Division 20/32 Newsletter
July 2013 Edition
Hello everyone! The time is finally here that the school year has come to an end! I hope you all are enjoying your summer. All the effort and time that was spent upon school can finally be put aside. However, keep in mind that Key Club never ends. Because school is no longer in session for the majority, I know that many of you Dinobabies will be utilizing your time to volunteer and fundraise! Remember to remind your comrades about recording your hours to give to your secretary. Officers Training Conference was scheduled to be this month, but for better convenience, it has been moved to August. I ask for all the officers of the clubs to attend this important event. Not only is it mandatory, but it will definitely better educate you all with Key Club, as well as give you tips on how to run your position! Remember to go to the July Division Council Meeting for more information regarding OTC, and have a happy yet productive summer!
I would like to thank Holly Maassen for all her hard work. I hope you have a fantastic time in college, and hopefully participate in Circle K! You have contributed a phenomenal amount towards our division. Not only are you always up for service, but you constantly have a smile on your face! You attended the Color Me Rad registration process and the race the day after. On top of the Color Me Rad, you managed to even run another race without any hesitation. You will be missed! ~ Tricia Tran, LTG
Casa Grande has been fundraising nonstop. I admire Casa Grande for having devoted members that helped gather delectable goods in order to sell to people to fundraise for The Eliminate Project. Not only was the first bake sale
successful, but so was the second! After having two successful fundraisers, this club also managed to take the time to make candy lei’s to sell at their graduation as another successful fundraiser which earned $200! Great job on fundraising Casa! Your accomplishments are continuously inspiring. ~ Tricia Tran, LTG
Cloverdale has mainly focused on wrapping up the school year. We had a total of 300 Doctor Dolls that we finished and will be delivering to the Oakland Children’s Hospital this summer. We also had an end of the year awards night where our board members and active members were recognized. We have officially installed our new officers as well. We’re also planning a car wash for later this summer, which we have high hopes for. ~Maggie Duran
This month we volunteered at the Kiwanis annual pancake breakfast. We also had Gumption Fest at Montgomery and we got a whole page and a half of sign-ups for our club. We are still working on getting more members. We plan on setting up a tutoring program with the Boys and Girls Club and having either a bake sale or a car wash to raise money. ~ Serena Uppal
On our final meeting of the year, we presented both our Kiwanis and school advisors with celebratory cakes that had the Key Club logo on them and a Key Club stole to our former president, Holley Massen. Our club held a fundraiser in front of GnG and brought in spare change for our meetings, raising about $100 for PTP and The Eliminate Project. Some of members ran in or volunteered at the Color Me Rad Run the day of the event and the day before. We just wrapped up a Dine and Donate fundraiser with Tutti Frutti on June 12th. Our future plan is to hold a tie dye party as a club and then sell the clothing at a school mixer in the fall to raise more money for PTP and The Eliminate Project. ~ Destiny Martin
Because we were finishing up the school year, there weren’t many service projects. We did attend the Rohnert Park fishing derby, a local fishing competition in which kids under the age of 15 participate. Our members handed out T-shirts and helped communicate the competition’s schedule to the participants. Then, in the last week of school, we made six blankets for kids in the children’s hospital. We plan to volunteer at the Redwood Country Kids Club, a local daycare, to help the children with arts and crafts projects and to pass out snacks. ~Josie Thurman
In the past month, our club has been busy with a couple of events. We sent a large group of about ten committed members to volunteer at the Color Me Rad Run and participated in the DCM at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds afterward. We also sent members to the Redwood Empire Food Bank and had members do clean ups at Howarth Park and the local creek, as well as cooking for the homeless shelter. In the next month, we will be fundraising for PTP and The Eliminate Project. ~ Raven Quesenberry
We participated in the Windsor Parade on May 11th. This was the only event we participated in due to finals. In June, we volunteered, on June 16th ,at the Father’s Day Brunch. We are also raising money for Relay for Life and will have members participating. We are going to have a bake sale at the Kiwanis yard sale. Lastly, we are going to have a memorial garden in memory of the students who passed away due to drinking and driving accidents. ~ Elena Chavez and Melia Calzada
Held at the Salvation Army, the June DCM had seven clubs in attendance. Tricia, the LTG, started the meeting with an icebreaker about what we have each overcome in the school year and shared an interesting fact about the month of May and Asian heritage. We discussed our work for the Children’s Miracle Network, The Eliminate Project, and Pediatric Trauma Program. Cloverdale made the suggestion of doing Doctor Dolls after they had made 300 for the Oakland Children’s Hospital. The Food Bank day was Saturday, June 22nd and is an LTG Service Focus for this year, so everyone in the division was encouraged to be there. The 5th annual Beach Cleanup will be held July 27th at Pudding Creek Beach in Fort Bragg. The DCM was moved to July 20th to be held after the division Food Bank day. The division newsletter editor discussed how members can help by sending in pictures and articles and the Lt. Governor informed us that all DCM fees are waived in an effort to raise attendance. Our spirit coordinator, Raven Quesenberry, sent out flyers for the T-shirt and logo contests and suggested each club turn in one design and to inform any artistically inclined members to participate. She also mentioned giving out spirit packs at Fall Rally to ensure better sanitation and provide each member a chance to show their spirit. Officer’s Training Conference has been tentatively moved to August 31st at the Salvation Army Center off of Stony Point Road. Tricia gave information about the upcoming Regional Training Conference and then closed the meeting at 2:22. ~ Karissa Mills
On Saturday June 22, I volunteered at the Redwood Empire Food Bank with fellow Key Clubbers from Montgomery and Piner High. Together as a team, we bagged pounds of cereal and applied labels to the bags to be sent off to needy families. Diligently working together allowed us to move through the large boxes of cereal at an impressive speed. We all cleaned up the mess we created from the cereal after we were done packaging it. After volunteering, we lucky Key Clubbers got a tour of the new building in which the Food Bank now resides. The Redwood Empire Food Bank worked for seven years to be able to afford the new facility and is now able to provide its services more efficiently with the much larger space it now has. With this new, larger building, the Redwood Food Bank is always welcoming volunteers and we, as Key Clubbers, are always willing to help. After serving one day at the REFB, I understand why our LTG made it a division focus. ~ Destiny Martin
Pictured: Key Clubbers from Piner and Montgomery sort and label food.
The next REFB day is July 20th!
D20&32 Officer’s Training Conference Get trained on your position Meet key clubbers from all over Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake County Fundraising Service Opportunities And More!
Saturday, August 31st*
Salvation Army 93 Stony Circle Santa Rosa, CA $5 1-5 p.m.
*Tentative
The Fort Bragg Key Club is hosting the Beach Cleanup on July 27th at Pudding Creek Beach in Fort Bragg. The goal is to beautify this popular beach and raise awareness for the club. We’ve held this event for the last 5 summers, it is always a huge success, so hopefully this year will be the best ever! All Division 32 Key Clubbers are welcome. ~Savannah Whaley (Fort Bragg Key Club Publicist) Kiwanis member Rick Cummins picking up trash at last year’s beach cleanup.
Please note the DCM was rescheduled to July 20th after the food bank day.
Key Clubbers searching for remaining trash at last year’s beach cleanup.
Every year, Key Club has a new t-shirt design, which is designed by Key Clubbers themselves. To make it fair, a contest is held in which any division Key Clubber can participate. T-Shirts may seem like no big deal, but they are actually something that is an important way to identify ourselves whenever we go to district events. These t-shirts represent our division as a whole. Wearing the t-shirts is expected for big events such as DCON or Fall Rally, Key Clubbers are required to wear their t-shirt, which represents their division. I strongly encourage all you creative drawers and thinkers to brainstorm and come up with ideas for our next t-shirt. Make it worth the money for people to buy, and take pride in our division, the Dynamic Dinos!
Please look over the rules before submitting and have all submissions in by August 9th. We encourage ALL clubs to participate!
Last year’s shirt (back) Last year’s T-shirt (front)
Bake Sale: A bake sale is the most common fundraiser, especially in our division. Ask each member is asked to bake an item and set prices for each baked good. The food can be sold individually or in a batch. This fundraiser is easy to do with your sponsoring Kiwanis Club. Ask them for a meeting that your club could run and auction off the food for a quick and easy fundraiser and bonding experience. Be sure to try creative recipes to bring in more cash! Each member can bake the items at home and bring them to the meeting, so it’s a great fundraiser to do in the summer!
Dog Wash: Ask a member who owns a dog to donate dog shampoo and go to a local dog park or other area where dogs and their owners frequent and offer a doggy bath. By charging about $5 a pup, depending on size, it’s easy to raise money during the summer. It’s also a great excuse for us Key Clubbers to cool down during summer and spend time with adorable animals. Members can even get together to bake dog treats to be given out after a bath and any remaining treats can be donated to a local animal shelter.
Field Day: Use a local park to set up a field day, where games and activities can be held. Easy games include tug-of-war, Frisbee, water balloon fights, and tag. Fundraise by selling food and drinks or charging admission to games and contests. It’s a great bonding activity for the club and helps to get the Key Club name into the community. Other school clubs and Kiwanis Clubs can also attend to have fun and show their support. This would be a great fundraiser to do at the end of summer and beginning of the school year to introduce new members to how fun Key Club is, while it’s still being warm enough for an outdoor event.
Try mixing fundraisers together. In this case, a bake sale and a field day!
If your club has a fundraising idea or is using one from the newsletter, let us know! We would love to feature your fundraiser so that other clubs can get ideas and keep up-to-date on what your club is doing. Email the division newsletter editor to have your club’s fundraising tips put in the newsletter.
For many Key Clubs, raising money can be a struggle. However, clubs need to fundraise year-round. For Piner High School, our summer fundraiser idea includes a collection of various fundraising ideas that could otherwise be implemented solo. Because it is summer, we feel that a summer-themed fundraiser is appropriate. We have decided to host a field day. The ideal location is a park in Santa Rosa. A possible projected time frame would be from 12:00 p.m .to 7:00 p.m., long enough to raise money and have fun. There, we will a variety of activities. We would have ultimate Frisbee, where we can invite Piner's Ultimate Frisbee club to help supply Frisbees and come participate. We would also have water balloon fights and various water activities. Because we are planning to make tie-dye shirts this summer, we could sell them during the field day as well. In case people do not want to buy pre-made shirts, we would also have free stations where people can make and design their own tie-dye shirts. After a long day of activities, people will be hungry, providing another golden opportunity to fundraise. We will have a barbecue where volunteers will grill up foods such as chicken, hotdogs, burgers, and more. After eating a meal, many people tend to want a dessert. In order to please them and those who have a sweet-tooth, we will have a bake sale and an ice cream social. We will ask our members to donate baked goods, ice cream, and its condiments. Of course, we will have our members to participate with this large event. Although this is still in its rudimentary planning phase, Piner's Key Club has the potential to execute this for a successful fundraiser. ~ Tommy Nguyen
●
●
●
Recently, the Montgomery High School Key Club had an Officer’s Retreat to help not only brainstorm community service events for the upcoming year, but also come up with ideas about how to make the club bigger in terms of size and play a more important role in our school community. Hosted at our Kiwanis advisor’s house, the officers also went through some eye-opening teambuilding exercises. One entailed all of us passing on a ball of string while holding onto their own piece, creating a web. As officers dropped out, those remaining had to work extra hard
to ensure that the string remained taut, thus representing one of the goals of the retreat: to have us work more as a team and recognize that not all the responsibilities of a functional Key Club can rest on one person. Keeping this lesson in mind, we started making lists of goals we would like to achieve in the following year, as well as projects we would like to start. As we all expressed our own areas of interest, we became a kind of ‘project manager for that idea, identified as the person who would play a big part in helping to organize and initiate the plan. We tried coming up with ideas specific to events already a part of Montgomery, like carnations or roses for Valentine’s Day, or a tutoring program with the Boy’s and Girl’s Club down the street. Planning helped us to build confidence for the next year, as
well as get excited! Something that made our officer retreat especially rewarding is that since the setting was not too formal, we had lunch and felt more encouraged to share ideas. We all look forward to next year! ~ Serena Uppal ●
●
●
Want to hold your own officer’s retreat? Check the next page for tips!
Children’s Miracle Network is one of Key Club’s preferred charities that seeks to help hospitalized children and raise awareness of its over 170 member hospitals.
All the money we fundraise as Key Clubbers goes to help. The money is used to purchase new equipment, train staff, conduct research, and hold outreach events. It also provides healthcare to children who would not otherwise have access to it.
Key Clubbers can help the cause in many ways. Some suggestions include making dolls or stuffed animals, sending get well cards, donating books or toys, and visiting children in the hospital. Key Clubbers can also help with outreach events or directly donate needed equipment to the hospital. Check out www.keyclub.org for even more ideas.
The Children’s Miracle Network closest to our division is the Oakland Children’s Hospital and Research Center. This hospital also has the only Pediatric Trauma Center in Northern California. Please direct any Children’s Miracle Network activities to them.
This month, Cloverdale is donating 300 Doctor Dolls to the Oakland Children’s Hospital! This is a great service project that each club can do.
Find more flyers at www.cnhkeyclub.org and www.keyclub.org.
By Jacob Torres, Cloverdale Do you remember that time you fell off your bike? Did you wear a helmet? Was it a close call? Well, let me ask another question. Do you remember when you had bike safety presentations in elementary school, and they talked about kids getting into severe accidents? What happens after the incident? Among children ages 14 and under, it is estimated that 40% of deaths and 50% of nonfatal unintentional injuries occur in and around the home and outside. Each year, injuries to children ages 14 and under result in: 234,000 hospitalizations, nearly 8.4 million emergency room visits and nearly 11.7 million visits to physiciansʹ offices. As you can see, these are startling statistics. In Key Club, you hear the acronym of PTP through ubiquitous sayings such as “Raise for PTP”, “PTP Car Wash”, “Fall Rally for PTP”, and much more. Every year, we have a spirited event known as Fall Rally to celebrate how much the district came together to raise money for the cause. Yes, Fall Rally is popular in any division because you hear the words Six Flags and divisional spirit, but remember we’re fundraising to train doctors in partner hospitals all over Cali-Nev-Ha, helping them learn how to better treat unintentional injuries in small children. With the money we fundraised last year as a district, we were able to train a new doctor in Hawaii and have a sole unit to treat children from burn injuries….so they don’t have to be flown to California for treatment! So when you come to Fall Rally remember you’re not only there so we can get the spirit stick, but also to fundraise for all the children who need the resources to survive. By Victoria Lai, District Governor For the 2012-13 term we focused on achieving goals that reminded our Key Club ohana that we have ONE MILLION reasons to serve. One of the goals was to raise $154,000 for Pediatric Trauma Program by District Convention. As a CNH District, we did great work toward reaching that goal while tackling challenges of dues collection at schools and processing through the Membership Update Center. I am incredibly excited to announce that the most recent total in funds raised by CNH Key Club for Pediatric Trauma Program is $152,830.00! That's only $1,170 away! That is phenomenal! The Foundation financial year does not end until June, so we still have a brief opportunity to raise and donate the $1170 we are short in meeting our 2012-13 goal. In addition, please note that any funds raised and submitted to the District Office for Pediatric Trauma Program from now until June 30th will be included in the total for the 2012-2013 term.
Donate today to save a life. We are asking all clubs to donate at least $50 to help us reach our goal of $154,000 for the Pediatric Trauma Program.
Key Club never stops doing service!
The long short story: start holding meetings and activities the second week of school.
It is important to remember that Key Club works year round because people are in need year round. To make sure that we are adequately prepared for the school year, lunchtime meetings should begin during the second week of school. This provides enough time to fundraise for Fall Rally and Regional Training Conference. Many clubs wait until Club Rush to start meeting, but that is too late! Instead, meetings can be held to discuss methods to recruit members during Club Rush and find service projects to discuss when new members arrive. Many service events occur during the first few weeks of school, providing the perfect opportunity to get your club back in the school time schedule and boost your club’s AAR, (Annual Achievement Report) score. If you chose to wait to start meeting, many great service and leadership opportunities will be missed and it will reflect on your MRF and club as a whole. If you are not a president, make sure to suggest to the president that you would like to start meeting the second week of school. Use continuing members to provide a strong core to the club and begin discussing projects and ideas for the first club meetings during summer so the school year can start off strong. Remember that as Key Clubbers we have goals to meet and people to help. These things cannot be procrastinated on. ~ Karissa Mills
Despite all the many methods of fundraising, volunteer work, and planning, there’s one thing that every club would be lost without: members. Yes, without a club’s enthusiastically participating members, absolutely nothing would get done. However, as the school year progresses from that first exciting meeting in August to the very last before summer, clubs begin to lose participating members, until the club is left just barely straggling by. So how can officers keep their members eager to attend and consistently participating? There are actually very simple ways to attract and keep members, throughout the year.
Be sure to check out Raven’s workshop at the upcoming Officer’s Training Conference for more information!
Before you send any members off to work in the community, you’ve got to recruit them. You can’t just expect them to come to you. Students will be attracted by spirit, inclusiveness, and information. People generally like to feel like a part of something, so the suggestion of a unified, family-like club will really encourage students to become members. They can also be drawn in by the talk of making a difference, inspiring others, impressing colleges, and being a leader. Try to catch possible recruits’ attention with posters and flyers, bring up the club in casual conversation, make announcements to the school, and even get students interested by way of snacks or raffle tickets. The point is to get as many people as possible to come to meetings. But once you do, your job still isn’t over. After initially getting members to come to meetings, you’ve still got to get them intrigued enough to keep coming back and eventually become active participants in your school’s Key Club. Incoming members should be motivated to pay their dues so that they can start working and be official Key Club members. From then on, it’s best to be hyper-organized, so that members always know exactly what events are coming up. If students are under the impression that your club is strictly run and very orderly, they will be more inclined to pay attention, attend meetings, and do as they are instructed. It is when a club is loosely maintained that its members will stop coming, because they no longer think it’s important. Also, people are enticed by club spirit. If the officers encourage everyone to get and utilize Key Club gear, the members will feel as though they’re a part of something exciting and group-oriented. Another important way to keep your members actively participating in the club is to establish friendly competition and recognize students for their accomplishments. Chart and display your members’ hours, and feel free to offer awards once a month to the most spirited, most active, or most involved members. You can motivate your members through incentives, or have them bring friends to events to push them to have fun while volunteering. Another great way to keep your club going is to establish a tightly knit club, including all members. Try to create social events for members to get to know each other outside of the club, because students will be more likely to attend a club where they are surrounded by people they are comfortable with. Remember always that no member is less significant than another, and all the members are really just teenagers looking to help the community together. Key Club can be a opportunity for you to do inspiring work while making lifelong friends. Keep this in mind in all of your interactions with other members, and have fun! ~ Raven Quesenberry, District Spirit Coordinator
Spirit activities work well for showing new members how fun Key Club is. Bring members to Fall Rally to help increase member retention.
D20/32, I want to personally thank each and every one of you for reading this newsletter and providing articles. Without your endless service and efforts, this would not be possible. A very special thank you to our region advisor, Mrs. Cummins for relentlessly editing, re-editing, and fixing those margins! Hopefully there has been some improvement in this newsletter as it is my second time around. As always, I ask for continued cooperation from both D20 and D32 on supporting this newsletter by putting your full effort into each article and following through
DNE’s Closing Statements
when asked to write something. To all of the presidents: remember to check your emails between the tenth and twentieth of each month to see if I need an article from you. To all of the club editors: if you have any articles or photos you are willing to share, please send them to me at d2032.cnhkc.dne@gmail.com. I could really use them! If you have any suggestions or thoughts about the newsletter, reach out to me so I can make sure it makes it in. As always, I am proud to serve D20/32 and each one of you as your Division Newsletter Editor. See you next issue! Roaring with Service, Karissa Mills D20/32 Newsletter Editor Piner Key Club President
May Board was very exciting. All the LTG’s reunited and it was also my very first meeting. The weekend was jam-packed with presentations back-to-back. To make sure everyone was up on their feet, the presenters made sure that “we felt good.” Although the presentations seemed tedious, the matters discussed were not at all mundane. Everything said was informative; the district officers gave a myriad of advice and tools to help us become better leaders. My favorite part throughout the whole trip would have to be when we had dinner at the park. Michael Kumura brought his ukulele along with him to Rancho Cucamonga, so he played music at the park. As he played his songs, many talented LTG’s began singing to his songs. He played, “I’m Yours”, by Jason Maraz, and I too began singing to it. As we all sung to the song, we were all in sync and I felt that special bond with all the members around me. At that moment, I definitely felt the “ohana” feeling. ~ Tricia Tran, LTG
www.keyclub.org 3636 WOODVIEW TRACE INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46268 • 317.875.8755 • US AND CANADA: 800-KIWANIS