By Clyde Noel

Foothill College Circle K members surprised the Los Altos Kiwanis Club, Aug. 29, with a check for $2,000. It’s usually the other way around with service organizations.

Yulia Khouri, president of the Foothill Circle K, explained the various projects the group sponsored over the past year.

As a community service, the club held car washes, coordinated two blood drives for the Stanford medical blood center and participated in the Bluebird Recovery project with the Audubon Society-Circle K.

Kiwanis President Lynn Davidson said the students take part in Kiwanis service activities and fund-raising projects. They help with the annual Los Altos Pet Parade and supply labor for the Kiwanis Christmas tree lot every year.

“As a sponsored program of Kiwanis International, Circle K shares the focus of serving the children of the world,” Davidson said. “We sponsor Circle K and subsidize their trips to their convention.”

Circle K International’s service initiative is “Focusing on the Future: Children.” The initiative encourages members to address the issues facing children six to 13 and to find solutions through service for addressing the issues.

Davidson said Kiwanis International will apply the money to the search for a cure for iodine deficiency disorders, the world’s leading cause of preventable mental retardation. More than 1.5 billion people are at risk of IDD.