Almaden Cares is an ongoing effort by a small group of community members who have joined together as a response to the many tragic and horrific car accidents involving teenage drivers. Their goal is to raise the consciousness of pre-teens, teens and parents regarding the causes of these accidents. They want everyone who gets behind the wheel of a car (and everyone who rides as a passenger) to make good decisions about their own safety as well as the safety of those around them.

The Almaden Valley Counseling Service envisions a community where everyone has access to affordable mental health counseling. AVCS is a community-based, nonprofit counseling agency committed to meeting the mental health concerns of all ages, with an emphasis on youth. AVCS offers a full range of counseling services to support and promote personal growth, positive family relationships, and emotional well-being. Kiwanis has adopted them as an ongoing community partner, helping at the 10k runs, painting their treatment rooms, and providing financial support.

In conjunction with Pioneer Key Club and Simonds' K-Kids club, over 1,300 items were collected in Nov. 2010 as part of a "Coat Drive". The items benefitted the drop-ins at the Bill Wilson Center.

Almaden Valley Kiwanis hosts an annual February blood drive for the American Red Cross, recruiting donors and assisting at the canteen.

The Family Giving Tree Elves envision a world where every child feels like a valuable part of their community through a national belief in the power of giving. Each year, club members help Leland Key Club get hundreds of gifts to the donation location, as well as directly purchasing gifts for children in need.

Habitat for Humanity Silicon Valley, an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, transforms families and strengthens communities by partnering with volunteers, the community, and qualified families with low incomes, by building decent, affordable housing for long-term home ownership. Almaden Kiwanians help with construction whenver we can get an appointment slot.

Almaden Valley Kiwanis and other community volunteers sorted a warehouse full of clothing to help ease the distribution process. We're looking forward to any other opportunities that might come along to work with them.

Pat’s Run is the signature fundraising event for the Pat Tillman Foundation, a national leader in providing resources and educational scholarship support to veterans, active servicemembers and their dependents. Pat was a native of Almaden prior to moving to Arizona for college. This run is no longer held in Almaden and is now solely in Arizona.

Jacob Wiebe's Buddies League is an ongoing effort by the Almaden Valley Youth Soccer League to offer a community-based soccer program that is designed to meet the needs of children ages 4 to 19 with physical and/or mental disabilities. Almaden Valley Kiwanis has assisted at their opening all-play day and at the end-of-the-season extravaganza.

Almaden Valley Kiwanis is coordinating a community-wide effort to repaint and beautify 48 exam rooms in VMC's pediatric clinic.

In addition to multiple Facebook pages, we have two other pages with lots of information about this incredible project:

• this one is general information for anyone wanting to know what the project's about and how they can help
• this one is a detailed look at the project, for either people who want to see everything we did, or people who want to do their own mural-painting project. (Biggest hint I can give you: do not paint over Sharpie lines; they bleed through paint and polyurethane.)

The Kiwanis Special Games, hosted and organized by Division 34 with assistance from Division 12 (including Almaden Valley), is an all-day Special Olympics-type event where student athletes from around Santa Clara County participate in a variety of modified sports activities, winning ribbons for their efforts. It has been going on for over 33 years.

Kiwanis and UNICEF have joined forces to eradicate Maternal And Neonatal Tetanus. This is the second time we will eliminate a medical problem from the face of the planet (the first being Iodine Deficiency Disorder). This is an ambitious 5-year project to raise $110 million to innoculate 100 million mothers and their future babies from tetanus spores.