18 Event Recap

Event Recap

Meetings

Every Thursday during lunch, come join us in Mrs. Yahya's room (rm #206). Our weekly meetings serve to inform members of upcoming events, recap previous service events, as well as provide additional Key Club news. Please feel free to bring along a friend to our weekly club meetings! The board members would like to express how amazing it has been to see so many new people at each meeting. We apologize for the lack of seating during our lunch period, but I hope we continue this enthusiasm of having so many student attend these meetings! Hope to see you soon :)

September of Service

This Concord High Key Club event was held across two days and two locations! The first day of this event was on Saturday, September 17th at Hillcrest Community Park. The second day of this event was on Saturday, September 24th at Willow Pass Community Park. This ‘September of Service’ event was held alongside the Concord City Council, with city council member Carlyn Obringer as the host!

From 8:00 am to 11:00 am, volunteers participated in the beautification of each park location. For a total of 3 hours of service, this labor-intensive service event consisted of painting baseball backstops, repairing the dugout and bleacher areas, as well as a general clean out of the creek! Volunteers were reminded to come dressed for yard and repair work and to bring water bottles and snacks to fuel themselves during the period of service.

As a result of volunteering,

“we were able to clean garbage and overgrowth from the creek, thoroughly clean [the parks], including the parking lot, and paint the backstops of both ballfields!” as quoted from Carlyn Obringer.

On behalf of Concord Key Club, we thoroughly thank those who attended these events! We understand that the tasks volunteers were assigned to do were not necessarily “effortless” to accomplish, but our volunteers exceptionally performed in making a difference within our community.

Concord High Key Club, I know you already know this, but you’re doing amazing :) Let's continue this energy and pride for future service events!

Interviews

“It was a very nice experience, it made me feel good to be part of helping make our world a cleaner place. It was also very nice to see many families and friends help out while having fun :) Overall I loved doing it and definitely learned a lot about how much trash there is in our community, but that many people participate voluntarily to help :)”

Member Shirley Lopez

“It was a really good experience. It went great, we picked up a lot of trash and it was nice to see a lot of people participating and bringing their families and friends. It truly did feel like a community. ”

Member Adriana Mercado

“We had lots of fun today at the park clean up, we mostly picked up trash but also some green waste and got to enjoy being in the park at a nice time of day!”

Secretary Abigail Flores

Club Rush

Concord High School’s ‘Club Rush,

’ is a yearly lunch event that showcases all the clubs available and provides an opportunity for students to sign up for clubs of their choosing and additionally ask questions! On Friday, September 30th, students who shared support of Concord’s Key Club were seen throughout the day wearing red. During lunch, the Key Club table was organized and led by President Tommy Nguyen and Treasure Erin Ponce. Here, future members across all grade levels were seen flooding the table to sign up and ask questions. For those who signed up at the booth, a picture to commemorate the occasion was taken! I present the “Sizzling with Service” collage, featuring both new and returning members posing with a key! Wouldn’t you agree these red devils look amazing? The most common questions were along the lines of “What is Key Club?” and “What do you do in Key Club?” and so on. To those who were unable to ask questions or have further questions about the club, please refer to the Concord Key Club Instagram account (@concordkc) where our bio includes a link that will refer you to our website and additional resources that may answer your questions. For additional inquiries, please refer to President Tommy Nguyen through Instagram (@tommysnguyen) or through the remind (@concordhkc). To those who took the time out of their day to pass by our table and to those who encouraged others to pass by our table, we truly thank you as it was an incredible sight to see such enthusiastic engagement towards Key Club. Moreover, to our new members of the 2022 to 2023 term, your interest and spirit promises a bright future for Concord High Key Club altogether!

“We served at Club Rush! It was so fun meeting all of our new members and spreading the word about Key Club! We were able to fill 80 slots on the sign-up sheet!! I hope to see all of those interested in the upcoming meetings!”

“I feel that club rush was really successful, lots of people came by and filled up all of our sign-up sheets! For those of you that signed up, I encourage you all to go to the meetings because the meetings are so fun and filled with so much positive energy while also learning how to help our community through key club. And for those of you that missed club rush, I still encourage you to stop by 206, Ms.Yahya’s room, on Thursdays during lunch to see what key club is all about. “

Sizzling with Service

C o n c o r d o f T a s t e

This annual tradition is to celebrate the old and new dining establishments located in the Todos Santos Plaza. Adults and children are welcomed on a Sunday afternoon to stroll around the plaza to get a taste of Concord. Did you get it ;)

This year on Sunday, October 2nd, Concord High Key Club participated in the event from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. Volunteers at this event were tasked with helping the restaurant among the list of those participating. Prior to the start, our volunteers were seen setting up alongside these restaurants by following the tasks they would require. During the event, volunteers were helping out by putting on wristbands to admittees and informing them of what was in store. On top of volunteering, those who attended had the opportunity to enjoy what was available at the food sampling tour, the admission at no charge!

The net proceeds from this event went towards supporting the Key Club programs at Mt. Diablo High School, Concord High School, Clayton Valley Charter High School, and additionally other nonprofit organizations.

Members in Action!

Interviews

“A Taste of Concord was a really great event and I had a lot of fun. Aside from collaborating with other Key Club members to help keep the event running smoothly, we were able to enjoy the event itself for free! I enjoyed some awesome food with some awesome people and overall really enjoyed my time there. ”

Member Kenny O’Brien

“Other volunteers and I gave people wristbands and explained what the ‘Taste of Concord’ was and offered. We were given the opportunity to sample food ourselves which was very cool and those couple of hours flew by. ”

Member Sofia Ibarra

“It was a fun event that allowed me to work with my high school's Key Club and members of other local high schools as well. We were able to try local cuisine in our area that some of us had not tried before. We were also able to interact with members of the community. It was a very interactive and social event and I look forward to volunteering at similar events in the near future!”

Member Sarai Rodriguez

On Saturday, October 1, Concord High’s Key Club joined with Concord High’s College Scholarship Federation (CSF) in an event called “Break-a-Sweat for Education” 5K marathon, located at Heather Farm Park.

Starting from 6:00 am at the first shift, volunteers were seen registering at our booth to collect lanyards and yellow vests. Might I add that this uniform absolutely served. From here, volunteers were tasked with creating posters to inform runners of the route and to provide encouraging phrases for them to read as they pass by. Other volunteers helped around the starting location by setting up the additional booths and hanging up the banners for this event.

By the time runners started filling into the starting location, I (Editor Ysabelle Bolano) and member Andrea Marie Reyes, were tasked with collecting photos of runners holding a photo frame displaying #BreakASweatForEducation. This was definitely one of the most fun I’ve had at a volunteering event! Through interacting with families and prolific runners participating in this event, I was able to meet so many new people! What’s more, is that the energy of the runners definitely rubbed off on me to cheer even louder for those running!

Prior to the start of the race, the second shift volunteers tasked with marking the route were given a position to stay at and a task corresponding to their spot. For a little over an hour, volunteers were stationed holding posters and screaming encouraging phrases as well as supplying runners with cups of water. At the end of the marathon, volunteers stayed back to help disassemble the booths, take down banners, and put away additional supplies. With the amazing teamwork of all the volunteers present, the cleanup process at this event went significantly faster than expected. Here is another example of Concord High Key Club going above and beyond in their service to the community!

E d u c a t i o n B r e a k a S w e a t f o r

Interviews

“Overall, I thought the whole event was really fun!! Seeing everyone run for a good cause was such an enjoyable thing to see!! I got to meet and interact with different people and it’s a great opportunity to hang out with friends while giving back to your community!!”

Member Andrea Marie Reyes

“It went pretty great! Not only did I get to meet other volunteers from different schools, but I also enjoyed enthusiastically cheering on the runners who were participating in the 5K run!!”

Member Joel Montano Angulo

“I was a volunteer for the break a sweat 5k, directing runners onto the path and helping set up the event beforehand. It was very fulfilling! Volunteer work, while a bit demanding, is a really nice pastime that has the byproduct of being beneficial to others. ”

Member Wilson Ng

"Overall, I loved volunteering at the event! I was stationed at the hydration table with 2 other volunteers, and it was located about halfway through the 5k race. I was tasked with filling up water cups before the race and taking pictures and videos during the race for social media postings. Being a part of a greater cause, meeting new students from other schools and helping out at the event alongside my friends was a very fulfilling experience. "