Viking Newsletter | Lamar Key Club | Volume III Issue IX | April 2022

APRIL 2022 ISSUE NO 3 | VOLUME 8

VIKING NEWSLETTER LAMAR HIGH SCHOOL KEY CLUB REGION 7 DIVISION 39N

CONT ENTS

13

HOTO Article by Luke Walsh

15

NEW OFFICER TRAINING Article by Ada Lian

03

OFFICERS' CONTACTS

17

Article by Zac Hattendorf

P.3 Club Officers P.6 District Officers

07

MAR. & APR. CALENDARS

19

P.7 April Recap P.9 May Outlook

11

KC CHANGED MY LIFE Article by Emily Wilson

NEXT STEPS TO TAKE HOW KC IMPACTED MY LIFE Article by Layla Shalabi

21

KC'S SERVICE PARTNERS

Service does not have to be big and grandiose to be meaningful and make a diffefrence CHERYL A. ESPLIN

kc.lamar.president@gmail.com Class of 2022 Future Plans: College @ TCU

I've learned more from Key Club this year than I ever expected. One of my main goals this year was increasing membership, and I'm delighted our club achieved this. Also, I'm overjoyed about the grant money our officer team received to buy books and help our local students. Next year I hope that our large membership will continue to grow and that those who participated this year will encourage even more to volunteer. I'd really love to see more members taking advantage of as many service opportunities as possible. Key Club is such a great organization that has allowed me to support the community while learning more about myself and others.

Through Key Club, I've grown as both a leader and a volunteer, and I've gotten to explore the innate service within leadership. This year, some of my favorite memories have been the Salvation Army Bell Ringing and the craft social after school. I hope next year Key Club will offer great memories to many more volunteers.

kc.lamar.vicepresident@gmail.com Class of 2022 Future Plans: COLLEGE! This year, we achieved our YOF grant! It was an amazing experience applying for it.

What I hope to improve on for next year and getting stoles and cords in order for our achieving key club members.

kc.lamar.secretary@gmail.com Class of 2022 Future Plans: COLLEGE!

This year we finally managed to get back on track more in person from the crazy previous years. Being in Key Club helped me ease back into getting to know people and being out in the community again. I’m proud of how motivated everyone in Key Club was to participate in activities. I especially remember helping out at the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast where every Key Club in arlington helped out for an event. It was nice to see people from other schools participate in one event. Next year, I hope the club gets to attend LEDCON which would be a fun experience as it’s a large event. Key club was a great place to make friends while giving back to the community.

CLUB Y E K 2 R LAMA S 2021-202 ER OFFIC 3 | Club Officers

kc.lamar.treasurer@gmail.com Class of 2023 Future Plans: Be Vice President of Key Club This has been a really fun and uplifting year for our LHS Key Club. We have been able to help so many within our community and grow our club even more than in previous years. Not only do we have more members, but we have connected with more of our community than ever before. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to help others around us making the world a better, more loving place, one good deed at a time. Key Club has meant so much to me and means even more to our community.

kc.lamar.editor@gmail.com Class of 2023 Future Plans: Be a great Key Club president Being the editor this year has been a huge blessing in disguise. I learned a lot of skills that I wouldn't have picked up anywhere else. Editing for my newsletters taught me a lot of skills that will be useful for the years to come. As next year's Key Club President, my goal si to increase the participation amongst the Key Clubbers by providing fun service opportunities and reaching out to our members. This year has created memories upon memories and all of you seniors will be greatly missed. Can't wait for next year!

kc.lamar.webmaster@gmail.com Class of 2022 Future Plans: College!

I absolutely loved getting to watch our club come back to life after a year and a half of virtual meetings! I’m glad that my final year of Key Club was spent immersed in service with my friends. I hope that Lamar Key Club earns EVEN MORE hours next year!

kc.lamar.historian@gmail.com - Class of 2022 - Future Plans: College!

Wow, four years went by in a breeze and my senior and Key Club days are coming to an end. I have met so many new people through Key Club and I have made fun and weird memories. From my overall high school experience, Key Club has been the #1 club that was the most enjoyable and organized. There were so many opportunities that I enjoyed doing because of the diversity, which is one thing Key Club is good at doing. Their diversity in volunteer opportunities had made volunteering more fun. Since I have an interest in sports and physical activities I was excited in volunteering at the swim meet, wrestling match, and charity miles. As bookworm I had a fun time doing the Arlington Library Books on Wheels because of the quiet environment that was surrounded with amazing books. Key Club has allowed me to go outside my comfort zone. For example, I'm not a singer but while I was doing the Salvation Army I singing in front of random strangers. This was frightening but at the same time super exciting. I hope next year, Key Club will continue this tradition for new club members. Overall Key Club will be a memory that I will never forgot. Even though I'm leaving, I will definitely stay connected and help out the community through other organizations.

4 | Club Officers

kc.lamar.seniorrep@gmail.com Future Plans: College!

It feels like this year went by just as quickly as it came. It was my very first experience at being any form of officer and I got this opportunity through Key Club. I went into it with no knowledge of what was to come in the future. I have to say that this year has taught me so much about responsibilities as well as being a leader. I enjoyed my time making the slides and decorating them each month and I enjoyed the time we had with the officers. My only critique and hope for next year is that the officer team would be tight and build close relationships. But I can happily say that I enjoyed my time as Senior Class Representative and look forward to the future of Key Club.

Class of 2023 kc.lamar.juniorrep@gmail.com

kc.lamar.sophrep@gmail.com Future Plans: Be an amazing Historian!

I personally feel like a lot of events that I went to went well! The events were nicely coordinated and prepared by the Key Club members and you could definitely see that they put effort into this club! Maybe something that we could improve as a club would be having more active members to participate and volunteer, try to be more encouraging towards members and build our friendships with each other. A memory that I have from Key Club Being back in person was a game changer this year. It was nice to come together as a club at our monthly meetings and meet new members.

Personally, two of my favorite events were the River Legacy Fall Festival and the Kiwanis Pancake Event. Not only did I enjoy serving the community but I enjoyed doing it with my fellow members. I’d say this was an extremely successful year for Key Club and I can’t wait for next year.

was the Fall Festival at River Legacy, I was able to volunteer with my friend Nam and learn how to use a fishing rod as well as build crafts! Another very recent memory that I have from Key Club would be the reading at Butler, I absolutely adored it and enjoyed it. From walking the hallways, waving and smiling at happy kids passing by, reading to my assigned group of kindergarteners and to saying goodbye to each kid I met, I certainly believe that I will keep this memory cherished for a long time! And Key Club has certainly earned a place in my heart, I definitely hope to keep improving as a person and as a friend with Key Club.

5 | Club Officers

DISTRICT GOVERNOR

district officers

Lillian Thai governor@tokeyclub.com

DISTRICT SECRETARY

Ginna Galindo Gomez secretary@tokeyclub.com

DISTRICT TREASURER

Makayla Hsieh treasurer@tokeyclub.com

DISTRICT EDITOR

Anushka Ranjan editor@tokeyclub.com

CONVENTION LIASON

Kaitlyn Roehr

cl@tokeyclub.com

TECHNOLOGY PRODUCER Noah Obuya techproducer @tokeyclub.com

REGION 7 ADVISOR

LTG Trinh Luong tluong.ltg

Melissa Greene

@gmail.com

region7@tokeyclub.com

6 | TO District Officers

CALENDAR

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

6TH

MARCH 1ST OFFICER

GENRAL

MEETING

APPLICATIONS

EASTER

&

END

OF

5TH

SIX

WEEKS

DUE

15TH

8TH

18TH

WEEKEND

18TH APL

29th

CRAFTS BRINGING

7 | April Recap

IN

THE

BOOKS

Bringing in the Books HERE'S

A

RECAP

April was a busy month as we welcomed the new officer team for next year. Each current officer spent time training with next year's officers so they wouldn't feel overwhelmed or unprepared.

During this month we also read books to children at my elementary, Butler. The kindergarten grade were recently learning about oceans so us key clubbers read books about oceans to them. They were very informative and were very engaged in the book reading process. This was part of our YOF grant money we received so we also donated many books to their library.

8 | April Recap

CALENDAR

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

1

2

3

8

9

10

15

16

22

29

THU

FRI

SAT

5

6

7

11

12

13

14

17

18

19

20

21

23

24

25

26

27

28

30

31

4

26th

4th

MAY

GENRAL

MEETING

20th

16th APL

CRAFTS

Senior citizen interviews

9 | May Outlook

AISD OF

LAST

DAY

SCHOOL

CONTINUING

EVENTS

Charity Miles https://miles.app.link/8H4Q6ZnAKab 10 miles/hr - it's not hard! Just take your phone on walks.

Make sure you’re in our group! We’re supporting March of Dimes, a Kiwanis Partnership Free Rice (UN World Food Program) Group Code 29JTX24F Maximum 5 hours, so 2500 grains of rice Download the app or use the website: freerice.org Arlington Public Library Crafts - 16th 3:30-5:30 pm Please be there for at least 30 min We will be putting together crafts for seniors who partake in Books on Wheels, APL’s outreach service for seniors. open attendance DoSomething.org - dates depend on your campaign Volunteer at DoSomething.org for the cause that you're interested in. For example, making no-sew masks, reading books, or collecting clothing! Upload the photo that you will submit as proof and the certification as proof of volunteering. https://www.dosomething.org/us/campaigns NEW

EVENTS

Senior Citizen Interviews Sponsored by the APL, Interview a senior citizen in your family Virtually or in person, have their story shared in a book Submit their answers in this google form (qr), Due May 20th IMPORTANT

LINKS

Lamar Key Club Website https://keyclublamar.wixsite.com/lhskey Find all the important information here including opportunities, meeting presentations, cord and stole requirements.

Log Your Hours! https://tinyurl.com/lhskcloghours

Email Us! keyclub.lamar@gmail.com

10 | May Outlook

Follow Us: @lamarkeyclub

Get Newest Information @vfndkey1

HOW KEY CLUB CHANGED MY LIFE Emily Wilson

11| How key club changed my life

My principal Mr. Hagman once told me to wake up everyday and ask myself how I can serve the people around me. From my role as class representative, vice president, and president, Key Club has taught me how to both serve and lead. Most importantly it’s taught me the intertwined connection of the two.

The one thing I learned from Key Club that will impact my life forever is that being a leader is being in service to others by focusing on your team.

Leading through sacrifice builds a stronger team. Being the first one to take on optional tasks like writing articles or representing the club at service events sets an example. But beyond setting an example, it’s an opportunity to serve your team. As a leader, that’s the whole goal, finding what must be sacrificed for the group goals and determining the best ways to do that. Sometimes it’s best to give the work to others, but other times it’s better for others to give the work to yourself. It’s important to keep in mind other’s circumstances when you’re a leader and take on responsibilities when you’re able to ease another's burdens.

Leading in service doesn't just mean doing things first, it also means asking your team the questions that will get you to the goal you all desire. When confronting others about a responsibility, the first thing you ask is, “what can I do to help you with this?”

And by having clear conversations about uncomfortable things, people usually feel better about them afterwards. This requires full transparency about how you feel and how they feel, and that level of transparency is a sacrifice. It’s a vulnerability, but being the best way to serve when conflict arises is getting to the root of a problem and finding a solution that best fits everyone’s needs even if it makes you uncomfortable to bring it up.

Most importantly, serving others means giving them what they need in order to grow. Some tasks are urgent or seem too crucial to make mistakes on, and sometimes it feels like it’s easier to do it all yourself.

But leading really means sacrificing that need for control and perfection.

It’s assigning tasks that you know have a learning curve, but your officers will become better as a result. Mistakes will be made and frustration may occur, but you can’t just take everything on yourself. In this case, serving means trusting others and giving up your need to do things right the first time. As a result of this, throughout the time you spend with them, you’ll see your team grow in both their skills and confidence, and that is your goal as a leader- serving for the betterment of those around you.

12 | How key club changed my life

Humans of Texas Oklahoma

LUKE WALSH

13 | Humans of TX Oklahoma

Hi My name is Luke Walsh, I am 16 years old and I am a sophomore at Lamar High school. For extracurricular activities I am on the Lamar varsity swim team, and I am in the key club this year. Next year I am also planning to join the NHS and student council, and maybe even pole vaulting depending if I can fit it into my schedule next year.

I heard about key club during Viking fest in 2021. When I heard that I could do volunteer work and it would help my college resume that gave me the motivation to join it. I also wanted to get more involved with the school, and by joining the key club I thought that would be a great way to start that experience. It would also and is a great way to meet new people, and experience things that you wouldn’t usually experience. I could also learn new things from the key club too, and go to new places. For example I never went to elementary school in Texas, and one time we got to go to Butler for a volunteer opportunity. Being able to see an elementary school in Texas and how they were like was a pretty unique experience for me. Another time we got to go to river legacy park for a volunteer opportunity involving some yard work. It was a cool way to spend a Saturday afternoon, by laying out mulch for the paths on the park it feels rewarding to say the least.

I would say the key club means a lot of things to me. It feels good to meet new people that you might not meet by other means. Like I said before you get to meet new people that might have the same interests or goals as you do. The key club also gives me a sense of responsibility, not just through the volunteer work, but also other tasks like logging in hours, going to meetings, and eventually doing your tasks as an officer. It also just feels satisfactory in a way. You know that sense of satisfaction you get when you do something good or help someone with something they’re struggling on, that's what the key club can feel with me at times, I guess it just feels good to help other people. Overall though the key club gives me a new sense of purpose, if you get what I am saying. You feel like you are reinvesting into the community and giving back to people, or just helping them. That’s what I would say the key club means to me. Hopefully next year when I am an officer my experience in the key club and in high school will only get better.

14 | Humans of TX Oklahoma

NEW OFFICER TRAINING

By Ada Lian

The new officers will carry on the club’ responsibilities next year, and in order to prepare them, each member has initiated a training process with each incoming officer. For me, I’m planning to train the upcoming secretary around the first week of May, when the secretary report for Key Club is due. At the training, I will give them the deadline date for the report, and also the dates to turn the reports in for extra credit. I will also give them all the contact information for their teammates, lieutenants, etc while also giving them their location information, such as division.

After giving them important deadlines, I'll go more in depth of the specific roles the secretary carries.

For instance, they need to take notes of the meetings, and to do that they can refer to the meeting slide notes. After that, I will let them explore excel sheets or google sheets to let them get used to creating a data form of the meeting attendance both for general and board meetings. Ahead of time, the secretary can create a separate form for attendance for each month. In each form, they will need the role, name, and ID number of the attendee.

15 | New Officer Training

By creating this ahead of time, the secretary won’t have to stress about it later and the slide creators on the team can access them whenever. I will also remind them of the specific tabs to put the information under for other officers to access. The drive is well organized by month and topic, so the information can be organized and easily found.

For each month, there is also a task of the month. Every month, on the form, there will be a new topic as an update on the club. To complete this, I will encourage the secretary to ask other members for their input in order to find more information to add to earn points. The most important job for a secretary is the hour log where all hour opportunities and the amount of hours earned from each member will be kept.

The secretary will need to keep track of new and past opportunities in order to update the hour documentation form. In addition, for each opportunity, the member will need to send a screenshot of the activity or a picture of the signed in person hour sheet. Each hour is worth half an hour, so that will also need to be added on the hour form.

After the members submit the hour form, the secretary will need to convert and update that onto the hour log, where members will find their total hours divided into sponsored, unsponsored, and meeting hours. For all documents the secretary turns in, the secretary also needs to include a signature and date. I will teach them how to upload a picture of their real signature onto the document, and how to copy and paste that on all the documents easier. With this, the secretary will also help out other officers on the team, such as helping the editor write articles, and also attend meetings as an officer. I will also help prepare the officers by answering the questions they have for the roles of the officers, and I will try to provide advice to make managing the new school year smoother. I wish them the best of luck and have fun!

16 | New Officer Training

NEXT STEPS ZAC HATTENDORF

In order to understand the next steps in my Key Club journey, you need to know where I started.

READ MORE ABOUT NEXT YEAR!

And like any mediocre Netflix story, it starts in my freshman year of high school. I had decided to attend Vikingfest to see what all was available to me to get the most out of my high school experience. I pursued around the Lamar cafeteria for a while and saw the Key Club booth calling my name. Within just a few minutes of talking to the booth operators they had me hooked, and I was now a member of the Lamar High School Key Club. Then the first club meeting was scheduled for a few days after the start of the school year. At the meeting, I was exuberant to see that a bunch of my friends had signed up to be a part of our growing community as well.

17 | Next Steps

"The key to this club’s future lies within its ability to welcome new members and new organizations within the community that need our help".

We were all introduced to the officers and what the club will be doing throughout the year. It was after the first meeting that I knew I was where I belonged. Skipping forward to the end of my sophomore year, I had applied to become an officer since I had two years of membership under my belt and felt ready for more. I managed to land the treasurer position for my junior year which brings us all the way up to where we are today. I have had such a great time over the past three years serving the community through the Lamar High School Key Club and am excited for the next.

This next year is going to be so many

For my final year of being a part of the Lamar High School Key Club, I have talented Luke Anderson and will be the new Vice President replacing Samir

members and new organizations within the community that need our help. This year has been filled with more new

Zaman. I am overjoyed to have the opportunity to expand not only the club but also the club’s outreach within our Arlington community. We already have School Key Club’s limitless future.

welcoming. The key to this club’s future lies within its ability to welcome new

passed my treasurer duties off to the

outlines in place for the Lamar High

things but the most notable is

service opportunities than the last, and I plan on forwarding that trend. The Lamar High School Key Club has opened my eyes to the pressing problems around us and the solutions that we can come up with as members of a club that wants to make life better for everyone. I am so excited for what

This next year is going to be so many things but the most notable is welcoming.

is to come in this next year, and I think you should be too.

18 | Next Steps

HOW KEY CLUB IMPACTED MY LIFE

By Layla Shalabi

Over all the years of doing Key Club, this club has taught me to do things for myself and to know my limits. I joined Key Club in Freshman year because everybody was joining clubs and colleges liked looking at extracurriculars on resumes. In the beginning of the year, I volunteered to earn the hours. I felt like I was volunteering more hours than helping the community. However, my mindset slowly changed towards the end of the year, where I started enjoying volunteering. I started appreciating the mine and the club's work in helping the community. Going into sophomore year, I decided to join Key Club for myself because it felt great to give back.

Reflecting on my decision from freshman year, I learned that if I’m making a decision or I’m wanting to do something, I need to do it for myself and not for anyone else. You do what is best for yourself.

Another thing I learned from Key Club is knowing your limit and knowing when to take a break. Going into senior year, it was pretty hectic with getting in all my hours for stoles/cords,

19 | How Key Club Impacted My Life

studying for big tests, completing big projects and essays, maintaining good grades, and paying all my dues/fines, etc.

Knowing I had a lot of work to complete, I volunteered for a five hour shift that required physical work. During my shift I was not in a good mental state to volunteer, especially doing physical work, because I was stressed from school. While volunteering, I was extremely tired and exhausted and I wanted to quit. From that experience I knew what my limit was and learned to not do so many things I couldn't handle. I learned that taking a break is okay and not doing all the volunteer opportunities is okay too. At the end of the day my mental health comes before anything else.

20 | A Moment in Key Club

WANT TO DO MORE?

HERE ARE KEY CLUB INTERNATION PARTNERS AND COLLABORATIVE P

Landscape Structures (LSI) has joined Kiwanis International as a vision partner to bring play to communities across the globe. LSI is proud to provide highquality commercial playground equipment and planning consultation services that reflect the high degree of integrity that Kiwanis clubs expect.

Thirst Project is a nonprofit organization that works with the support of young people to END the global water crisis by building freshwater wells in developing communities that need safe, clean drinking water.

By providing a community with safe drinking water, disease rates can drop by up to 88% virtually overnight!

Child mortality rates can drop up to 90%- overnight!

Clean water also plays an incredibly critical role in effectively treating and managing HIV/AIDS in rural communities.

Nickelodeon currently presents two major campaigns year round that encourage action in kids globally.

Worldwide Day of Play reinforces Nickelodeon’s mission to make the world a more playful place by leading Play events across the country.

Nickelodeon’s Get Dirty campaign seeks to educate kids, families, and teachers about what they can do to help protect the planet in a way that is mindful and fun.

TeleSquads provide Key Club members with affordable opportunities to complete community service hours while gaining hands-ons international experience implementing projects that improve health and education outcomes for in-need communities. Each TeleSquad is a customized 1-9 week online course for groups of 8 or more Key Club members to build knowledge through skill-based volunteering, build cultural competency through virtual immersion, and deliver real impact through our local team by participating in live community and professional exchanges.

21 | KC International's Service Partners

NAL'S SERVICE PARTNERS The Army strives to strengthen local communities through service and to build character and leadership among youth such as Key Club members. Through the Kiwanis Speakers Army personnel can connect with Kiwanisfamily clubs at club meetings, raising awareness of what today’s Army can provide and offer access to local Army support and resources. The Army also gives exceptional opportunities in higher education that can help young people throughout their lives.

Since 2014, Up with People and Kiwanis International members have teamed up to serve our communities, inspire youth and expand our impact in the world. that’s what Kiwanis International and Up with People share. Up with People programs open a door to service and intercultural understanding—whether it’s through a local show, leadership, and cultural workshops or providing service and travel experiences for young adults. Both organizations strive to ‘serve the children of the world’ and ‘empower youth to take action’ through our partnership.

COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS

Register for one month of fitness, reach your health goals, and change lives. Join individually or create a team. Your involvement creates community, and it helps Project Happiness educate youth and people of all ages—by providing proven tools for greater happiness and well-being.

K Corps is Kiwanis International’s youth exchange program for Key Clubbers and Kiwanis-family teens. It’s a great opportunity for youth connected with Kiwanis—and for families and Kiwanis clubs as well.Through the program, clubs, families and youth develop strong global relationships and intercultural communication skills by —attending meetings, experiencing fellowship, raising funds for various causes and participating in service projects.

22 | KC International's Service Partners

THANK YOU

FOR READING Have a great summer!