors to the Naperville Art League Riverwalk Fine Art Fair before the event opened at 10AM.
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Original Post / The Kiwanis Club of Naperville will be on the streets, at local stores, and at the downtown train station seeking support of their local charitable activities on certain dates in September during Kiwanis Peanut Days.
The fundraising event began in Chicago in September 1951 with eight clubs participating. With limited publicity and experience, those eight clubs managed to raise more than $18,000 in one day!
Since then, over $73 million has been raised by Kiwanis clubs for a wide array of charitable projects using the Kiwanis Peanut Days fund raising program. Peanut Days has become the most successful coordinated fund raising program in Kiwanis history, organizers said.
Look for Kiwanis pitching peanuts Sept. 17, 18, 20, 22, 23 and 24
In Naperville Peanut Days will kick off this year the weekend of September 17 & 18 at the 31st annual Naperville Riverwalk Fine Art Fair. Kiwanis again has partnered with the Naperville Art League to hand out the complimentary promotional art fair booklets to festival goers and will also be hoping for Peanut Day contributions. Packs of delicious Kiwanis peanuts will be given as a “thank you” for any donation.
Peanut Day activities move to the downtown train station very early on the mornings of Tuesday and Thursday, September 20 and 22. Kiwanians, visible in their bright red vests, will be seeking donations from commuters from 5:45 to 8:15AM.
Fundraising activities will be most visible on Friday and Saturday, September 23 and 24. That weekend Kiwanians and other volunteers will be stationed at Casey’s Foods, at the intersection of Chicago Ave. & Sleight St., and at all local Jewel stores. Any contribution will be rewarded with a pack of Kiwanis peanuts.
Community benefits from Peanut Days
Locally, Peanut Days are a tradition that Naperville residents have generously supported. Every dollar donated (above the cost of the peanuts) goes right back into the community to support many worthwhile organizations and activities.
Some of the beneficiaries include Alive! Naperville; CASA of DuPage; DuPage Children’s Museum; DuPage Senior Citizens Council; Feed My Starving Children; Kids Matter; Little Friends; and Loaves & Fishes.
Kiwanians also do considerable amount of the unglamorous but necessary hands-on grunt work in the community, added publicist Fred Jacobs.
Projects include Adopt A Road litter pick up; landscape and garden work at Veterans Park; yard work at Family Shelter Service; delivering Meals on Wheels; helping at hospital blood drives; cutting wood at the Children’s Museum; and much more.
“Annually our group provides over 10,000 hours of community service,” said Jacobs.
Kiwanis Scholarships, too!
Four (4) $1,000 scholarships are awarded to deserving Key Club members each year. Kiwanis advisors are present at each of the weekly meetings of its Kiwanis Key Clubs at Metea Valley & Waubonsie Valley high schools; at our Kiwanis Builders Club at Hill Middle School; and at our C.K.I (Circle K) club at North Central College.
