SANDPOINT — What started as an offer of help has blossomed into a collaborative effort to help the community’s youth.

First, the context.

Sandpoint Kiwanis Club members were about to head out to the fairgrounds to staff their fundraising booth when many residents in southern Bonner County were advised to consider evacuating due to the approaching Sunset Fire in mid-August 2025.

Club members posted about their dilemma, a post that was shared by the Bonner County Daily Bee as part of its coverage of the Sunset Fire. The post happened to be seen by Creations director Shery Meekings, who immediately reached out.

Would the club like some help, she asked Dick Vail, a longtime Kiwanis member.

“Oh, they saved our bacon,” said club member Mary Vail. “We lost everybody that was volunteering that night; they all had to evacuate. And Creations came in and were a godsend.”

Meekings said reaching out to help was not only the right thing to do but a lot of fun.

“I smiled the entire time,” she added. “It was so much fun.”

Now, fast-forward six or so months.

Thankful for Meekings’ help, which ensured the fundraiser not only was held but was a resounding success, Kiwanis Club members wanted to do something to show their appreciation and were discussing how they shared the same mission: helping the community’s youth. Club members were familiar with the nonprofit indoor community art studio and discovery play space dedicated to local youth.

While the club has some “old duffers,” Mary Vail said, the club also has many members in their 30s who have young children and love exploring the diverse activities, from art to STEM projects to a fun play area with a large tree fort and sailboat designed to stimulate the imagination while being fun at the same time.

“Oh, I take my grandchildren down to the Cedar Street Bridge quite often for them to play,” shared one member.

“Oh, yes, my youngsters just love to go to the bridge and play at Creations. They even have a favorite name for Creations. They call it ‘Going to Work,’” said another.

“My children just love Creations — the games, the atmosphere, the environment; it’s just wonderful.”

The responses show the deep commitment to the community’s youth, one shared by Creations and the club.

“I love our mission and our purpose, and it goes really, really well with the Kiwanis mission,” Meekings said. “I don’t think any of us really knew that until we started talking at the fundraiser.”

“Over and over, the comments are the same or quite similar,” Dick Vail said. “The Sandpoint Kiwanis Club’s mission statement is ‘Serving Youth’ — something we have been doing for the past 100 years. Striving toward that same goal is Creations, located on the Cedar Street Bridge in Sandpoint, and the Kiwanis Club is happy to help support this cause.”

That support came in the form of an $8,000 donation from the Sandpoint Kiwanis Club to Creations, with some of the funds going toward its Lego build studio and the rest going to help the nonprofit purchase a play net that will essentially create a second-story playground for community youth and adults brave enough to join them.

“We had the funds and we couldn’t think of a better way to use them,” said Mary Vail, who noted she loves walking the bridge — especially in bad weather — and enjoys watching the youth pack the Lego studio and have fun.

Dick Vail chuckled as he agreed.

“Presently, Creations serves about 40,000 youth per year,” he said. “In some activities, there are even waiting lines because not enough supplies are available, and yet no one is turned away. That’s something that the Kiwanis Club is beginning to help with. And just wait — if you think they are busy now serving youth, just wait until ‘The Net’ is installed. But that’s another story.”

The Kiwanis donation allows Creations to add to the Lego STEM program by purchasing more kits and funding more memberships. It also allows it to expand in a fun and exciting way by adding more square footage to its space at the Cedar Street Bridge by growing upward, Meekings said.

“Sometimes when we’re busy, it is so packed back here we almost need to bring people up — and that’s where the idea for the net came from,” she added. “It falls right in with our mission and purpose of discovery play, where parents can do things with kids.”

The collaboration between the two groups didn’t start with the net play area or the donation to the Lego build program. It began with the wishing well that blended fun and fundraising by allowing kids of all ages to “race” coins around the oversized funnel.

“We stepped up because we knew they needed some help, and it was just so much fun — it was such an amazing time,” Meekings said. “We just had such a great time being with them.”

It was conversations during that fundraiser that helped the two groups realize how much they had in common and how much good could come from collaborations between Creations and Kiwanis.

“I think we can go really cool places with them,” Meekings said. “They’re willing to do things, and they love children. They want to enrich the lives of our community members, our families and our kids — and that’s what we do, too.”

For more information on the Creations effort to build a net play area, go online to the nonprofit’s website at creationsforkids.org.