Consider it a gift of love from West Side Elementary students.
The school’s K-Kids concluded their fundraising efforts for the Ronald McDonald House and gathered $2,658 by selling hearts, with all proceeds going to the organization.
It was one of the most successful events performed by the K-Kids, according to West Side teachers Amanda Righter and Denise Davis. Righter added the event started Monday, Feb. 6, and lasted until Friday, Feb. 17.
“We usually have between 22 to 25 kids and we are a branch of the Kiwanis Club,” Davis said. “We encourage the children to do service for the community, keeping their school and environment in mind when they do these different projects. We’ve done previous fundraisers with the Ronald McDonald House, collecting child-sized items in the past, but this was the first year we did the hearts and it was our most successful project.”
Choosing the Ronald McDonald House came with ease according to the teachers.
“A lot of the kids really don’t understand what the Ronald McDonald House is and what it does,” Davis said. “We’ve actually got students and family members in this school that are cancer survivors or have family members that have cancer.”
Knocking out the goal came easy for student Kadence Seiders. A previous resident of the House, the West Side Wildcat was smiling bright with her hearts on display Wednesday as she came away with the most money raised — over $300.

“We couldn’t be more prouder of our students,” Davis said. “(Kadence) did a fantastic job.”
K-Kids is the local service component utilized by the Kiwanis Club of Elizabethton and other organizations under the Kiwanis International umbrella. East Side and Harold McCormick elementary schools each have a K-Kids program. At the middle school, students move on to a builder’s program and then move into the Civitans program at Elizabethton High School.
While teachers oversee projects, the ideas come from the students. Davis added that students will come up with ideas and bring them before teachers. The K-Kids recently completed a project for an upcoming Relay For Life event at Southside Christian Church and Righter added the students have already come up with the idea of a shoe drive for their next project and also created “chemo bags” to be given to patients.
And the Wildcat pride proudly donned on each of the students Wednesday came thanks to a design from one of the students.
“The students come up with the design and submit it to the teachers,” Davis said. “The teachers don’t know whose design it is and they’ll vote on the design each year.”
This year’s design features “Go Wildcats” with a paw. Inside the paw is the Kiwanis’ “K” emblem which is a design of the earth.

Cadie Digby, who designed the T-shirt, said the piece just came to her one day.
“I don’t really know,” Digby said with a smile. “When I’m doing art, it really just pops into my head and then I think of something else and incorporate it into that.”
Being part of the K-Kids allows students to take an investment into their community, Digby added.
“I really feel like helping my neighborhood and I want to do good things being part of K-Kids,” she said.