Experience community togetherness at NJ’s ‘Pointsgiving’

📚 Point Pleasant's "Pointsgiving" event happens in November

🐶 The idea is to have families volunteer together in one place

📓 There will be 33 stations available

POINT PLEASANT — Go through your house. Clean out your closets or go shopping for fresh items.

The Kiwanis Club of Point Pleasant will hold its “2nd Annual Pointsgiving” on Nov. 2 at Community Park in Point Pleasant Borough from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The free event will feature several hands-on-service projects and promotional tables from local, nonprofits.

The Point Pleasant Kiwanis Club is all about helping children. “We are a global service organization and when we started, we really tried to make volunteering accessible. We let kids come to our meetings because moms shouldn’t have to hire a babysitter to come volunteer,” said Kristen Fischer, president of the Kiwanis Club of Point Pleasant.

The concept of families volunteering together and bringing the community together has become a big part of what the club does, Fischer said.

People want to volunteer but it’s not always accessible. “So, we wanted to put everything in one place where people could walk up, pick a station, and give back however they chose,” she said.

That’s how “Pointsgiving” was born.

Day of the event

On Nov. 2., it will be all about accessibility and convenience. The program can be found here. There will be 33 stations on hand that day to help men, women, children, pets, and more. Some of the organizations are asking for donations while others will have hands-on activities. Some are there to simply talk about their organizations, and they’ll have pamphlets and information about what they do, Fischer said.

It's a free-for-all-event. In the parking lot will be the BookSmiles truck from Pennsauken. This organization is responsible for getting books into the hands of children. Helping children is at the heart of what Kiwanis does, so BookSmiles is very important to them, Fischer said. Last year, 6,000 books were collected, and she expects more to be collected this year.

Also in the parking lot will be a hurricane relief truck.

“The community wants to give back. There’s been so many drives, but to be able to bring it to your town in a way that’s convenient for people is the heart of what Kiwanis does. We want to do service but we also want to rally our community,” Fischer said.

Once you donate books and hurricane relief items in the parking lot, it’s time to go inside.

Here is a list of the 33 stations at the 2nd Annual Pointsgiving Community Event

The newest sponsored club is K-Kids, for ages 6 to 11. Fischer said they’ll be making cards for service members and they’ll be doing park cleanups.

People have the option of either simply dropping off donations, or going inside to peruse the stations. Go from station to station. The printed program is a passport for the whole day so you can pick and choose what interests you, Fischer said.

One of Fischer’s favorite stations is the Giving Gowns. People can donate cotton fabrics that will be used to make hospital gowns for children.

Helping homelessness

Another one of Fischer's favorites is The District Project. The Kiwanis district has an initiative called The District Project to help support youth homelessness.

One of her Kiwanis members is collecting Thanksgiving meal items for Project Stepping Stone in Freehold. It’s a springboard to tell everyone about this initiative. There are many young people in New Jersey and in the country who experience homelessness for various reasons, Fischer said.

Project Stepping Stone is a transitional housing center. Kiwanis is collecting items to make a Thanksgiving meal. They’re also collecting cake supplies to make little birthday cake kits for foster children.

These children need to know that people care about them, especially for those who have aged out of these programs, but they are still young people trying to go to school, trying to make ends meet, and trying to make it in this world.

“There’s not a lot of support for them. Kiwanis is full throttle behind this district project to help youth homelessness,” Fischer said.

Teacher's Closet

Another station that is dear to Fischer’s heart is Teacher’s Closet. While many schools collect supplies at the beginning of the school year, teachers often run out of basic supplies and cleaning supplies midway through the year.

Once supplies are collected, teachers from Point Beach and Point Borough can pick up supplies at the beginning of 2025 for their classrooms. Again, it’s about giving back to kids, and that’s what Kiwanis is all about, Fischer stressed.

Fischer suggests printing out the program ahead of time, so you can look through it, get your donations together, and plan your day accordingly.

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