OCTOBER 2014
POTTER’S PAPERS Garland High School Division 2C Key Club
Volume 1 Issue 7
Caring—Our Way of Life.. Leadership, Character Building,.. Caring, and Inclusiveness..
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
CONTENTS
“Human life has meaning only to that degree and as long as it is lived in the service of humanity.” -Wole Soyinka
Upcoming Events
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A Letter from the LTG
7
EDITOR’S NOTE
President’s Corner
8
Stories
10
Susan G. Komen
12
Service Projects
13
Importance of Service
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Hi Key Clubbers! Another month down, out of many more to go. A lot of important things happened this month, and I’m really proud of all of the progress that our club has made in developing the spirit of Key Club. I would like to extend my congratulations to Iris Wong for becoming our new Co-Historian! This is a position that the board has decided she will fill very nicely, and the year is off to a great start with Iris taking her responsibilities head on. Furthermore, I’m so excited about our amazing progress during the entirety of the month with UNICEF. Since Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF coincided with the Garland Homecoming Game, the board mutually decided to begin donation collections early on in the month. In this way, we received much more money than we would have if we had only collected donations on Halloween. The photobooth fundraiser was also a success, with us achieving a total of $102. Again, I’m super proud of everything that our club has achieved, and I can’t wait to see what happens next month! Thank you for your continual support, kind words, and never-ending devotion to Key Club and service. Yours in service, Linh Nguyen
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Update from Sec. of Hours 15 UNICEF and ELIMINATE
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Autumn Fest
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Our Club Board
22
T-O District Staff
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COVER PHOTO: Iris Wong QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?: Co n tac t me by e ma il in g lin h n gu yen3412@gmail.com or message me at https:// www.facebook.com/linh.nguyen.3241 for a more timely response.
TRASH BASH SATURDAY15NOVEMBER
TURKEY TROT THURSDAY27NOVEMBER
INTERNATIONAL TEACHER APPRECIATION ALLMONTHNOVEMBER
UPCOMING EVENTS
HOMELESS FOR A NIGHT (DECA) FRIDAY14NOVEMBER
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According to National According to the Violent Suicide Prevention Death Reporting System, Lifeline, purple and in 2004 73% of suicides turquoise are the ofalso tested positive for ficial colors symbolat least one subizing suicide prestance (alcohol, covention and caine, heroin, etc.). awareness. Many who attempt suicide nev Suicide takes the lives of er seek professionnearly 30,000 al care. Americans eve There are twice ry year. as many deaths due to suicide than Between 1952 and 1995, suiHIV/AIDS. cide in young Over half of all adults nearly trisuicides occur in pled. adult men, ages 25 -65. Substance abuse is a risk The strongest factor for surisk factor for icide. suicide is depression. Over half of all suicides 15% of those are completwho are clinicaled with a firely depressed die arm. by suicide. 80% of people that seek treatment for depression are treated successfully.
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To learn more about suicide in teens and adults, go to www.save.org.
A LETTER FROM THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR Hey Wolves! There are so many things to accomplish this year, and we need your help! This year is the 100th anniversary for Kiwanis International and this is also the celebration/ last year for our ELIMINATE PROJECT (to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus). My divisional goal for ELIMINATE is $3000 MINIMUM, so we need all of the clubs in 2C2S to raise that money amongst your clubs and as a division! This is adding up all of your clubs individual fundraisers for the project as well. My goal for the divisional project Suicide Prevention/ Awareness is $750 DISCLUDING clubs individual fundraisers towards this project! I really want our division to be the most spirited division of the entire Texas- Oklahoma district, so please buy a divisional shirt! They are $8.50 and a portion of the money will be going to the Governor’s project Children’s Miracle Network. The money is all due November 8th please get it in. You can be a member to buy one you don’t have to be an officer! Money must be turned in the same time as a form. The divisional event committee is working very hard in order to have fun filled events for you all, so please be patient as they don’t want any details left behind! Furthermore, the divisional event committee is starting with a bang! For Key Club week, on November 7th (THIS DAY ONLY) Post a picture on twitter or Instagram that has to relate to key club and #2C2STOKeyClub. The five people with the most spirited post will receive free Starbucks! I’m so proud of all the hard work going out of my division; you all are doing such an amazing job. Keep up the good work! If you paid your dues, understand it is a requirement to get your 50 hours in! Yours in Service,
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PRESIDENT Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all made some great Key Club memories so far! This past month has been our busiest but most exciting so far! With events every weekend, I’m sure Key Club kept you all very preoccupied. This month, we attended a variety of fun events. It was the month of children’s carnivals, breast cancer walks and cards for like kids. One of my favorite memories was giving bells to everyone at Susan G Komen so we could jingle them for the runners at the finish line! I also really enjoyed playing ring toss with all of the kids at Autumn Fest. Some of you guys get so into putting smiles on children’s faces, it warms my heart to witness great work from everyone. This month with you all has given me so much happiness that I hope we can make even better memories next month! In the month of October, everything seemed to finally fall in line! We initiated houses, so make sure you know where you’ve been sorted into. We will all compete for the Grand Prize of the House Cup, and I guarantee you that prize will be grand so help your house out by participating in every event you can and staying involved.(Go Slytherin!) We will also have a member of the bi-month who will receive a prize. In order to make sure that’s you, attend many events, write an article, go to meetings and refer a friend to Key Club! I’m very happy to say that we have over 100 members! I would really love to get to 150 and I hope you guys will help me make that happen by encouraging your friends to join Key Club! If you are not yet a member, you can still join, but it is in your best interest to pay as quickly as possible so you do not miss out on all of the fun and wonderful hour opportunities. This next month, you can look forward to the rescheduled trash bash event. Key Club Week is coming up, so make sure to participate appropriately for the themed days. We’ll also complete our governor’s project for Children’s Miracle Network and our project for International Teacher Appreciation Day! And towards the end of the month, well top it of with one of the most anticipated events, Turkey Trot! That’s one of my favorite events and if you go, it’ll probably become one of yours too! We’ll also be purchasing out t-shirts as soon as possible so please get your money in for that as well. In the upcoming meetings, you can look forward to hearing more about the major projects we are going to participate in this year, Last year, we managed to raise $1,800 for the ELIMINATE Project and I definitely think we can do that again this year. For Trick or Treat for Unicef, we’ve already raised over $120 even before Halloween, which is a great accomplishment that all of you should be proud of. Hopefully, that number will double by Halloween! If you did not get all 13 hours for September/October, you are on probation! We really don’t want you guys to be on probation, because you will have to make those hours up and then the next 13 as well. That can get pretty hectic, so please do your best to manage your time so that you can attend events and help our your house! I always try my best to offer events every single week so that everyone can get their hours. Please do your best to stay active and if you ever have any questions, comments or concerns, you can contact me! Love you guys! Yours in service, Theo
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T’S CORNER Hello all! FINALLY, we have reached the middle of the first semester. And as the year drones on my motivation to work has transformed and now manifests itself through apathy for my grades. If anything, though, trekking through (almost) four years of high school has emphasized the importance of courage, ambition, wit, and hard work as opposed to grades. Thus, I encourage all of the members to fully immerse themselves into the Key Club theme for this year and try to pick up the most positive of traits from the respective house that you were sorted into. But Ravenclaw is the best, obviously. I’m kidding all of the houses are pretty awesome. And I personally believe Key Club to be somewhat of a Hogwarts. We do happen to conjure up some pretty magical feats for other people, minus the wands. Just like “the boy who lived”, there is an unforgettable slew of people who were as much of a main character as Harry was. So if you don’t feel like being a Harry or a Hermione or a Ron, I urge you to be Luna, to be Neville, to be Fred and George and Cho and Hagrid because they increased the value of the Wizarding World of Hogwarts tenfold. Harry couldn’t have found Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem without Luna! And Neville freaking chopped the head off of Nagini. So yes, each and every one of you are pivotal in defeating “the feeling that shall not be names” (apathy). So please, take our theme this year and make the most of it. And by this I don’t mean to come to school dressed in full black robes and buy a billion dollar model of a Harry Potter wand (although at this point I don’t know if I would be freaked out by this or in admiration of the fellow club member that tried this). Signing off, Ashley Tsao
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THE TWO SONS
DAVE THE MUSHROOM
One fine morning in a non-existent world, two twin cat-harps were born. The eldest was named after greatest and bravest savior of the Catocaust: Jeffrey. Sadly, out of culture, the other twin was named Unneeded. What was yet to know, was that these two cat-harps would surprise the People. Everyone believed that Jeffrey would easily be chosen to follow the higher ups and soon be part of the cat-ernment as one of the best ever. On the other hand, Unneeded was told by everyone that his name fitted perfectly for him. What no one knew was that Unneeded and Jeffrey were switched, so therefore Jeffrey was originally Unneeded and Unneeded was originally Jeffrey. In this world that might mean nothing, but in a non-existent world the names were given to match their future.
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a mushroom. This mushroom was a mushroom because his name was Dave, which is odd because the other mushrooms’ names began with Lord. Regardless of his name, Dave was even more peculiar because he lived in the Land of Apples. Dave was a relatively rude mushroom – he never greeted anyone joyfully, he would have a smirk or a scowl on his face and he especially detested anyone that asked for his – but regardless of his character the apples respected him as if he were any other apple. This made Dave the Mushroom mad sometimes; the more he went out to mock others, the more others could make just turn the other cheek and try to be friends with him. Dave was out doing typical Dave things; he trash up his yard, laugh at the old, wrinkled apples struggling to clean their yards, and scowl at any glance even remotely directed at him. Dave was having a typical day until he passed by the store and saw Her. She was writing on a piece of blue paper. She was a beautiful piece of fruit. The most beautiful apple that he ever laid eyes upon. He wanted her beside his stalk at all times because she was the one his parents told him about; the one that he could release his wonderful spores around, the one that deserved to experience the release of his mushroom spores. To finally meet the apple of his eye, he pushed down every small apple that was in his way as he walked through the park to be by her side. With a quick spin and an impressive landing positioned against the wall that she was beside, he lowered his sunglasses and gruffly introduced himself, “ Hey, girl. The name’s Dave.” After that he tipped her over and caught her in time to whisper, “I’m really digging that vitamin C you got. Luckily for you, I can see that you need me for some of that Vitamin D. So how about it, huh? The D can make your bones stronger and your C can make me healthier. “ As he added a wink and a click, she got back up and finished writing on the blue paper. He was rejected! Then he noticed the blue paper that she was writing on; it was a sign up for a service project. He quickly wrote his own name under hers. He only wanted some vitamin C, so then the pain in his chest would decrease and would surely not be a cardiovascular disease. He went to the service project to see the beautiful apple. The project was to clean up the lake, so he participated in hopes to impress her. He still scowled because the lake was dirty and he did not want to touch the trash. He grudgingly did the arduous work. After the volunteering, he approached the apple to brag about his work. The apple did notice, but she was not impressed. She rejected him again! He was so upset and quit on any service project. He continued his days alone without releasing a single spore. Dave believed that a single service project would impress someone, but it did not. This is similar to Key Club. Doing a single project or even doing every project, but without spirit, will not truly help anyone. Volunteer work should be done consistently and to help others, not to gain favor from anyone. Service for the community is also not limited to one event. Everyone like Dave should understand this, especially when a member for Key Club . -Raquel Palma
17 callobals later, these boys were just a few meow-ths before having to let the higher ups choose what the rest of their life would be. Jeffrey wasted his life doing nothing and living off of his name and hopes. This led to the higher ups becoming infuriated of how Jeffrey dares to ruin the great ALMIGHTY name. On the other hand, Unneeded was a well organized, community involved, and creative young man. The People didn’t care at all because all they saw was the name and not the cat-harp. When the day came for the higher ups to choose, Jeffrey was interviewed first. To him, he believed he easily aced the interview and it wouldn’t even matter because his name would help him if everything else fails. With no surprise, Jeffrey was chosen to spend the rest of his days as a homeless beggar to spend his days wasting Sulfur Dioxide for the rest of cat-ternaty. With much surprise for Unneeded, he was given the role of the highest higher up and became The One and Only’s apprentice till it becomes Unneeded’s time. Unneeded became the most respected name to the non-existent world and no one was ever to be named that name, for Unneeded was too great for anyone else to be given the name. Unneeded is like an ideal Key Club student because he was a hard working student who was involved in the community out of his free will. A Key Club student would go far in life and be successful because they would use their experience from balancing school and Key Club with real life and society’s stressful system. People like to see how you’re able to be a helpful part of the community and still be a good student because it not only makes them look good on paper but in the heart too. Key Club molds kids into something greater who gets into habit of helping others and using their creative thinking to not only help themselves, but people around them to have an easier and happier life. -Sabrina Palma
A Child’s Happiness Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. I watched as a shopping cart rolled towards me. A family of three strolled along as they shopped for clothes. They picked up shirts, pants, and other articles of clothing, inspecting them one by one as if they were tasked to conduct sort of quality control. Apparently, nothing was good enough for them. Suddenly, I heard the shrill voice of a small child. "Mom! Look at these socks!" They made their way towards me until they were standing directly right beside me. The kid lunged for a small pair of socks hanging by my side. Colorful, comfortable, and simply captivating. I would give anything to be like them. Oh how I envied those socks! Instead, I was just a pair of boring black socks. Maybe if I weren't so ugly and plain, I wouldn't still be hanging on this rack. If I were as bright and fun as the other socks, someone would have bought me already! Negative thoughts rushed through my mind as if some sort of floodgate burst open, pouring out uncontrollably and excessively. What if no one ever buys me? They would probably have to throw me away. What if I never grew up to be what I wanted? Ever since I was created at the factory, I had visions of grandeur. I wanted to be something big! Maybe I would be owned by a star athlete, how cool would that be? I imagined the scenario in my head. The crowd would go wild as Lebron James leaps into the air and dunks the ball with a forceful pound to the basket - the whole time, I would be right on his feet and providing the cushion that he needed. But sadly, I knew that would never happen. I just didn't have what it took. While the other socks were happily living on the feet of everyone, I would still be here all alone an-
"Mom! I want this one!" The child tore me off the rack so quickly, I didn't even have time to process what happened. "I don't like the other ones! This one is my favorite!" I couldn't believe this was really happening! They threw me into their shopping cart and rolled away. As they paid for me and left to the car, I was still in disbelief. I didn't think it would ever happen. Words could not even begin to describe my excitement. The whole car ride home, I could feel the tight embrace of the child's tiny hands clutching on to me. If it weren't for my lack of hands, I would have held them right back. When the child arrived to his house, he tore my packaging open and slid me on his feet with no time to waste. His face filled with ecstasy. “Thanks Mom, I love these socks, they're so warm!� All I remember was the child's pure happiness. Nothing could have compared to the satisfaction I felt knowing that I made a child happy. I knew at that moment that my journey had just began. I vowed to protect this child's feet from the bitter cold winter, to soak up his stinky sweat during the summer, and to prevent his tender skin from chafing. My old dreams of belonging to a famous sports player left my mind. This was where I belong. This was much better. I wished that I could have shared this life-changing moment in my life with everybody and now I finally can. Donate unused socks for children on the border now and not only will you make other socks happy, but you will more importantly help out children in need and provide them with the resources needed to live a happy life. All children deserve to have the basic necessities in life and we can help accomplish this, starting with you. -Tam Nguyen
SUSAN G. KOMEN RACE
“A BURST OF COLORS ACROS
VALUABLE LESSONS AND FUN RUNS Although I’ve only been part of the board for a short amount of time, I have already learned a lot about what it means to be a board member and I am so proud to be part of such a wonderful group. So October has come to an end and we had a bunch of great events this month. One event was the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, which was my first event as your historian. Naturally I was a bit anxious since I now had a new responsibility at events other than just volunteering. And things weren’t really starting off on the right foot for me that day since the battery for my camera had died the moment I arrived at the event. I was a bit upset with myself for not checking on the battery status beforehand but thankfully everyone was really understanding about it and Tiffany, being the amazing the secretary of minutes she is, let me borrow her camera to take a few pictures. As I walked around taking pictures everyone, I got the opportunity to talk other groups of people that I don’t normally talk to and I learned about the people who make up our great club. I also learned a valuable lesson in being more prepared during events, but hey learning is part of the job and I am sure that I will continue learning a lot this year. After I stopped worrying about the camera incident, I was able to relax and enjoy spending time with my friends as we handed out water to runners and spectators and cheered on runners as they crossed the finish line. While volunteering I was able to see the runners in their fabulous pink outfits and people who held banners or wore shirts that showed who they were there supporting. It was such a wonderful sight to see so many people come together and supporting such a great cause. I had gone to volunteer at races before but this was a different experience for me because it was my event holding an important position and I got to meet and talk to more new people though it might have been because of my new position. And I think that’s what made this event turn out so great as well as all the people who came out to show their support for a cure for breast cancer. My first as historian had a bit of a rocky start but I now know what I have to do help the club and everyone in it. And you know what they say: All's well that ends well. -Iris Wong
FOR THE CURE | DALLAS
SS THE SKY” ON SEPTEMBER 13
PINK, PINK, PINK “To save lives and end breast cancer forever by empowering others, ensuring quality care for all and investing in science to find the cures.” –Race for the Cure Mission Before the sunrise, on a chilly Saturday morning in October, hundreds of Key Club members from different schools in GISD gathered at the Garland DART Station. Many dressed in all pink: pink socks, pink bandanas, and pink clothes. Pink, pink, pink. Why pink? Pink is all that shows. What do you think? Pink for cotton candy?….Sure. But it’s pink for breast cancer awareness, pink for Race for the Cure. Waking up early in the morning to volunteer at Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. An event that honors, remembers, and empowers those with Cancer and aims to find the cure for cancer through research. The large-scale event that attracts hundreds, thousands of people signifies the global importance of cancer awareness, specifically breast cancer. Bunches of tents and booths set up to promote their messages through fun activities such as ‘Wheel of fortune,’ colorful visual attractions such as banners, and free gifts such as snacks or accessories. Also present is a large stage with a band that fills the area with live music, playing popular songs that makes people want to dance and sing to. It’s an area filled with pink. People with pink crowns, tutus, socks, dogs, you name it. It’s a pink paradise. What makes this event special? What makes this event different? The event itself, not only provides a fun and inspiring environment for the participants and the families, but also for the volunteers. Engaging in a positive setting, interacting with amazing and strong people, while simultaneously volunteering for the event, makes Race for the Cure a memorable experience. All volunteer events should increase awareness of your own strengths; moreover, areas of improvement. However, Race for the Cure allows members to have the opportunity to work collaboratively with fellow members and with other volunteers and the participants. It brings a sense of unity as you acknowledge the value and importance of this experience and situation in this case: cancer awareness. So, Pink, pink, pink A color can be much more than you think It symbolizes strength, courage, and the will to endure As we continue to research for a cure. -Shirley Banh
SMILE through the SERVICE Fact: While volunteering at Shorehaven Elementary School’s Carnival I nearly suffocated from the extremely strong (and I’m pretty sure lethal in some shape or form) scent of temporary hair dye that I was spraying into the hair of children who were running to and fro in their carnival escapades. However, despite my watering eyes and my overly tie dyed latex gloves, I kept a smile on my face throughout the entire four hours (although I can say that it cracked a couple of times). As a testament of my courage in the face of great adversity I received a blister on my index finger from holding the cans of dye. But I digress. As the earth continues on its progression around the sun, our lovely Texas weather is devolving into the chaos of having to wake up ten minutes early to defrost cars and attempting not to slip on the ice. At best, we’ll get a snow day and thank god that we didn’t waste our time yesterday doing homework that we could be doing tomorrow. However, regardless of the weather, I would like to remind everyone to keep a smile on their face when volunteering at ANY event.
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Yes, this includes the toe numbing cold for Turkey Trot and the biting wind of any other event that occurs during the winter. As volunteers we have been granted the opportunity to help with a project that other individuals value as highly important and have given their utmost effort to. This must be respected by all club members. Let’s try to cut down on the number of frowns and complaints that volunteer directors hear at all Key Club events. Lastly, I realize that lots of our events for the rest of the year will have a very holiday feel. For example, trying to get back home on Thanksgiving day to shovel large spoonfuls of Turkey and sweet potatoes into our mouths. I understand. Completely. I do, I love food. However, the holiday atmosphere is no reason to either leave your position that you had pledged you would complete. Nor does the ambiance of a holiday allow for any individual to leave an event early to pursue holiday “fun” with disregard to the volunteer event. These two issues have been deplorable in the past and I hope they will be reconciled this year. I know they will. Let’s work to make this happen! -Ashley Tsao
MAKING OUR COMMUNITY A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE
In the words of Marian Wright Edelman, “Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.” To make our community, global or local, a better place to live, service must become part of our daily lives. Valuable service often gets lost in the short-term. Numbers and hours can become more important than actual lives affected when our motivation is wrong. This is especially true among high school students. The majority are driven by their college applications, wanting to be able to list as many organizations as possible in the hopes of impressing big name colleges. This makes our community worse on many levels. The community of our peer group deteriorates as we are forced to compete for hours and don’t have time to stop and enjoy our lives. The community of the people we are intended to be helping also suffers. The volunteers are tired and unmotivated when they don’t actually care about the cause they are working for. Gandhi noted this phenomenon, saying “Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy. Service that reaches beyond the local area can
also be very powerful in improving the quality of life of the people in the community. When people unite for a common goal, their own community becomes stronger. They are forced to rely on each other and learn their strengths and weaknesses. When we fundraise for the Eliminate or Trevor Projects, to prevent neonatal tetanus and teen suicide, respectively, we become the most connected, as we are all passionate about what we’re doing. These projects that force us to look out of our immediate area also make life in our community better by comparison. The perspective that it gives makes it hard to complain about the small struggles that we go through here. Service makes us see our lives and our community through an entirely different lens. We make the community a better place by forgetting ourselves, our lives, and our advancement on a regular basis. Motivation is everything. Selfless acts will be rewarding to everyone, and every community, involved. Every act of genuine service makes an impact, but it is long-term dedication that makes real change. We can’t do it alone, but together it is possible. As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Lexie Ford
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Trick-or Treat for UNICEF Yup, it's that time in the month, where we all like to go out on Halloween day to ask for candy and put in a costume. But hey, instead of asking for candy we should ask for donations for UNICEF. Trick or Treat for UNICEF. YAY!! Let's ask for donations for children and mothers in developing countries. So on October 31st lets go out and instead asks for donations than candy. Lets make a difference in the world and raise awareness of this issue. Because that’s what Key club likes to do. We like to help the people in need and those who need our help. You will feel great about yourself at the end of the day, knowing you have helped these mothers and children. It doesn’t matter how much money a person donates, a few or a lot makes a difference. The point is participating in this huge event and helping out and being a part of it. But what is UNICEF? Its involved in over 190 countries around the world doing whatever it takes to reach the world's most vulnerable children. They saving lives, protecting childhoods and getting children to school. They are constantly monitoring the situation of children worldwide and help them constantly. From immunizing children against preventable diseases, to rebuilding schools after disasters, they do whatever it takes to reach every child who needs them. You can see this is a very big corporation and in helping we are helping children who need us. There are so many events throughout the year we can help out as well. It’s the fact that we are giving up our time and going out to find someone or some place in need to help him or her. And that’s what key club is all about. We volunteer to help our community. And this event is great to go to because you get to hang out with your friends, dress up and ask for donations instead. So while you care helping out, you are also having fun. This is a wonderful experience to go to. So remember that on Halloween Day, come out with your friends and dress up, but trick or treat for UNICEF. -Jackie Sandoval
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ELIMINATE Info Happy late Halloween, members of our oh so lovely Key Club family! In addition to raking in lots and lots of yummy candy, I hope that everyone has been helping to collect (or has collected) money for UNICEF to help fund the ELIMINATE project (especially during the Trick or Treat for UNICEF event)! In addition to funding the Children’s Miracle Network and our divisional project, the ELIMINATE project is another very important, big, and significant project to keep in our minds. *For those who didn’t already know: we are working to eradicate maternal and neonatal tetanus from the world. It may be a big feat but we (Kiwanis and UNICEF) are sure to reach our goal! The fantastic ELIMINATE project is probably one of my favorite service projects that we’ll get to work on this year because every member in our Kiwanis family is working together to raise funds to eliminate this deadly (and very painful) disease that is harming, and even destroying, the lives of many mothers and their babies. According to KeyClub.org: “Neonatal tetanus kills one baby every nine minutes—nearly 60,000 newborn children every year. A significant number of women also die due to maternal tetanus. The effects of the disease are excruciating—tiny newborns suffer repeated, painful convulsions and extreme sensitivity to light and touch.” (ouch!) Evidently, it’ll take a lot of back to raise $110 million for this cause; however, it’s not like a big project like this one has never been done before. Our Kiwanis family (including past Key Clubbers from past years) and UNICEF have already worked together to help rid of iodine deficiencies disorders; a project that was then Recognized as being one of the most dynamic public health successes in the 20th century! Now, it’s our turn to help raise money to wipe out a deadly plague from the world. Last year, Garland High School’s Key Club exceeded our goal of raising at least $1,000 for the ELIMINATE project. This year, we’re aiming higher, and hopefully each and every member in our entire club will work for the same goal because every penny and every person counts. Before I close off, I want to ask one thing:
Do you believe in the power of o n e ?
-Tiffany Yang
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AUTUMN FEST! When the leaves fall you know what’s right around the corner: AUTUMN FEST! I know that you were probably thinking of Halloween or Thanksgiving, I mean those are important, but one of our service events for Key Club was the Autumn Fest.
This year’s Autumn Fest was really fun in my opinion, but when I first arrived to the event I was kind of disappointed because there was no help needed. Everyone bunched into groups and just went around the booths asking everyone if they needed help, but sadly no one needed any help. All of them told us the same thing that they would call for us if they needed help later on the day. I was thinking about leaving because there was really nothing to there, until someone told us they needed help with the game area. The area I helped in was the make-your- own-hat, so I decided that a cute way to advertise to have kids com random things onto my hat and just stood at the booth hoping that it would work and that people would come to make a day.
That’s not the only thing I did, I also gave out candy and cheer for the kids playing the games. There was girl who kept on w was really impressed because I tried playing one of the games and I kept on losing). I also got to help out at the bounce ho when kids were too scared to go on by themselves. Many of my friends went, so we all got to hang out while we helped o cause there were a few other schools that came to help out.
That’s the thing I love about Key Club, we get to make new friends that are not from your school at these service events. I th going to be really boring since we had nothing to do, but later on the day it just became really fun.
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FUN AT AUTUMN FEST
spending time at Autumn Fest was definitely something I enjoyed and wish I could have stayed longer for. Once I got there, ose friend and it was definitely boring at first. Considering it was just some boring obstacle course where there was one kid
oing around by himself at least 22 times since I was there. Then, me being my unboring self, decided to make it fun. I would g him to the end, which actually invigorated him. After a few times of being a weenie by racing him through the side, the id it was okay for volunteers to go through the obstacle course, so I ended up racing this kid a good 10 times (I let him win, lot more people started joining the obstacle course, which ended up as a volunteer section well done.
ed to a second post, the bounce house. This place was pretty awesome from the start because the most adorable kids ump around. Whenever there was nobody in there, Key Clubbers were allowed to go in and enjoy themselves. I attempted ps, four of which I landed on my face and three of which I landed on my neck (yes, it was very painful). It was awesome be ere watching me and laughing on one side while all my friends were on the other side looking disappoint ed (I have shamed me, I was wrapping up here, Autumn Fest was already over.
didn’t stop me and two of my friends from doing all the service that we could. We ended up staying an extra hour to help airs, speakers, and posters. The lady that we were helping requested that we also help put away the pumpkins in th e pumpwe, seeing it as an opportunity to have some more enjoyment, went to help. There were a few adults there and one really ar old that were loading away pumpkins. The little one was too small to actually carry anything, so the two of us ended up iggest pumpkins to the truck and having lots of fun (he felt like he was the Hulk or something). After we had put away all the man in charge told us he appreciated the fact that we helped him, so he gave us free pumpkins!
s left Autumn Fest feeling great about ourselves and with free pumpkins! The day ended wonderfully when I handed my y mom and she made pumpkin pie for my family since my relatives came over. Autumn Fest was definitely a Saturday not -Josh Mathew
me to us would be to make a hat myself and wear it. I just pasted a hat. It actually worked a lot of kids made hats by the end of the
w inning the games, and at the end she had around eight prizes (I ouses which was fun because I sometimes got to go play on them out, but I also got to make some new friends while I was there be-
hought it was actually a fun event, because at first I thought it was -Shamira Kabir
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POTTER’S PAPERS edited by: Linh Nguyen photo credits: Tiffany Yang
VOLUME 1 // ISSUE 7