District 7, Division 1S
Volume 2 // Issue 6
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Hey, Key Club! It was great to see everyone having fun at Hangman’s House of Horrors this month. I’m super proud of everyone for staying active during the busy school year! I can’t wait to see you all at the Turkey Trot and Parade of lights this coming month. Stay amazing. -Lexi Cepak, NCKC Editor.
MESSAGE FROM THE
PRESIDENT Hey Key Clubbers! I hope you all had a great, scary Halloween while raising funds for UNICEF. I know school has probably been super stressful for most of you taking numerous AP classes, but don’t forget.. Key Club is always a great stress reliever to help out with your community and trying to make a change! Also an important week is coming up: Key Club Week! I hope to see many key clubbers participating throughout the first week of November, by showing your key club pride and giving appreciation to those who give their time to help out as our Sponsors and Advisors do. Key Club would definitely not be the same without them, so it’s very important they are given recognition. This past month, as many of you heard, was Anti-Bullying month. Because of my creative editor, Lexi Cepak, our club plans on taking on a mini service project by making Leis during our key club meeting, in order to spread Anti-Bullying awareness. These Leis will be passed on to our peers and classmates throughout our school as we will be mentioning how important they are as individuals and the great impact they have on their friends and families. Bullying is definitely not a joke, which is why Key Club decided to go along with this project! Being President for such a huge student organization is definitely a handful, but throughout all the limited time and numerous paperwork that has to be done I enjoy every single moment of it. As President, it is essential that 110% of my dedication and participation is given to key club and it is my duty to make sure everyone is attending events and enjoying volunteer service as they interact with students, kids and teachers. As Thanksgiving is getting closer, I would hope to see many district 1S clubs attend our (North Crowley Key Club) Build-A-Bear Social on November 24, located at Ridgemar Mall starting at 4pm. It is recommended that you bring $12 to decorate your own bear; and just a reminder that these bears will be donated to Ronald McDonald Habitat For Humanity so please try to attend, participate and interact with our district. Don’t hesitate to contact me via email, text, etc. for questions! :) Yours in service, Demi Carrion
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HANGMAN’S
HOUSE OF
Hangman’s House of Horrors is a special Key Club event that only happens once a year. Last year, I missed out because I wasn’t old enough to participate, and envied those who went. I jealously looked at the photos of my friends dressed up as the scary three little pigs. I knew that I couldn’t miss out another year in a row. Our Key Club went to Hangman’s every week possible in October on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Two of our members got the pleasure of being Alice from Alice in Wonderland in the kids section where they got to wear awesome glow in the dark paint. Other members got to be sewer monsters and waiting room nurses. I, however, was the lone witch of the library. After getting my personal tour around Hangman’s House of Horrors to get pictures for the newsletter, I was sent to get my costume. I got a long black dress, and then was sent to makeup and transformed into a terrifying figure. A gigantic nose with warts and a long pointy chin were glued onto my face. Wrinkles were added to my forehead, and my skin became a pale, sickly color. I truly looked atrocious, which was fitting for the part, of course.
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HORRORS Article By: Lexi Cepak
After my makeup was done, I was sent to the library. The library was a spooky room with all sorts of odds and ends. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, but after it was explained to me, it all made sense. I was a collector (hoarder) of oddities and rarities. I had torture devices, skeletons, old books, clown skins, and even two ghosts all in one small room. The only thing missing was a human, which I desperately wanted to add to my collection. As well as trying to add the people who came through Hangman’s House of Horrors to my collection, my mission was to scare them. I hid behind a picture frame, and when given the signal, I pulled a lever. The picture slid down, and I reached out at the guests through the picture frame, giving them a fright. Hangman’s House of Horrors has been one of my favorite events. I loved scaring people and having a fun time with other Key Clubbers. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and this was definitely a great way to celebrate it. I can’t wait to attend Hangman’s House of Horrors next year.
Blood Drive
From Tuesday, October 14th to Friday, October 17th cluding myself signed up students for the blood drive stage and handed out permission forms and passes their names down on our master list. During our gen week, members signed up to help out on the day of
On Tuesday, the day of the blood drive, Carte in four large vehicles. Students arrived at school ear checked the lists or signed up students and pointed get their blood taken.
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h, North Crowley Key Club officers ine during lunch. We sat on the cafeteria to those who needed them, and put neral club meeting on Thursday of that f the blood drive.
er BloodCare arrived at North Crowley rly, and the blood drive began. We all them in the right direction in order to
Article By: Lexi Cepak
We were able to get over 200 students to give blood throughout the day. Some students, unfortunately, weren’t able to get their blood taken because they didn’t have a parent there to sign for them. This is an important event for Key Club because it saves lives. Carter BloodCare distributes blood to hospitals when they need them. The blood is refrigerated and can be used to replace the blood someone loses in an injury. The blood can go towards accident and burn victims, bone marrow failure, and leukemia and cancer patients. Carter BloodCare needs 1,100 blood donors a day to meet the community’s need, and Key Club ensures that North Crowley makes up a relatively large part of that. 21% of the blood Carter BloodCare collects comes from students. Together, our school made up about 18% of the day’s need. Donating to Carter BloodCare is a rewarding experience that I unfortunately can’t take part in. I, like a good number of Key Club members, do not meet the weight requirement for giving blood, so I cannot donate. This always makes me a little bit sad, because I have O Rh positive blood, which means that my red blood cells could go to any recipient except O Rh negative, which means that my blood could go to 93% of the population, as people with O Rh negative blood only account for 7% of the population. I find solace in knowing that I can help out by signing people up and making sure that they give blood, even though I can’t. This event is one that directly impacts and saves people’s lives, which is a truly noble cause.
Harvest Fest
Article By: Jordan Peyton
Harvest fest was a really fun experience for me and the people I was with. I got to help little kids and make sure they had a fun time. I made sure they were safe and managed things like a bounce house to make sure there weren't too many kids inside or to make sure no one got hurt. I thought it was a really good experience for everyone to work with kids like that, making sure they are safe, making sure they have fun and just making sure that everything is going smoothly. It was a good experience for me personally to work with little kids because it allows me to be able to actually talk with kids and see what they like now a days so I can do other events like barnes and nobles better because they have lots of kids for that event showing up. I also thought it was good leadership experience, and showed everyone what responsibility actually felt like when you are responsible for the safety of kids or when you are making sure that these kids aren't getting into any trouble. I not only got to have fun helping kids at this event but I also was able to volunteer with my friends at this event. I meet other fellow key clubbers I haven't met before and I think that was really cool because I got to know what other people think about being in key club. We all are very different people but we have volunteering in common and key club allowed us to get together and meet people we may have never talked to outside of key club and itself is really cool. We all were able to get together and bond and volunteer in our community at the same time. I had a really fun time helping out and being with my friends. Harvest fest was good experience for me, responsibility, leadership, understanding kids, safety and social skills. It was really fun and if given the chance I would gladly do it again next year.
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Panthers Recycle
Article By: Lexi Cepak On the first Friday and Saturday of October, Key Club participated in Panthers Recycle. We were in charge of the A-wing, so we collected all of the recycling from that part of the school. Our school recently got large recycling bins to become more “green.” These ensure that we have less waste, and more is recycled. First, Demi, Daisy, and I collected all of the recycling from teachers’ rooms and wheeled them in our cart out to the recycling bins behind the school. We then dumped them in and went back for the big buckets. They were overfilled with trash and recycling alike, so we had to sort some of it as well as just physically dumping it. This event is great for the environment and our school. Teachers would otherwise throw away thousands of papers each month, but because of Panther Recycling, they all get to be reused. Recycling a ton of paper can save around 17 trees. This can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere. Recycling paper also takes half the water normally used in processing paper from wood. This is super important because although most of us have enough water, about one in every nine people lacks access to an improved water source. Our recycling no longer stops at just paper. We can now recycle plastic bottles and cans, as well, although we pull the can tabs off of the cans first, so that we can donate them to the Ronald McDonald House. The aluminum from these tabs can be valued at between 23 to 52 cents per pound. Because of organizations like Key Club, the Ronald McDonald House averages at about 450 pounds of tabs every ten days, or around $234 every ten days. $10 is all it costs to pay for one family for one night. Last year, I turned in thousands of can tabs. I never knew how much they could help. Key Club gives an hour for every 600 tabs, and that’s a little under half of a pound, which means that’s half a dollar that can go towards a family’s stay at the house. Recycling is important for other reasons than collecting tabs and reusing paper. Using recycled materials can also lower energy costs for manufacturers, which means that the energy can go to something else. Producing recycled paper, for example, only requires 60% of the energy required to create paper from fresh wood pulp.
On Saturday, October 4th and Saturday, October 11th, North Crowley Key Club helped out at the Tarrant Area Food Bank. We helped sort foods based on whether they were canned, items that needed to be baked, ingredients, water, children’s snacks, etc. We got through what was on the floor in no time. Boxes were unloaded left and right. The workers were really impressed. They said that they usually don’t get to put the food into boxes. Our next job was to pack food into boxes (go figure). We wiped the tables off, got into groups of three or four, and plugged in the scales. We checked all of the cans for dents, and loaded them into the box on the scale. They had to be a certain weight in order for families to have the right amount of food. Once the boxes were loaded, we marked down how much they weighed, and they were taken to another room. Working at the Tarrant Area Food Bank is a really rewarding experience. It makes me feel like I’m at the center of something good that’s making a true difference in the world. Tarrant Area Food Bank serves children, senior citizens, single parents, the chronically ill and disabled, unemployed workers, homeless people, and laid-off workers. Children account for 43% of the people served by TAFB.
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Tarrant Area Food Bank Article By: Lexi Cepak In Texas, one of 3.6 children lives in a household that is food-insecure, and only 62% of children living in food-insecure households are eligible for federal nutrition programs. Tarrant Area Food Bank helps serve these children because hungry children are sick more often, suffer growth impairment, and incur developmental impairments. Seniors are also at great risk because of this. 11% of individual clients who come to Tarrant Area Food Bank pantries were 65 or older, which is a huge number because only 14.1% of the people living in the United States are 65 years and over, according to a 2013 study. Assuring that these individuals, seniors, children, and adults have food is a huge task. Key Club helps make it possible for Tarrant Area Food Bank to reach their goal of eliminating hunger for community members by providing food and nutrition education. Volunteering at Tarrant Area Food bank reminded me that Key Clubbers really do make a difference, and that when we join forces, anything is possible. If Key Club continues to grow, I have confidence that the world can eliminate hunger in the near future.
North Crowley Key Club unpacks boxes at TAFB.
Key Clubbers pack boxes full of canned food to go to families in need, and weights them on the scale.
BARNES & NOB
On Saturday, October 11th Key Clubbers arrived at Barnes & Noble at 10:00 a.m. to prepare for a Star Wars themed Barnes and Noble event. They read Angry Birds Star Wars: Larde Vader’s Villains, as well as a Lego Star Wars book. After that, they made cute Yoda puppets out of brown paper bags. The following Saturday, Key Club read Where the Wild things are by Maurice Sendak followed by Leonardo, the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems and Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin. We then assisted the members in making their very own monsters and wild things that could be used as masks. There were different eyes, noses, mouths, horns, and ears for the children to choose from. The Saturday before Halloween, Key Club read Halloween-themed children’s books like Click, Clack, Boo! by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin followed by a vampire pet book. There were lots of activities for the children to choose from. There were Click Clack Moo! activity sheets and pumpkin coloring pages. The children had fun getting to color these pages, and the parents were relieved to have something for their child to do.
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BLE STORYTIME
Article By: Lexi Cepak
The Key Clubbers, of course, were thrilled as always to read to the precious children that attended and help them with their crafts. They even channeled their inner child and made a few of the crafts for themselves. Victor was an especially good sport, and let the children and Key Club members decorate him for their craft. Karen and Jordan always do a great job reading to the children and keeping their attention, which can be a tough job because of kids’ short attention spans. Some children, however, still cannot keep skill, but no one minds because it’s rare that children get time to be kids, and we believe that they should get to enjoy childhood while it lasts. Barnes and Noble Storytime is one of the best Key Club events because you get to brighten the days of children, something most key clubbers don’t get a chance to do between school and club activities. Attending Barnes and Noble is rewarding because after working with the same kids, it’s sweet to see them warm up to you, and to watch the less outgoing children make friends. It’s definitely a worthwhile experience, and I love attending as frequently as possible.
UPCOMING EVENTS TESA Elementary School: 11/15 from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
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Panthers Recycle: 11/20 & 11/21 before and after school
Turkey Trot:
Parade of Lights:
11/ 27 at Camp Bowie Blvd 76107 from 4:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m.
11/28 - Sign up to be a parade marshal at Www.fortworthparadeofli ghts.org/participate/ volunteers
ONGOING EVENTS Barnes & Noble Story Time: Every Saturday from 10:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m. At Barnes & Noble (;
Agape meal: Every Thursday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. At Broadway Baptist Church
President, Demi Carrion: nckcpresident@gmail.com
Vice-President, Daisy Doan: daisy202@rocketmail.com
Editor, Lexi Cepak: nckc.editor@gmail.com
Historian, Jordan Peyton: nchs.keyclubhistorian@gmail.com
Secretary Olivia Courtney: nckc.secretary@gmail.com
Vice-Secretary Karen Duarte-Escobar: nckc.vicesecretary@gmail.com
Treasurer, Elias Laura: nckc.treasurer@gmail.com
Parliamentarian Bernice Ogbondah : nckc.parliamentarian@gmail.com