On March 23rd, 2012, New Jersey Circle K’s finest gathered together for a magical world of service, leadership, and fellowship at the 48th annual New jersey District Convention! This year’s convention as in the past, had been held at the Hotel Somerset Bridgewater in Somerset, NJ.
The Disney inspired weekend kicked off with an explosive Opening Session on Friday night. Members were introduced to a variety of goodies that night, including a wonderful ‘Lion King’ themed dance introduced by our 2011-2012 New Jersey District Board, a nostalgic member’s video to commemorate our great year of service and lastly a crazy Jungle-Book themed caucus session in order to determine our District’s new executive board!
Elections were no easy feat this year. Candidates from all across New Jersey participated in two heated caucus sessions, as well as a Saturday morning Fishbowl session to weed out the District’s best of the best. While a majority of the offices were unopposed this year, the offices of District Governor and Editor were respectfully contested.
By Saturday afternoon, the House of Delegates convened, and had decided that our new executive board would comprise of Raymond Brophy from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey as the Garden LTG, Saad Shamshair from Rutgers University as Seabreez LTG, Shivam Patel from Rutgers University as District Editor, Sharukh Shamshair from Rutgers University as District Treasurer, Dawn Kreder from TCNJ as District Secretary, and last but not least, Danielle Sammut from TCNJ as District Governor.
In addition to this year’s jungle book of an election, members were treated to a bunch of great activities throughout the second day of our Convention weekend. In the morning, all of our attendees enjoyed a glamorous Snow White themed President’s Luncheon, where club presidents and their respective members were rewarded for a fantastic year of service.
Saturday afternoon, clubs from all across New Jersey competed un a canned sculpture contest using their donations from STUPH. The winning college was given the chance to decide where all of the district’s donations would be going. In the end, Drew University emerged victorious, and graciously offered to split their cans between each of our District’s clubs.
On Saturday night members partook in an majestic Governor’s Banquet themed to the tune of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Many clubs went home with both awards and scholarships that night, and ultimately all ended the day as champions. Shortly after the exciting banquet, members were given a chance to express their excitement during our annual Saturday night dance, in which officers from the District Board auctioned themselves off in order to fund raise for donations towards the ELIMINATE project. The fundraiser ended up being a huge success, and later in the night, members got the chance to witness a special dance rendition of “Captain Jack Sparrow,” starring our District’s very own Joey G and Brian Pluchino.
The weekend concluded on Sunday morning, with a Peter Pan themed Farewell Session in which our District would bid farewell to all of the magical memories we made over the past few days.
Members of the 2011-2012 District Board were officially retired after hosting a wonderful service year, and our District’s new officers took the stage in order to be inducted as the 2012-2013 New Jersey District Board.
With that, the New Jersey District would like to thank all of those whom attended District Convention 2012. We loved seeing all of your wonderful faces, and can’t wait to see them again next year!
-Shivam K. Patel, District Editor