November Newsletter by Nacogdoches Key Club

DRAGON TRAINING 101: Bringing Service to Life The Official Newsletter of the Nacogdoches High School Key Club

Texas-Oklahoma District Region 10 | Division 14

Volume 1 | Issue 9

November 2013

Quote of the

Month

CASA 5K

PREMATURITY DAY

On November 9th, a group of Key Clubbers assisted the local CASA organization in their “Speak Up for Kids” 5K Run. CASA, otherwise known as Court Appointed Special Advocates, of Deep East Texas trains and supervises volunteers to speak in court for child victims of abuse and neglect in order to effectively prepare them for a hopeful, productive future in a safe, permanent home. CASA is central to fulfilling society’s most fundamental obligation by making sure a qualified, compassionate adult will fight for and protect a child’s right to be treated with dignity and respect, and to learn and grow in the safe embrace of a loving family. Those who wear able to attend, due to the fact we had a few service projects that morning, report that it was a very rewarding experience and it was worth sacrificing a couple hours of sleep.

March of Dimes is one of our biggest events of the year, and due to several close ties to the issue, we always love supporting the prematurity cause. Prematurity Day is technically November 17th; however, we observed the holiday the day after on Monday, November 18th. We also had our Thanksgiving Social on the 18th, where we ate family style and we had a great turn out.

“Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. STADIUM CLEANUP same morning of the CASA 5K Thanksgiving is the The was also our last stadium cleanup of the year and the seniors’ last stadium following of that cleanup EVER. We rallied out of our impulse.” warm, cozy beds to face the “frigid

-Henry Van Dyke

cold” (remember we live in Texas) and cleaned to whole stadium in record time. Thanks to everyone who has come out to help us clean the stadium this year! Y’all are the best!

VETERANS’ DAY During our Monday, November 11th meeting, we had the privilege in joining with our Student Council to hear from a veteran about his experiences. His name is Mr. Ashton and he teaches math at Nacogdoches High School. Mr. Ashton has a long list of accomplishments in the military including being an E-5 Sergeant in the U.S. Army, eight years active and reserve, and 3/3 ACR. It was such a great experience getting to learn about what is it actually like to serve our country. Mr. Ashton also opened the floor to answer any questions the students may have had. Thank you so much for your courage and service to our country Mr. Ashton, it means more than you will ever know.

HARVEST HOUSE Every Wednesday we are still helping

out at Harvest House, a local food bank. Being the holiday season, it is even more important that we continue to help out the less fortunate in this time of thankfulness and gratitude.

BOOK DRIVE A local hospital, Nacogdoches Medical Center, contacted us early November and asked us if we would like to be a part of their new “Reach Out for Reading” program. They inquired whether or not we would be interested in collected books for them, so of course we said that we would love to help! In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving break, our members collected new or gently used books to be used in the waiting rooms of Nacogdoches Medical Center. It was a very short and easy project but hopefully our donations were beneficial!

PHILIPPINES Families in the Philippines are in urgent need after Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated towns and villages, causing heavy damage from wind and water. Thousands of people are feared dead, and millions more have been displaced from their homes. A local Kiwanis member and NHS alumni, Dr. Ami Casis, who has family in and was born in the Philippines, along with her father organized a relief effort in a very short amount of time

in order to get aid over to the Philippines as fast as possible. The program was short lived, no more than a week, but we joined efforts with her in order to send blankets, clothing, and other necessities to the survivors.

UPCOMING During December, we will be adopting two kids from Azleway, one boy and one girl under the age of 10, and we will be collecting money in order to give them the best Christmas they have ever had! Also we will be collecting donations that will go toward the superintendent’s bike fund for less fortunate children in the school district. We have two valets this month and we are also selling the N’s to the freshman class! Our few weeks of school in December are going to go by fast, but they are also packed so get ready! LESS THAN 5 MONTHS UNTIL DCON!!!!!!

SET SAIL I hope every had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Hopefully you spent a lot of time with your family and ate tons of food! I know we all needed a break! As this year nears the end, remember it is never too late to SET SAIL WITH SERVICE!

Are you the sharpest crayon in the box? What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? Know the answer? Get an hour! Contact an officer!

WHAT KEY CLUB MEANS TO ME

I have been involved in numerous activities and organizations over my four years of High School, but the one organization that has stood out the most for me is Key Club. Key Club is not a place where keys are made or where musicians join to practice the piano… Key Club is a service organization. It has a heart and drive unlike any other. I joined Key Club my freshmen year of high school unsure of what exactly it was and like most other kids my age, joining because I knew it would look good on college applications. The truth is though, that when I joined Key Club I became a part of something bigger than myself and I never would have guessed its impact on me. I was elected Editor at the end of my freshmen year, which I was very proud of; one step closer to getting into my dream school, Texas Christian University. However, that summer I moved to a different town three and a half hours away. I went from a big fish in a little 1-A pond, to a guppy in a 4-A ocean. I never would have guessed though that I would have found my way into the number seven ranked Key Club in the Texas-Oklahoma District. I was immediately drawn in and from the first time I met Mrs. White, the sponsor, I knew I had found my niche in this vicious sea. I worked my way from the bottom to the top. My first year in Key Club I was in the Key Club class hoping to learn the ropes so that I could possibly become an officer the next year. I was what was jokingly referred to as a “worker bee.” I was basically one of the officer’s henchmen, doing all the dirty work. I remember showing up to the Veteran’s Day parade in freezing cold weather to sit on a float with only two other people, because everyone else insisted it was too cold. I remember hauling buckets of pancake batter across the cafeteria to serve customers at our pancake supper. I remember painting, hanging, and stapling signs to promote our different events. The thing I remember the most though about my sophomore year in Key Club was the accomplishment I got from all of the activities we did. At the end of my sophomore year I was elected Key Club Editor. I was no longer a worker bee. Being an officer in Key Club has a since of pride about it, but it’s also a lot of dirty work underneath. My junior year in Key Club was the year that I fell in love with it. I found the passion I had been longing for. It didn’t bother me to ring the bell hours at a time outside of Hobby Lobby in the freezing cold. It was no longer a hindrance to cancel my Saturday plans to go visit children at Sutton Children’s Hospital or my after school plans to go spend a few hours shopping for Christmas gifts for children in need. Something changed in me that year; it no longer bothered me to put my cares away and do what needed to be done.

I learned something that year, that will forever remain with me, Key Club may not be a sport, but that doesn’t mean one can’t serve like a champion. That spring our President lost care in what we were doing, and Key Club was no longer a priority. That same spring I made a proposition to our sponsor, an Elementary Reading Leadership Program. The concept was simple: we would go and read to 3rd graders and talk to them about what it meant to dream big. A month went by as we waited for confirmation to get started within one of the seven elementary schools in our district. We heard nothing. Finally, I decided to make a move. My mom is a 3rd grade teacher and I sat up a time for us to go read to her class. So, we did. We read “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” and presented them a dream board where each child drew on a note card themselves doing something they always wanted or something they wanted to be when they grew up. That experience almost made me want to become a teacher. We went back and visited at the end of the year and the kids loved it. Knowing that a lot of those kids lacked someone to tell them they CAN rather than they CANNOT was worth stepping out of my comfort zone. It was worth the time taken to put together a curriculum and to make the Dream Boards. I learned more from them than they learned from me. Serving others isn’t about me. It’s about doing for others, not when I have to, but when I don’t have to, when it is easy to say no and put it off till next year. Serving others taught me more about myself and my capabilities than anything else. In my senior year, I am now Key Club President. So far it has been a year of humility; I have planned events that have failed and I have planned events that have blossomed with success. One thing remains the same though; the passion I have for serving my community continues to grow. Although I’m nervous for the outcome that awaits our club in April, I have left Nacogdoches a better place than I found it.

Jordan Palmer Key Club President 12th Grade

KEY DATES Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Officer Meeting @6 Meeting @ 7:00 Sample N painting ESL Begin selling N’s

Harvest House 5-6

Officer Meeting @6 Meeting @ 7:00

Christmas Parade @ 6:30 Peer Communications Group 12

Harvest House Drill Christ5-6 mas Show Pineywoods Country Club Valet 6-9:30

McMichael Tournament 7AM-2PM 13

MITA’S SFA Gala Valet BIRTHDAY 6-midnight

Peer Communications Group

ESL 15

Band Christmas

Choir Christmas

Stop selling N’s today

Christmas Social @ 7:00-8:30 ESL

Harvest House ESL trip to 5-6 Lamplite (only open to students off campus in the morning)

4 N’s painting @ 8 a.m.

Last day before break

CHRISTMAS! 29

31 NEW YEAR’S EVE

2 1 NEW YEAR’S DAY

KEY CONTACTS NACOGDOCHES KEY CLUB OFFICERS

TEXAS-OKLAHOMA DISTRICT OFFICERS

PRESIDENT Jordan Palmer (903)413-2796

HISTORIAN Bryce Barham (936)585-1210

GOVERNOR Luke Broussard

VICE PRESIDENT Lexie Rocco (936)645-5659

PUBLIC RELATIONS Kim Fuentes (936)615-4957

SECRETARY Usman Hyder

SECRETARY Mita Coker (936)645-6102

WEBMASTER Reid Perry (936)615-7613

LTG DIVISION 14 TREASURER McKenna Skeeters Jeffery Kyle Smith (936)645-2260 (936)645-2245 EDITOR Maggie King (936)371-3675

SPONSOR Ms. Ferrell (936)585-2995

governor@tokeyclub.com

secretary@tokeyclub.com

TREASURER Isaiah Vallequinones treasurer@tokeyclub.com

EDITOR Tashrima Hossain

editor@tokeyclub.com (713)505-2252

CONVENTION LIAISON

Grace Liu

cl@tokeyclub.com (817)962-8945

Maggie King (936) 371 - 3675 | margking14@gmail.com Nacogdoches High School Key Club | Division 14