{"id":42259,"date":"2016-12-30T22:25:07","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T03:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=42259"},"modified":"2016-12-30T22:25:07","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T03:25:07","slug":"lehigh-kiwanis-club-hosts-special-needs-kids-holiday-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2016\/12\/lehigh-kiwanis-club-hosts-special-needs-kids-holiday-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Kiwanis Club Hosts Special Needs Kids Holiday Party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Special to the Lehigh Acres Gazette<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-42260\" title=\"IMG_1310\" src=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/IMG_1310-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/IMG_1310-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/IMG_1310-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/IMG_1310-50x50.jpg 50w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/IMG_1310.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The Lehigh Kiwanis Club hosted a Holiday Party Dec. 14, 2016, for special-needs students from Tortuga, Lehigh and Mirror Lakes Elementary Schools.\u00a0 All the children received headpieces of either antlers, Santa or snowmen as they departed their buses.\u00a0 They were then greeted by the Calendar Girls Dance Troupe, young violinist, Alex Cameron, and Kiwanis Club Members on their way into the Fellowship Hall of Christ United Methodist Church in Lehigh Acres.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-42261\" title=\"IMG_2131\" src=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/IMG_2131-e1483154668407-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/IMG_2131-e1483154668407-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/IMG_2131-e1483154668407-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/IMG_2131-e1483154668407.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Kiwanian, Jim Kreger, played Christmas Carols on the piano as the guests entered.\u00a0 The party began with each child receiving a stocking filled with toys and was personally greeted by Santa and Mrs. Claus!<\/p>\n<p>MC\/organizer for the event, Lehigh Kiwanis President Elect, Tina Pegler, introduced 10-year old superb violinist, Alex Cameron, who played several holiday medleys throughout the morning. The Calendar Girls Dance Troupe danced for us with many lively Christmas tunes, followed by a round of Hanukah tunes led by Tina Pegler.<\/p>\n<p>The party concluded with lunch of pizza and drinks served to all the guests.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->We wish to thank the Christ United Methodist pastors and staff; Calendar Girls Dance Troupe consisting of Cathy, Cece, Karen &amp; Tina; Alex Cameron, the teachers, teacher&#8217;s aides and bus drivers who assisted the special-needs students; Santa and Mrs. Claus, portrayed by Kelly and John Graham, and the Kiwanis Club volunteers who all worked to put on this special event. Special thanks to Danny Davis for the generous donation for this event in memory of Loretta Davis.<\/p>\n<p>According to several teachers, special-needs students are often overlooked, so with that, Lehigh Kiwanis Club has promised to have an annual event for these students from now on.\u00a0 The Kiwanis Defining Statement:\u00a0 &#8220;Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world, one child and one community at a time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to help with projects and events focused on local kids and our community, come to Lehigh Kiwanis Breakfast Meetings, held at Hope Hospice Community Room each\u00a0Wednesday\u00a0morning at\u00a07:00 a.m.\u00a0for breakfast buffet, with meetings starting at\u00a07:30 a.m.\u00a0 Public is invited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Special to the Lehigh Acres Gazette The Lehigh Kiwanis Club hosted a Holiday Party Dec. 14, 2016, for special-needs students from Tortuga, Lehigh and Mirror Lakes Elementary Schools.\u00a0 All the&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":42260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}