Summer Lovin’
Division 8-‐A June Newsletter Edition II
Lieutenant Governor’s Greeting
Upcoming Events 7/6-‐7/7 – Color Run 7/20 – Miles for Hope 7/27 – MoonWalk NYC 8/3 – Summer Streets 8/10 – Summer Streets 8/17 – Summer Streets 8/25 – Kiwanis Family Picnic
Hello all! I hope summer is treating everyone well, though for some, I understand, it has really just begun. Regardless, I would like to take this time to not only welcome you in reading my June Newsletter, but also in reminding you that Key Club is a year round activity. Though the club, in its most basic form, only exists during school, Key Clubbers are serving their communities and enacting positive change year round. So I guess I am not only urging you to continue these efforts, but also commending you for all you have done so far. Hoorah! As the heat turns up, service opportunities, which, as many of you know, are mostly outdoors, dwindle. So in this newsletter I aim to keep you all informed with the happenings and events that will be going on this summer, at least for June and July. This is also the last newsletter of the school year for graduating seniors, so I thank all of you so very much for all of the wonderful things you have accomplished. I would like to give a special shout out to IP Carla Pacheco who worked so hard for two years as the Lieutenant Governor for our division. Best wishes to you Carla; we all know you’ll accomplish great things! And to the rest of you, enjoy! 1-‐ Cover 2-‐ LTG’s Greeting 3-‐ EA’s Words 4-‐ Secretary’s Words 5-‐ Spotlight Article 6-‐ Spotlight Article 7-‐ Spotlight Article 8-‐ Spotlight Article 9-‐ Senior Reflections 10-‐Info Page 11-‐Fun Page 12-‐Back Cover
Executive Assistant/ Head Committee Chair’s Words Hey Beavers My name is Cindy Pietrakowski and I am your 2013-‐2014 Division 8-‐A Executive assistant AND Head Chair of committees! I am 15 years old and an incoming junior at Maspeth High School. I am also the Maspeth Key Club President for the 3rd technical service year in a row. At the first ever Maspeth Key Club meeting I was over enthusiastic and my fellow members could tell, the next week I was elected founding president! I loved everything about key club from the start and have become addicted to Key Club ever since. Alongside being president I also have previous Key Club experience by being the 2012-‐2013 Division 8-‐A Executive Assistant. With my experience I have realized that in order to be completely useful to the division I must be approachable. So always feel free to come and talk to me about any questions or concerns. My job as executive assistant primarily involves being the right hand women of the lieutenant governor Martin Rabot. Anything he needs help with, I'm here to assist with. My job as head chair of committees is simply to supervise the committee chairs and make sure everything is running smoothly and efficiently. I hope to do our division proud and serve to the best of my ability. So lets have an awesome service year! Hope to meet everyone at future events and divisional! :) Yours in Service and Key Club Pride, -‐Cindy Pietrakowski Divisional Executive Assistant and Divisional Head Committee Chair Maspeth President
Divisional Secretary/ Divisional Webmaster’s Words Hey Key Clubbers! My name is Bonnie Mahmud and I am your Divisional Secretary and Webmaster for the 2013 – 2014 term. I will be a junior starting on September at William Cullen Bryant High School! This has been my second consecutive year being in Key Club and it really is the best year I’ve had so far. I’ve met so many people that love community service just like I do, people that are willing to spare their time and have fun. I’ve started as a member as everyone else in my freshmen year, probably the only freshmen that was committed and showed up to every event. After wrestling season ended I decided to become an officer after being encouraged by the president and editor. I stepped as Co – Secretary and later promoted to Vice President. This year I filled in as Editor to help write newsletters which is fun since I like being creative! I became the first webmaster of our Division last year after being recruited by Carla. This is my second time being the webmaster and first time being secretary. To me Key Club is something much more different than any other club or extracurricular, it’s a club where people can be noticed for the small things they take part in. As a kid I grew up watching people doing service in parks and volunteering on TV, that was the small spark that set me on joining Key Cub. First off I would like to thank all the clubs that came to all the events since April, especially Academy of American Studies for starting off very well as a new club! As your secretary I plan on aiding our LTG with tasks that can benefit our division make it stand out as one of the best divisions in the district. As your webmaster I update the divisional website weekly to give you the latest news and Divisional power points, agendas and minutes. I’m looking forward on continuing this service year and helping all of you. If anyone has any concerns or suggestions please contact me! Yours Truly and In Key Club Pride Bonnie Mahmud Divisional Secretary and Webmaster Bryant Editor
Spotlight Article: Kamp Kiwanis Saturday, May 18, 2013, Queens West Kiwanis hosted a trip upstate to Kamp Kiwanis. Key Club members were invited, and Bryant key club had 4 individuals attend (president, treasurer, and 2 members). We met up around 5 am with the Kiwanians. The bus ride was really long and nearly everyone on the bus fell asleep at first (understandably, since it was still early). We made a quick pit stop, and then, once back on the road, everyone started talking to each other. At Kamp Kiwanis, we received a tour around the entrance of the camp; built through donations made to the camp from several Kiwanians, Kiwanis clubs, and key clubs. All donations are what keep the camp up and running. Woodside Kiwanis, along with the rest of the Queens West division, raised funds to construct a library for the camp. The library was even named after the division. Hundreds of books were donated by Queens West, with a thousand more donated from other divisions. The Kiwanians felt extremely rewarded, and I was inspired by their achievement. After getting a tour of the entrance, we had lunch. The food was okay (for a camp). Right after lunch we received a tour of the entire camp. I was so excited, even though I was a camper there a mere three years ago. We got to see the campfire area, where all the campers gather on the first day to sing songs and eat s'mores. Right next to it were the fishing and cannoning areas; camp workers were cleaning up the pond, but we got a see a snake! Later we got a tour around the boys cabin, where the campers slept (I miss camping there, the memories). We then set off to see another area, which required a long walk to get there. The tour guide made us sing songs along the away. One of them goes... "Black socks never get dirty, The longer you wear them the stronger they get, Sometimes I think I should launder them, But something keeps telling me don't wag them yet" There were other songs we sung to pass the time. After looking around in the girls cabins, we quickly made our way back to the entrance for the bus. Kamp Kiwanis was really fun! Any camper (age 8-‐14) that goes will have an amazing time, especially with the new features created for them. Thank you Kiwanians for an amazing trip! -‐ Henry Guaman 2013-‐2014 Bryant Key Club President
Spotlight Article: Soap Box Derby
On June 15, Division 8-‐A went to the 71st Annual Flushing Meadows Soap Box Derby. This event was sponsored by the Corona Kiwanis and we had a privilege to go as helpers. During this event we not only helped to load the carts onto the starting ramp, but we helped kids out of them at the bottom of the hill, loaded the heavy carts onto a truck which brought them to the top, and sometimes even pushed them up ourselves to speed up the process. It was back breaking work, but it was worth it when you saw how happy the kids were going down and racing against their friends. During the final round we had to work more as team because of the time limit and we did this flawlessly. Even though we were there for 5 hours under the hot sun, we never gave up because we knew it was for our youth and our youth is our future. Working with Kiwanis is always great because the bonds between all members of the K-‐Family are strengthened. Karma also had a hand to play in the day. Because of our hard work, we got to meet pop singer Conor Maynard by happenstance. Go Key Club! -‐Christopher Verdin Richmond Hill President Events Committee Chair
Spotlight Article: Bryant Awards Dinner This was our second time hosting a dinner for the members of Key Club. Over the past years we would have a pizza party at the end of the year, but we decided it should be better. We decided to host an awards night to the past officers and the members. It was sort of our way of saying ‘thank you’ for their service and goodbye to the past officers and the graduating seniors. We took a lot of time planning this event. This time we had a month to plan out the whole thing. We stayed at school almost until 6 PM to make the floor plans and start to make the certificates. Learning from our past mistakes, we started to gather entertainment sessions so that the members would enjoy and see the talent in some of their members. We had one beat-‐boxing session and a dance session, which were both amazingly well performed. Both the old and new officers/LTG’s had their own speeches that were shared with the audience. In the middle we started to eat because we started a little late, and who can hold off food for that long. At the end we finished off the dinner with a video filled with pictures and videos of the entire year’s work. Overall, this was a glorious event. It was nice seeing so many familiar faces and seeing the surprise on their faces when they achieved their awards. Especially Tenzing Dawa’s, his award said, “The Doctor.” Legend says he still smiles today because of that award. But as much fun I had this year I can’t wait for the dinner next year! -‐Bonnie Mahmud Divisional Secretary and Webmaster Bryant Editor
Spotlight Article: Divisional Training Conference Just like the Bryant Awards Dinner, DTC was also in its second annual running. This was the second annual DTC that included not only our own Division 8A, but also Division 8, and some representatives from Division 11! For those of you who don’t understand the concept of this event, DTC is a miniature LTC that teaches members/officers about their duties and how they can improve not only the club but themselves as well. DTC is much smaller than LTC obviously but it’s only towards two divisions. There were many workshops being held in DTC. These workshops were being held by very important people from the New York District such as the District Governor, Webmaster, and Editor. Not only people from Key Club joined in but also District Governor Kelly Chan from Circle K. One of the notable workshops that I enjoyed was Icebreakers, held by our own Martin Rabot and LTG of Division 8, Eric Young. This was entirely full of laughs and of course activities to help make our club meetings more exciting, but overall this was my favorite workshop. Another workshop was Improvisation held by Cindy Pietrakowski. This was her second time running this workshop and it was amazing. Everyone got to know each other by the ridiculous situations Cindy put us in. DTC was full of leadership workshops that many took advantage of and learned from. Overall this years DTC was much better than last year. It was well organized and it was certainly had more entertainment than last year. -‐Bonnie Mahmud Division 8-‐A Webmaster and Secretary Bryant Editor
Senior Reflections Being a member of Key Club the past four years has changed my life. I’ve made countless new friends, learned precious social and workplace skills, and most importantly, made a difference in people’s lives. It’s an amazing feeling to know that you contributed to something much bigger than you can ever imagine. After my school raised 1,500 dollars for AIDS research, I saw on the news that a young child was virtually cured of the HIV virus. While I always felt like I was making a difference, it’s absolutely incredible to watch all the work you did help, even if it’s just a little bit, a cause as large as stopping HIV. I have to thank Key Club for showing me that no matter how small I may feel at times, I can help make gigantic things happen. Make the most of your opportunities in high school, and follow my footsteps as I head off to college to build on the things I did here in Key Club! -‐Mark Paraskevas IP Garden School President U Penn Class of 2017
It has been a pleasure serving you for two consecutive years as your LTG. You've taught me so much and with your help, our division has prospered. I am now off to college, putting to good use the values and skills Key Club has taught me. I hope that your experience is as great as mine was; I was a Key Clubber for 4 years, but I will remain a Key Clubber for life. I wish you all the best. Keep bringing our division to new heights and show everyone else why we are the best. If you ever have any questions feel free to contact me. Thank you for your support & friendship; you helped mold me into the leader I am today. Farewell beavers! -‐Carla Pacheco IP Division 8-‐A Lieutenant Governor Buffalo State Class of 2017
Contact Info/ Paperwork Chart/ Divisional Information Division 8A ERF March Academy of American Studies X X Christ the King Forest Hills X X Garden School X X Grover Cleveland John Adams Maspeth X X Martin Luther X Newtown Richmond Hill X X Sunnyside X W.C. Bryant X X 7 7
District Governor Paul Desantis Executive Assistant Nabiha Qudsi District Treasurer Alex Mok District Bulletin Editor Hannah Song District Webmaster Jimmy Lin District Secretary Helen Wong District Administrator John Goldstein
April May X X X X X X X X 8
X X X X X X X 7
pauldesantis.gov@nydkc.org nabihaqudsi.ea@nydkc.org alexandermok.treas@nydkc.org hannahsong.editor@nydkc.org jimmylin.tech@nydkc.org hellenwong.sec@nydkc.org nydkca@frontier.com
Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/nyd kcdiv8a/ Website: nydkcbeavers.wix.com/division8a Lieutenant Governor’s Email: Martinrabot.ltg@nydkc.org Lieutenant Governor’s Phone: 347-‐879-‐4489
Thanks for Reading!