North Pinellas club news

Through the elective Service Learning 101, student members of the Countryside Kiwanis-sponsored Builders Club at Carwise Middle School, Palm Harbor, learned about what it meant to volunteer and give service to others in addition to studying service projects on a local, state, national and international level.

Cindy Bowen, a veteran reading teacher, designed the service learning curriculum around the New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson. The primary focus of the class is to help each student become a luminary who builds smiles through service.

During the school year, the eighth-grade students achieved many goals. More than 500 pounds of gently used clothing was donated to Clothes to Kids, Clearwater; in two weeks, $1,100 was raised for the Salvation Army Change for Children Fund in Clearwater; 40,000 can tabs were donated to Ronald McDonald House-All Children's Hospital; 5,000 books were donated to the Salvation Army Homeless Shelter in St. Petersburg, Salvation Army Clearwater, and Head Start of Clearwater; weekly recycling of plastic caps from students, teachers and the Kiwanis Countryside benefitted Heart Works; and the group facilitated weekly recycling of newspapers and paper from 70 classrooms at Carwise.

In its first year, Service Learning 101 and the Builders Club brought together students from all learning levels, cultural diversities, learning styles and economic groups and allowed the student to take charge of a project, learn from and model good character traits, and produced 35 luminaries of service who will enter high school this month.

The course will be available to seventh-graders in the 2010-2011 school year.

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Members of Caladesi Chapter 816 of the Questers are extremely proud that member Susan Maxon was elected to serve as state president of the Florida Questers for 2010-2012.

"The Questers are an international organization of collectors and historians who are dedicated to providing funds and means for the restoration and preservation of the historic landmarks and artifacts of our culture," explained Maxon.

Since 1976, members of Caladesi Chapter have donated cash and sweat equity to many local, state, and international restoration and preservation projects. Funds have been donated to Pinellas, Pasco, Titusville and Tallahassee historical societies, local museums, and to maintain the historic Quester Headquarters building in Philadelphia.

Antiques have been purchased for the Safford House in Tarpon Springs.

Scholarships at Columbia University and the University of Delaware Winterthur art conservation program are supported annually by the group.

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This month the Belleair Garden Club awarded a $1,000 scholarship to Belleair resident Westin Jensen.

Jensen started college this summer at the University of Florida. He is majoring in building construction, with an emphasis on international sustainable development in the College of Design, Construction and Planning. His goal is to earn a master's degree and then pursue a career in construction science and management.

In his free time, Jensen enjoys playing golf, hockey, tennis, piano and guitar.

The Belleair Garden Club Scholarship Fund was established to give financial assistance to disadvantaged high school graduates, helping them prepare for a vocation in horticulture, ecology or related fields.

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May 24, Masonic Star Lodge 78 of Largo awarded J.B. Johnson a 60-year lapel pin.

Worshipful Master Charles R. Jordan made the presentation.

Johnson became a Master Mason in 1946.