At the club's June 24th meeting, the two of the three students that Levittown Kiwanis sponsored for this year's HOBY Leadership Conference spoke to the members about their experiences.

HOBY stands for Hugh O'Brien Youth Ambassadors. Each year the Levittown Kiwanis Club sponsors a sophmore from each of the community's three high schools to be among the other future leaders from around New York who attend this annual conference. Hugh O'Brien was a Kiwanian who believed that the most important thing is for young people to think for themselves and this program is designed to encourage high school students to do just that.

The students selected this year were Sara Judge from MacArthur High School, Christine Vermilye from Division Avenue High School and Robby Howells from Island Trees High School. Sara was unable to attend the club's meeting but Christine and Robby each thanked the club for sponsoring them and told the members about the weekend.

Christine noted that all the youth ambassadors were very friendly and made her feel comfortable right away. She made several new friends and has already been corresponding with one of the other students. She said that she would like to return as a counselor in the future.

Robby told the Kiwanis members that he enjoyed the weekend's activities. He was particularly impressed with the multi-cultural aspects of the conference. He also said that he would like to return as a counselor next year.

For many years Mary Orth has run the Levittown Kiwanis Club's HOBY program and this year the club was fortunate to have Sue Hahn coordinating the HOBY students with Mary's guidance.

Catheryn Zinnel, a MacArthur High School student who attended last year's HOBY Conference was invited to return to this year's conference as a junior counselor. This was particularly significant because it is the first year that a Levittown student has been asked to return. Catheryn approached the Levittown Kiwanis Club, who sponsored her last year, about sponsoring her again this year. The club was thrilled to once again provide a local student with such a wonderful opportunity. Catheryn attended the club's June 17th meeting to speak about her weekend as a junior counselor and the thank the club for assisting her in this meaningful experience. Catheryn proved herself to be a true youth leader and the club looks forward to hearing about her future successes.

In recent weeks the Levittown Kiwanis Club has had several informative guest speakers to educate members about different topics of interest.

Several weeks ago a woman from the Cornell Cooperative attended a meeting and spoke about their 4-H program. A couple of weeks later the members were fortunate enough to hear from a native Levittowner who is currently a producer for Telecare. Joann Kavangagh Beattie spoke about her experiences growing up and then raising her family in Levittown and how that led her to television producing. At the organization's June 24th meeting members heard from a speaker who discussed the importance of nutrition. The club was happy to hear from each of these guests and learned quite a bit of useful information from each of the speakers.

Please save all your soda/drink flip top tabs and all your Campbell soup labels and General Mills box tops and turn them in to the Levittown Kiwanis Club at one of our meetings. The labels and box tops go to St. Jude's Ranch for Children, which they redeem for a monetary amount. The soda tabs go to the Fork Lane School in Hicksville and they give them to the Nassau County Medical Center Burn Unit. This program is coordinated by club member Tom Mawn.

The Levittown Kiwanis Club meets every Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. at:

La Focaccia Restaurant

70 East Village Green

Levittown, NY 11756

Telephone: 796-4461

Please note that during July and August the club only meets every other week. The next meeting of the Levittown Kiwanis Club is Thursday, July 22nd.

Look for the Kiwanis Korner in the Levittown Tribune every week.