SERVICE CIRCUIT: Harper Charity cruise logo designed by Eastpointe resident

The winning design of the logo for the 2024 Shorewood Kiwanis Harper Charity Cruise was made by Nicole Renaud, a student at Macomb Community College. She received money prizes for her classic Mustang design from the Shorewood Kiwanis Club, cruise corporate sponsor Roy O’Brien Ford, and the Foren Family Foundation through the Macomb Community College Foundation. (SASHA MURPHY SUBMITTED PHOTO)

By LINDA MAY

The winning logo design for the Shorewood Kiwanis 2024 Harper Charity Cruise was unveiled last week at Macomb Community College.

The winning logo for the Shorewood Kiwanis 2024 Harper Charity Cruise was designed by Nicole Renaud, a resident of Eastpointe and student at Macomb Community College. (SASHA MURPHY SUBMITTED PHOTO)

The cruise takes place Aug. 28 on Harper Avenue in St. Clair Shores but planning for the event happens nearly year-round. Students have been working for weeks, vying for the opportunity to have their work used on all the cruise promotional materials, help the Shorewood Kiwanis Club help dozens of charities, and earn some money on top of it.

The logo competition was open to students of MCC’s Media and Communications Arts program, providing students with the real-world experience of working with an actual client. The presentation of awards took place at the South Campus Skilled Trades and Advanced Technology Center.

First place went to Nicole Renaud, of Eastpointe. Second place was earned by Kieontae Warren of St. Clair Shores; and St. Clair Shores resident Dana Eckert was recognized for her third-place design.

Three Macomb Community College students — Nicole Renaud of Eastpointe, Kieontae Warren of St. Clair Shores, and Dana Eckert of St. Clair Shores — won the top three prizes in a design contest for the logo of the Aug. 28, 2024 Shorewood Kiwanis Harper Charity Cruise. The women won first, second and third place money prizes, respectively. (SASHA MURPHY SUBMITTED PHOTO)

Each woman received a cash award donated by cruise corporate sponsor Roy O’Brien Ford and the Shorewood Kiwanis, and a matching award provided by the Foren Family Foundation through the Macomb Community College Foundation.

Renaud received a $1,000 award for the first-place design and a matching $1,000 from the Foren Family Foundation. Warren received $650 and a matching grant of $650. Eckert’s prizes were $350 and a matching $350.

“The logo design aspect of the cruise began back in early January,” said Sasha Murphy, social media coordinator for Roy O’Brien Ford. “Design students at MCC are tasked with a set of guidelines regarding the cruise logo and from there they work their creative magic. This year’s winning design is all things Ford Mustang and Harper Avenue. Love the nod to the 60th anniversary of the Mustang as we honor the iconic pony this year. This was not just a school project for Nicole but also a passion project. She and her husband both own vintage Mustangs.”

Renaud’s design that features a 1964-and-a-half Ford Mustang goes on the fundraising T-shirts that will be printed in July.

“I love Mustangs. I’m a Mustang girl,” said Renaud who owns a 1988 Mustang herself. “The project was like an actual job, from the client brief and the guidelines and rules, to the research on the Mustangs and the cruise, to final design choices.“

Cruise chairwoman Roseanne Minne spoke about the process of putting the cruise together.

“I was very impressed with all three logo contestants — all girls. They really did a good job. The winner just had a baby a month ago and the fact that they own vintage Mustangs is kind of cool. The teacher showed us the pre-drawings that she (Renaud) did — at least 20 of them — that she was trying to decide between and I thought that was quite impressive. She really put a lot of thought into it,” Minne said.

Deanna Sheehan, a professor of collaborative media/design and layout, media and communication arts, led the assignment for the logo project.

“I love this assignment for the students in Design 3,” she said.

“All the teachers have been very good but this teacher really goes out of her way. She had all the colors and took the logo and put colors behind it so that we could actually see how it would look and that was helpful to determine what color shirt we’re going to do. The logo really stood out on the black,” Minne said.

“The teacher would give them the art part of it and Shorewood would tell them what we want, like Shorewood Kiwanis Harper Charity Cruise, the year has to be on there, and then they had an option of putting in the 60th year of the Mustang,” Minne said. “So some of the students put that into their drawings and some of them did not.”

All of the cruise proceeds are donated to charity and the Kiwanis club’s list of charities and charitable works is long. Their motto is: “Saving the Children of the World.” Like the Mustang, they too have been around for about 60 years.

“The primary thing we need from the public is sponsors; it’s where our money comes from,” Minne said. “The sponsors contribute to our proceeds and they get a large benefit from it. Their name and logo goes on back of the T-shirt; that’s advertising right there. We put their names on Facebook posts that we do from Shorewood Kiwanis and from the Harper Cruise. They get their names and logos in when we do newspaper articles. Our sponsors make it all happen.”

There will be several articles in car cruise publications such as in “Cruis’in Media,” and $1,000 sponsors will get professionally produced video interviews posted on social media. Sponsorship levels are $150, $350, $500, $1,000 and $2,500. Sponsor applications and their logos are due June 30. Contact Minne at 586-295-4307 or shorewoodcruise2019@aol.com.

Soon, Kiwanians will host 500 children who have disabilities at the St. Clair Shores Ice Arena for a free Reflections on Ice skating show. In August, Kiwanians take dozens of children recommended by their schools on a Christmas in August shopping spree for school clothes and each gets to pick out about $100 worth of things they need.

“We get to shop with the kids and help them pick out their clothes,” Minne said. “That’s a fun project and the kids really like it.”

But Minne’s favorite program is the dictionary project when every third grader in the city gets a paperback dictionary to keep, and she gets to go to the schools and give the books away.

“It’s more like an encyclopedia with multiplication tables, planets, the presidents — a really nice little book and we get to talk to the kids when we come to their schools and I ask them questions. They are all so excited to raise their hands and get called on and I try to call on every single one,” she said. “I have three children and five grandchildren, so we are always teaching, right?”

The club has treated police officers and firefighters to breakfasts, and the club purchased Lucas 3 Chest compression devices for the fire department. There are Easter and Christmas brunches with a local pastor, book events, scholarships, a Life Handicap Outdoors Fishing Derby in June, support for the Kiwanis of Michigan Foundation for four pediatric hospitals in the state, volunteering for the Salvation Army, donating diapers to Gianna House and food gift cards to families in need at holiday time, and being a sponsor of the city’s fireworks.

Shorewood has gourmet nuts for sale, which is another way they raise funds that go back into the community. Nuts are $25 per can and can be purchased at Village Market, First State Bank on Harper Avenue, and Trish’s Hair Design. In February, there is a wild game dinner, and the club benefits from volunteering at the city’s Parks and Rec events.

Meetings are the first and third Tuesday of the month at Leo’s Coney Island. For information about the club, contact Sharon Gwizdowski at shorewoodkiwanisclub@gmail.com or see shorewoodkiwanis.org