LaMissTenn District
Crawfish Tales The Official District Newsletter of the
Louisiana-Mississippi-West Tennessee District of
Key Club International
Volume VI Issue V
Table of Contents Greetings from the Board.......................................................................................................................3 Winter Rally & LaMissTenn District Scholarship Program.........................................................................4 Service Project Ideas.............................................................................................................................5 Continuation of Service Project Ideas.....................................................................................................6 Committee Updates...............................................................................................................................7 Important & Upcoming Information and Key Club International & District Convention..............................8 Outstanding Club...................................................................................................................................9
2020-2021 Key Club LaMissTenn District Board:
Jannie Nguyen~Governor~governor.lmtkc@gmail.com Madison Tarifa~Secretary Treasuer~sec.treas.lmtkc@gmail.com Lieutenant Governors : Division 3 - Viggy Karthik~ ltg3.lmtkeyclub@gmail.com Division 4a - An Tra~division4a.lmtkc@gmail.com Division 4b - Ashley Borgstede~ltg4b.lmtkeyclub@gmail.com Division 7b - Landon Poimboeuf~division7b.lmtkc@gmail.com Division 8a - Abigail Peck~division8a.lmtkc@gmail.com Division 9 - Josie Feeney~division9lmtkc@gmail.com Division 11 - Laura Ajlani~division11.lmtkc@gmail.com Divsion 12 - Hunter Newton~ltg.lmtkeyclub@gmail.com Division 13a - Shelby Core~division13a.lmtkc@gmail.com Division 13b - Davis Lagarde~ division13b.lmtkc@gmail.com Division 14a - Michelle Tra~division14a.lmtkc@gmail.com Division 14b - Emily Lin~division14b.lmtkc@gmail.com Jackie Lin ~ Bulletin Editor~bulletineditor.lmtkc@gmail.com Executive Board: Jean Benoit ~ lamisstennbenoit@gmail.com Anthony Simmons ~ anthonysimmons.lmtkc@gmail.com Jennifer White ~ Jenniferwhite920@gmail.com John Magness ~john.r.magness@gmail.com
Greetings from the Board: Welcome 2021! It truly warms my heart when I reflect on how far we have all come this past year! Without each Key Clubbers’ perseverance, adaptability, and love for service we would not have had this much success thus far, regardless of the various unprecedented events. To help your fellow district leaders ring in the new year and celebrate all of this service year’s accomplishments, please make sure to register for your division’s Winter Rally! At Winter Rally, you will be able to connect with servant leaders from other divisions, chat with guest speakers, play games and trivia, learn about new service opportunities and District Convention 2021, and more! I cannot put into words how grateful I am for all your dedication towards the betterment of Key Club International. We only have two brief months of this service year left, so let’s end it with a bang, and show all the obstacles we have endured that it cannot break our spirits! Please find my contact on this issue of Crawfish Tales if there is anything I can help you with at all. Thanks for reading! Yours in service and friendship, Jannie Nguyen
Dear LaMissTenn, I hope that all of you had a great Christmas and have had a great start to this new year of 2021! As you all get settled back into school, I would like to just personally invite all of you to the divisional winter rallies. For this month of January, your lieutenant governors have some exciting VIRTUAL events planned for winter rallies such as games, contests, and the most important virtual Lieutenant Governor elections! Come out, enjoy the fun, and elect your future divisional leaders with members from your club and with other Key Clubbers in your division - virtually of course! As February 1st- the date that Key Club payments are due - is right around the corner, please feel free to contact me at sec.treas.lmtkc@gmail.com if you have any questions about dues payment and/or the membership update center. Yours in service, Madison Tarifa
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Winter Rally: Are you interested in meeting new members and making new friends outside of your division? Would you like to meet other Key Club members who participate in service activities just like you? If you do then Winter Rally is the place for you! Winter Rallies give each division a chance to start the year off with a focus on service. It's also a celebration to rejoice all the great things your division has accomplished together during the year and to elect a candidate who will represent your division as your 2021-2022 Lieutenant Governor. Winter Rally is a way to bring us all together one last time before DCON, or District Convention, which represents the true end of our service year. The Rally consists of all types of Key Club members, officers, guest speaker and general members alike are encouraged to attend! Kiwanis members and club advisors are welcome and invited as well.
(Winter Rally will be held virtually) Jan. 16 ~ Divisions 6, 7A, 8A, 8B, 9, 11, 12, 15 (10:00AM-12:30PM) Jan.16 ~ Divisions 1A, 1B, 1C, 2, 3, 5, 10, 14A, 14B (1:30PM-4:00PM) Jan. 30 ~ Divsions 4A, 4B, 4C, 7B, 13A, 13B (3:30PM-6:30PM)
LaMissTenn District Scholarship Program: The LaMissTenn Kiwanis District Foundation sponsors scholarships for outstanding and deserving Key Club seniors. The Scholarship Application Form is now available and can be found at lamisstenn.org/scholarship. Qualified applicant must be a graduating senior who has been an active Key Clubber for the past two years and is in good standing with Key Club (LaMissTenn District and Key Club International). The applicant must intend to enroll in a four-year college/university or in a community, technical or vocational college and have an overall GPA of at least a 3.0 (on a 4.0 point scale). The scholarship application form must be completed online using the PDF writable form. Additional items to include with the application packet are an original photograph, official high school transcript, one-page essay and three letters of recommendation. Please make sure to have ALL items included in the application packet as stated on the application form. Omission of any item will disqualify an application. About 10-12 scholarships will be awarded, ranging in value from $1,000 to $3,500. The deadline is January 15, 2021(postmarked by) and please begin work on this scholarship opportunity as soon as possible!
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Service Project Ideas:
Kids for Peace: •Write notes of friendship that will be attached to each toy that is given to a child in need as part of The Great Toy Giveaway program. •Write and mail cards to senior homes to bring extra love and comfort to senior citizens who can no longer receive visitors due to the COVID-19 situation. •Make Peace Rocks (Paint rocks with kind words and place them around town to delight your neighbors). You can find more service project ideas at https://kidsforpeaceglobal.org/covid-19/.
8 Ways to Express Gratitude to Our Veterans:
•Fly the flag. Fly the American flag today in honor of our Veterans. If you need more information about when and how to display the flag read The United States Flag Code or read more at infoplease.com. •A personal thank you. Call your dad, mom, friend, grandpa, son, daughter and personally thank them for their services. •A public thank you. Write a Facebook post, send a tweet, post a picture on Instagram. Show your gratitude to all. •Greet a veteran when they arrive home. Go to your local airport website and find out about greeting veterans as they come home. •Send a care package. Operation Gratitude and Any Solider are just two of many organizations who make it easy to let a deployed serviceman or servicewoman know you are grateful. •Donate to a veteran’s charity. For more information, please visit https://www.livehappy.com/blogs/live-happy-team/8-waysexpress-gratitude-our-veterans.
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Continuation of Service Project Ideas:
School Supply Drive:
School supply lists will be different this year due to the virtual shift. Some children don’t have access to technology. Clubs can donate items such as charging cords and power banks, along with basic school supplies, like binders and notebooks. Also, as a two in one deal, we can make masks to give the children for the school year. Clubs can contact their Kiwanians for drop off spots for the school supplies. For more information, contact Shelby Core at (Division 13A at division13a.lmtkc@gmail.com).
Bookmarks:
Clubs could make custom bookmarks for children to encourage them to read. Reading reaps many benefits, such as obtaining vast vocabulary, a higher reading speed, and increased comprehension. We could create bookmarks with words of encouragement and positive affirmations, all with colors and designs. We can contact the heads of local K-Kids and Builder’s Clubs to find out where to deliver the bookmarks for them to be handed out. We can also contact schools and local libraries. For more information, contact Shelby Core at (Division 13A at division13a.lmtkc@gmail.com).
Offer Tutoring:
Due to Covid-19, children aren’t getting access to learning mediums that school would normally provide. Many children are falling behind due to this and underfunded schools that can’t provide a stable virtual education. To aid them during this upcoming school year, twice a week we can offer tutoring services for math and reading through Zoom. Each session would last 30-45 minutes. We could teach different subject matters within the overall subject. It would have to be advertised by all LTG’s on social platforms. This project is aimed for grades 1-8. For this project, the LTG’s or committee members will be the overseers. Clubs in their respective district will be the tutors of the children. For example, club members could tutor students at their schools and their K-Kids and Builders clubs. These can be held in person (if schools permit) and over Zoom.
Reading Books to Children:
Key Club members could record themselves reading children’s books and upload them to the Governor's committee and other media platforms. Our target audience would be elementary school children, specifically, kindergarten to third graders. Reading sessions will be 15 minutes maximum, however, depending on the length of the book, multiple sessions will be needed to complete it. For more information, contact Shelby Core at (Division 13A at division13a.lmtkc@gmail.com).
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Committee Updates: Parliamentary Procedures Committee Update:
Laura Ajlani (Chair)- Division 11 LTG Michelle Tra- Division 14a LTG Abigail Peck- Division 8a LTG Hunter Newton- Division 12 LTG The Parliamentary Procedures committee created amendments for emergency procedures to follow in the event of a federal declaration of emergency or a declaration of emergency issued by the State of Louisiana, Mississippi, or Tennessee. Most importantly, the amendments allow for clubs to convene virtually. The committee created a google form that allows clubs to propose a bylaw to be presented to the House of Delegates. The form will soon be available on the LaMissTenn District website. A Parliamentary Procedure guide was created in order to give general members and clubs an idea on making an amendment, how to make a motion, and voting in parliamentary procedure.
Governor’s Project/Service Projects Committee:
The Governor’s committee consist the following members: committee chair Shelby Core, Abigail Peck,and An Tra. The Governor's committee are also uniting with the Service and Fundraising Committee which include: Shelby Core, Landon Poimboeuf, Vignesh Karthik, and Davis Lagarde. The Governor’s Project focus is to better the lives of children in need.The goal of the Governor’s Project is to better the lives of at-risk children. Think of creative, yet simple, service projects that we could do that could benefit the Governor’s Project. Write a good description of how the projects will work. (location, costs, materials, duration, etc.) The goal for this year is to get at least 25,000 service hours dedicated to the Governor’s Project this year. The Governor's committee has completed and accomplished the following tasks: coming up with various social distancing service projects that coincide with helping children at need, creating a Governor’s Project instagram where we post informational posts about the Governor’s Project, and working with Governor Jannie Nguyen to create an inspiring video explaining why she chose to focus on helping children at risk.
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Important & Upcoming Information
Jan. 15 ~ LaMissTenn Key Club District Scholarship Program deadline (Winter Rally will be held virtually) Jan. 16 ~ Divisions 6, 7A, 8A, 8B, 9, 11, 12, 15 (10:00AM-12:30PM) Jan.16 ~ Divisions 1A, 1B, 1C, 2, 3, 5, 10, 14A, 14B (1:30PM-4:00PM) Jan. 30 ~ Divsions 4A, 4B, 4C, 7B, 13A, 13B (3:30PM-6:30PM)
Feb.- Apr. ~ District Quarterly Service project theme: Awareness of others
Key Club International Convention:
International Convention is where members all around the world gather together to celebrate the amazing things Key Club members do with students from all around the world. You’ll also have the opportunity to travel to and from International Convention with your district ,share innovative service project and fundraising ideas, listen to amazing speakers, learn about service leadership, train for your leadership position, elect next year’s Key Club International Board, and discover new charities and organizations you and your club can team up with. For more information, you can go to the Key Club International Convention website at https://www.keyclub.org/events/event-2/. International Convention will be held in Orlando, Florida on July 7-11.
District Convention:
District Convention is where members throughout the whole district congregate to meet new friends and share their experience they had with Key Club, to compete and attend certain activites the district convention holds, watch talent shows, listen to speeches that are given, and much more. For more information, visit https://www.lmtkeyclub.org/dcon. District Convention (DCON) Natchez, Mississippi on March 19-21, 2021.
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Outstanding Club: The outstanding club of the month is Stone High School's Key Club of Division 14B. On Saturday, December 5, 2020, Stone High Key Club hosted a food drive ,for the local food pantry, outside of Piggly Wiggly. Stone High Key Club donated over $700 worth of food for their local food pantry. Citizens in Stone County donated 2 SUV’s and 1 pick-up truck full of food. Outstanding job Stone County!
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