Rosewood AKTION Club donates coloring books to St. Francis

Rosewood Miracle Workers AKTION Club members and Day Services employees show their collection of coloring books and crayons, along with the trophy up for grabs for this year’s friendly competition which helped raise 724 items for last fall’s Coloring Book and Crayon Drive. Pictured left to right are - front row: Pam Babcock, Emily Komarek; middle row: Frankie Pelster (AKTION Club sponsor, DJ Johnson, Amy Grove, Josh Trimmer, Melissa Andrulis, Diane Reif, David Hales, Kurtis Coleman, Amanda Hammond; back row: Corey Triplett, Amanda Immediato, Herman Ledesma, Tyler Michaelis, and Dan Haselhorst.

A friendly competition during Rosewood Miracle Workers AKTION Club’s community drive resulted in an abundance of coloring books and crayons being donated to St. Francis Ministries in Great Bend. Rosewood AKTION Club members donated 383 coloring books and 341 boxes of crayons to St. Francis on Dec. 20, following the AKTION Club’s fall community drive.

The coloring books and crayons will be utilized by children served by St. Francis, which provides foster care and integration services for families in Barton County.

“This is so awesome; We really appreciate it,” said St. Francis representative Sandy McMullen, when the collection of coloring products was delivered. “We’ll definitely put them to good use through the year.”

The coloring book drive turned into a fun competition as AKTION Club sponsor Frankie Pelster challenged her members, as well as Rosewood employees to generate donations for the drive. Community donations were counted in the AKTION Club’s collection, while Rosewood employees in Day Services, Residential and Administration each collected coloring books and crayons for their respective teams. Day Services eventually won the competition, accounting for 170 coloring books and 118 boxes of crayons. Those numbers outpaced AKTION Club’s donation counts by 62 more coloring books and 23 more boxes of crayons.

Rosewood Miracle Workers AKTION Club members are photographed along with St. Francis Ministries - Great Bend representatives with some of the collection of coloring books and crayons donated by the community and Rosewood employees during the AKTION Club drive conducted through the fall. Pictured left to right are Frankie Pelster (AKTION Club sponsor, Hayley Ross (St. Francis, Pam Babcock (foreground, Kurtis Coleman, Sandy McMullen (St. Francis, Mindy Evans (St. Francis, DJ Johnson, Josh Trimmer and Stephanie Chambers (AKTION Club sponsor assistant).

“We challenged our AKTION Club members and our Rosewood employees this year with a friendly competition and it took off,” said Rosewood AKTION Club sponsor Frankie Pelster. “Day Services is the winner of this year’s AKTION Club Challenge Trophy, but the way I look at it, our AKTION Club members are the winners because they got to organize and participate in a very successful community effort that will put smiles on foster children’s faces when they receive a coloring book and a box of crayons in the coming year. We are grateful to the community and Rosewood employees for contributing so much to our fundraising effort.”

Rosewood AKTION Club is an affiliate of the national Kiwanis organization that promotes service in action for people with developmental disabilities. The area club allows Rosewood representatives to be actively involved in the community and to positively impact the lives of others.