THE HIVE
Februrary 2016 CNH District D30S Whitney HS Volume XVIV Issue XI
From your Bulletin Editor Hello Whitney Key Club, I just wanted to remind you all that everyone has a chance to be featured in the monthly newsletter. Send me an article on anything Key Club. It can be about an event you attended or just something you wanted to say. Feel free to message me if you have any questions at all! I really hope you will send in some articles, even if it’s just once every few months. Until next month, Amy Wang
Greetings, stingin’ Cali-Nev-Ha bees! Goodness gracious I feel like I’m writing these messages all the time because time flies by SO quickly when I’m serving all of you! I can’t believe it’s already here but if you haven’t seen my emails by now, let me give you a quick reminder: IT’S ELECTIONS SEASON! This is the time for you all to vote for your next 2016-2017 executive board. For this next week you will be seeing flyers up around school campaigning for your next president, vice president, secretary and treasurer that will lead the club into success starting April! Honestly I can’t believe my term is almost over serving as your president but you know what - I have full trust in your next board to continue doing spectacular things for all of you!! So make sure to come out and vote if you are a DUES PAID and more than 10 hours served member! More information to come very very soon :-)) Moving on to YOU! YES all of YOU! First off, congratulations on surviving first semester comps and congratulations to our very own second semester seniors!! WOOT WOOT! Half the school year has already passed us by and I really can’t believe it - it feels like I just blinked and it’s all gone way too quickly. I’m sure first semester has been a whole bunch of ups and downs for all of you, but isn’t that just life? A life that I am able to spend with all of your smiling faces and warm hearts. Some things may seem way too much to handle right now but I know you and I know you can get through it successfully and in one piece. Our Key Clubbers are so capable and so dedicated, nothing can stop them! If any of you need any help at all during your next few years of high school, feel free to always send me an email or a text or a Facebook message. Even though I’m retiring in a couple of months, that doesn’t mean I’ll stop serving you. Because one thing will never change - I will always love my Key Club babies and be there for you when the going gets tough. The last month has already shown me so much. First of all, congrats on a great Lock-In full of wonderful service and amazing bonding! And second, thank you to all of you who came to our club-invited cabinet meeting. To hear all your input and having you there to participate was absolutely unique and I loved to see the general members get involved. You all are what makes this club work. Exec. board and cabinet may have these fancy titles but never forget that you are the ones with the real power and that if you don’t like how something is run, you should feel free to say it! Thank you so much for everything that you all do and I can’t wait to see how you get more and more involved these next few months and this next term when I am nothing but a distant memory. You are going to be the changemakers for this world, I know it. Also, keep in mind that in February we will be having our cabinet positions opened and in March we will be having our banquet at Frantone’s! Keep a look-out on your emails for that. Let’s go kick some butt in second semester! Signing off, Frances Lee Ever Proud Key Club President ‘15-’16
From your President
5th annual
LOCK-IN
By Karen Long
After being elected as the ‘15-‘16 Treasurer last February, one of the projects that I anticipated planning the most was our annual Lock-In. Why? This is one of the events I fondly remember of the most from my sophomore year when I first joined Key Club; it was one of the reasons I wanted to apply for cabinet. I was amazed by how hardworking the cabinet was to be able to put on a service marathon for 12 hours that was filled with both meaningful activities and exciting games. I wanted to give back to the club that has made such a great impact on my life by helping the younger generations of Key Clubbers create more memories with the different sides of service. On the day of Lock-In, cabinet members woke up bright and early to help set up the room for the sunny Key Clubbers. As our members came in one by one, we started off with some bonding games and slowly dived into making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for our first service project. These sandwiches, which were donated to the Long Beach Rescue Mission, are a part of one of the projects we do every year at Lock-In along with the CHOC posters that say “Happy Last Chemo,” “Happy Transplant,” and “Happy Birthday.” However, some of the new service projects we had this year were the Pediatric Trauma Program Dolls, non-slip socks, and Letters to the Army. The Pediatric Trauma Program Dolls were made out of two blank pieces of cloth and were hand sewn by our very own Key Clubbers. They were donated to CHOC and will be used by the doctors to explain the surgical procedures to the kids. The non-slip socks will also keep the kids at CHOC warm while helping them stay safe with the puffy paint that was added to the soles of their socks to prevent them from slipping on the floors in the hospital. As a way of getting the members to stretch and have some time outside of the MPR, they participated in our annual canned food drive by going door to door and asking for any donations that could be given to HOPE Food Bank. And with just a few activities left to follow the food drive, my third and final Lock-In came to an end. I know the event didn’t go very smoothly, and I sincerely apologize for that. But I hope you all had an amazing time bonding with your friends while making a difference in the community from your very own school. I would be very happy to know if even one of you considered Lock-In to be a memorable service event, and it would make me even happier to know if one of you wanted to come to this event again for the following years.
The 12 hours begin...
...and they continue
5th annual
By Richard Tee
LOCK-IN!! Every year, Whitney High School’s Key Club has a volunteer even called a Lock-In where volunteers go to Whitney High School and stay there for 12 hours, volunteering in different activities. This year was no different. All the volunteers woke up and arrived at school at 6 AM in the morning. We first had icebreakers, which consisted of two games, Electric Current and Extremes. Extremes was a game where people voted between two options with their bodies while Electric Current was a game where people were lined up holding hands, and when we started the line off each person had to squeeze the person’s hand next to them all the way down the line to the end. There were two lines and we made it out as a competition. After playing icebreakers for a while, we moved to our first volunteering activity, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for hungry people having trouble affording food. We made tons of sandwiches that filled up numerous boxes and grocery paper bags. After making all the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we played some more icebreakers. This time we played Indian Chief where you guess who is the leader in a circle of people. Once Indian Chief was over, we moved onto making CHOC posters for children in hospitals. We made the posters with colorful construction paper and markers. We made them say things such as “Happy Last Chemo,” “Happy Birthday,” and “Happy Transplant.” We were able to make numerous amounts of posters that were all very unique and creative. Then we all played one more icebreaker, Dani’s game! Everybody had a slip of paper that told them to do a specific action when they saw someone else do another specific action. This made it so it ended up like a chain reaction of people performing actions after one another. I thought the game was very fun and I laughed a lot seeing everybody do quirky and weird stunts. After Dani’s game, we all moved onto another volunteering activity, Valentine Card making for our American soldiers and anti-slip sock making for little toddlers. I believed we made some very cute socks for kids out there and real heartwarming cards for some of the soldiers. We all then had pizza and some soda for lunch. After taking a lunch break, we moved into our last activities. We had the volunteers split up with some going of campus to collect canned food donation and the others staying behind making more cards, socks, and PTP dolls. I went off campus with some of the volunteers for the canned food. We at first had a rocky start of people donating food, but it slowly started to pick up and next thing you know, we had a wagon full of canned food. By then, the day was pretty much over and we all cleaned up. I can definitely say this is one of my favorite volunteer events.
By Iris Xu
CONCLAVE 2016
Although we still have a good 3 months left in our term, no one can deny that this Key Club year is ending. And that means electing the new leaders to guide us in the New Year! Conclave 2016 was held on a chilly January morning, but the candidates were all on fire! If you didn’t know, Conclave is essentially the elections for our division. Delegates and other members gather together to listen to speeches, ask caucus questions, and then even vote for the new lieutenant governor. This year’s candidates were stronger than ever! Representing our division were Cypress Key Club President Heaven Lee, Division Secretary Anh Mac, and Division Executive Assistant Kelly Tran. In the end, Kelly Tran from Oxford was successfully elected. Kudos to everyone who had the courage to go up on stage and give it his/her all. This Conclave was also very special to me. It was my third Conclave, my last Conclave, and most importantly, my first Conclave that I attended as a delegate. As a delegate, I had the honor of representing my home club by asking crucial questions to the candidates and then casting my vote. It was definitely not easy choosing who I wanted to be our next LTG as every single candidate did an amazing job and didn’t fail to capture my attention. So look out for more updates in the near future involving Kelly Tran! You’ll definitely be hearing a lot more about and from your Lieutenant Governor-Elect. I’m expecting some great things in this next term and I’m so sad I won’t be here to experience many of those things when I graduate.
CONCLAVE
By Christina Hur
A STAR IS BORN January 16th, 2016 Saturday is a historic day because Division 30 South elected their new Lieutenant Governor, Oxford Academy sophomore Kelly Tran. Last year, I had unexpectedly become a delegate and listened through multiple speeches and caucus sessions before making my decision and casting my vote. The year before, I had been a mere member, sitting as a sophomore listening to the confidence in each candidate’s tone. I was in a new seat at this year’s Region 3 Conclave. I was responsible for timing each speech and caucus session and cutting it short when they reached 3 minutes. This is much more stressful than voting. I would be cutting candidates off before they can answer an extremely relevant question or conclude their speech with closing remarks. Each candidate anxiously kept glancing at me throughout their six minutes at the podium, showing me the face behind the false bravado and confidence. They are sophomore, juniors, members who gathered up the courage to run for LTG and put themselves out there in front of their divisions, and for that I respect them. Anh, Kelly, and Heaven all did a wonderful job, eloquently addressing the audience with their platform and confidently answering questions. I can’t wait to see in a year how much Division 30 South has grown under Kelly’s leadership.
CLUB
INVITED MTG. w/ CABINET
By Jason Park
On the 19th of January, Whitney Key Club’s cabinet decided to invite their general members to one of their cabinet meeting so that those of the members who hoped to move forwards in their Key Club experience by being more involved behind the stages in a sense could see what each Tuesday lunch for a cabinet member was like. Throughout the meeting, our president wanted the input of the visitors rather than making them awkwardly sit there the whole meeting and making them feel as if they were watching a film playing a scene of a bunch of high school students talking about things; Frances Lee wanted to incorporate the general members into the meeting (because after all they are at the highest point of the Key Club hierarchy) and really make them feel as if they were a part of that meeting, and not witnesses. The meeting went along like how a normal meeting would, and throughout the meeting it was nice to see how the general members were getting another perspective of what happens beyond their capability to see for a lack of better words. As general members, Key Clubbers don’t really go into cabinet meetings and sit there even though that Key Clubber might want to. There certainly is a form of intimidation because I’m intimidated by the executive board in the same way a general member might be intimidated by the idea of being the only general member in an all cabinet meeting. This club invited cabinet meeting in my opinion was a very good idea and I hope that we can have more of these in the future. Whether or not I’ll actually be a part of cabinet as a senior is unknown, but whether or not I’m just a general member it’s nice to see the faces of the deserving and brave people who will lead our home club to be the sunny Key Club that we really are. Having all of those general members who took their lunch times that they could be using to talk to their friends or playing games or making memories to see what the cabinet does on their Tuesdays is something I respect a lot and it really shows that there are so many potential leaders for this club, and it makes me happy as well. For the less fortunate who wanted to go but weren’t able to make it, it basically counts as attending (it’s the thought that really counts) and the willingness that was present in the room that day was something I really hope to see again in the near future. The concrete proof that there will be leaders to guide the rest of the general members who don’t have such a zeal for the positions of leadership really makes me feel as if this club will continue to flourish for the many years to come.
Approaching the End
By Eunice Shim
It seems like it was just yesterday when we began the New Year. Can you guys believe that we’re already 8.3% done with 2016? That’s almost 10%! For many Whitney students, this past month was filled with countless perilous journeys. Whether your journey was finishing ridiculous loads of homework, studying for semester exams, preparing for the last old SAT, or other trials and tribulations, to most of us, what January offered was pain. So I want to say “Good job!” to you all. Give yourself a pat on the back right now. No. Really. Do it! Do it because you recognize that your efforts mean something and more importantly, because you know that you mean something regardless of your grades or failures. But Eunice, what does this have to do with Key Club? I thought these articles were supposed to relate to Key Club. I wanted to write to talk about that which you are dreading, especially you seniors. For those of you who didn’t know, Key Club teyrms end in April, which means that new officers are chosen to lead Whitney Key Club. Unfortunately, our seniors who have served as dedicated, exemplary leaders, which include our President Frances Lee, Vice-President Iris Xu, and Treasurer Karen Long, are destined to leave. So this is what I wanted to write about. Thank you seniors Frances, Iris, and Karen not only for your service to those outside of Whitney through volunteering, but also for the countyless hours you darlings (I didn’t want to say “you guys” because you aren’t actually boys; my deepest apologies for the lack of formality) spent into shaping what Whitney Key Club is today. -Frances: for planning and organizing club/cabinet meetings; for helping our club accomplish so many of our beginning-of-the-year goals; for continuously thinking of ways we can improve; for motivating everyone to be better in various ways; for fulfilling all your responsibilities as President on the weekly; and most importantly, for being a sincere friend to all of us. -Iris: for allowing us to have the honor of working with you; for successfully leading and organizing Adopt-a-Family; for constantly encouraging people to join Key Club; for supporting all the other executive board members; and for being the best big sister anyone of us could ask for. -Karen: for accomplishing so much for our club; for raising funds for Project Eliminate and March of Dimes; for organizing all our bake sales and food sales; for always staying on task; and not last nor the least, for diligently working behind the scenes despite receiving little to no public acknowledgment. We’re going to miss you. Please remember that you will not forgotten. Accept the fact that you elevated Whitney Key Club to a whole other level. You darlings have left a legacy on us. I think it’s time to end with a quote by Dr. Seuss. ;) “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” And let me add something, to that last bit, “…Smile because it happened and because your smiles are A1”.
By Sandhya Raghvan
Favorite Moments
I first joined Key Club in 9th grade, similar to many of my classmates. Throughout the years, I have also been able to volunteer at many places, experience new events, and get out of my comfort zone. Now that I’m in my final year of high school, I want to take a look back to some of my favorite and enjoyable events and activities. During my sophomore year, in the month of December, we had our “ Pictures with Santa” that took place in the MPR. This probably doesn’t sound very interesting, considering we’re literally just standing, smiling, and taking a picture with Santa. However, it ended up being an activity that I never forgotten. We had a considerably good amount of members attend and we were all able to hang out with each other, take a break from school, and eat cookies and take pictures. Yes, we can hang out with our friends anytime if we wanted to. But, something we should realize is that we, as Key Clubbers, have a passion and commitment to this beloved club, and the fact that we were able to bond with each other during the holiday season made it even better. More recently, another great event I had the privilege of attending with CERT. During this event, volunteers would act like their hurt (make up artists made our wounds look realistic), call for help, and the officers being trained would come help us as if it was a real life situation. To many of us, this was entertaining, considering we essentially had an acting role to perform and needed to act as professional as possible in order to give them a realistic experience. There’s no doubt that we all had fun “getting injured” and learning how those artists used make up techniques to make us look wounded. Finally, another remarkable event I volunteered at was the CPAD Christmas Party. Personally, I love working with little kids and helping them out in any means possible. During this event, I was able to dance and sing with them and made sure they enjoyed all the festivities. Plus, all the volunteers got to serve food and set up the decorations and it was worth it took look back and see all the fun every person was having. I can tell you right now that my list of favorite events is endless. The past 3-4 years in Key Club has been wonderful, considering this club has given me the opportunity to volunteer at different types of places in order to gain a beneficial experience. In 5 months, the seniors will be graduation, but I have no doubt that we will all continue to remember these events and hope to make even more memories.
f e b r Monday
Sunday
Tuesday
Wedn
1 Official start of campaigning
2
3
7
8
9 End of campaigning
10 Speeches
14
15
16
17
21
22
23
24
28
29
u a r y Thursday
nesday
Friday
Saturday
4
5
6 FV Bootcamp 5k Fun Run
11 Speeches
12 Voting, Election results
13
18
19
20
25 Articles due!!!
26
27
Contact Cabinet(:
Frances Lee, President - sweet2frances@gmail.com Iris Xu, Vice President - itzmeiris98@gmail.com Isabelle Lee, Secretary - isabellelee2424@gmail.com Karen Long, Treasurer - long.karen09@gmail.com Amy Wang, Bulletin Editor - amywangh32@gmail.com Amy Lee, DIrector of Activities - amylee90703@gmail.com Christina Hur, Director of Activities - christinahur16@gmail.com Eunice Shim, Director of Fundraising - euniceshim07@gmail.com Jason Park, Director of Fundraising - jasonoftheparks@gmail.com Danielle Lee, Director of Publicity - danielle9lee@gmail.com Joshua Ahn, Director of Publicity - joshahn2000@gmail.com Kiristina Theam, Historian - kctheam@gmail.com Richard Tee, Historian - richardtee2000@gmail.com Victor Phong, Kiwanis Chair - victor_phong@yahoo.com