ISSUE V, SEPTEMBER 2010
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ISSUE V, SEPTEMBER 2010
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Ne epam’s Newsletter DIVISION INTRO 19, KEY CLUBYOUR NEWLTG JERSEY FROM
BUTLER | MONTVILLE | MOUNTAIN LAKES | PARSIPPANY | PARSIPPANY HILLS IN THIS ISSUE
That’s right, Division 19! The school year is upon us. Within the
PG. 1 INTRO FROM YOUR LTG
next two weeks, all of us will be
PG. 2 & 3 INTERNATIONAL SERVICE PARTNERS
of the school year, and all those
PG. 4 FRIEND-A-GORILLA
to fruition! With the start of the
PG. 5 INVISIBLE CHILDREN PGS. 6 BUILDING TOMORROW PG. 7 OPERATION SMILE PG. 8 THE H2O PROJECT PG. 9 REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES
returning to the hustle and bustle plans that you’ve been working on over the summer can finally come school year comes alot of information that I must relay to you, and thus I will be publishing two editions of “Neepam’s Newsletter” this month. In this first issue, you will find information on various causes that you can support alongside our commitment to Children’s Specialized Hospital. This includes information on our International Service Partners, Friend-A-Gorilla, and a special section focusing on the needs of children worldwide! You will also
find reminders regarding important dates. Look for the second issue, a “Back To School” edition, to be published in the coming days. This issue will be filled with information on how you can get your school year off on the right foot. We have already gotten the service year off to a great start! Let’s keep the momentum going as we head into the school year! Yours in caring and service,
CONTACT INFO AIM: npmanberlin EMAIL: nshahLTGDiv19@gmail.com Neepam Shah
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MARCH OF DIMES -written by LTGs Sarah Noorani, Div 11 and Jiayun Fang, Div 14
As Key Clubbers, most of us are aware that the District Project for this service year is the wonderful Children’s Specialized Hospital. However, did you know that Key Club International also partners with other service organizations around the world? One such organization is the March of Dimes! March of Dimes is a global non-profit organization that aims to combat premature birth, birth defects, and infant mortality in infants while also promoting healthier lifestyles for mothers. This great cause has been around since 1938 and has raised millions of dollars for treatments and research. Key Clubbers have a passion for service and March of Dimes is a truly worthy cause and there are many ways you can get involved. The first step is to contact your local March of Dimes chapter and partner with them to hold a fundraiser. Any type of fundraiser can help you raise money for the cause, no matter how large or small. They can range from bake sales to car washes to dances to anything you can imagine! Additionally, your club can sell March of Dimes merchandise, such as wristbands or T-shirts, etc. The possibilities are endless so don’t be afraid to get creative! March of Dimes’ largest event is the annual walk, March for Babies, so your club should definitely plan on attending. This year the fundraising goal for the NJ District is $3,000, so let’s work together to make it happen! To get more information and find a March of Dimes chapter near you, visit www.marchofdimes.com
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ISSUE V, SEPTEMBER 2010
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UNICEF -written by LTGs Sarah Noorani, Div 11 and Jiayun Fang, Div 14
Another Key Club International Service Partner is UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund). This year, UNICEF launched their “I Believe in Zero” campaign. This awareness program is based on the fact that, worldwide, 25,000 children die every day from preventable causes. However, by increasing education, providing medical care, and supplying food for these children, UNICEF hopes to reduce that number to “zero”. More details on this campaign can be found at www.ibelieveinzero.org. As Key Clubbers, you play an integral part in the UNICEF fundraising process. The major fundraiser for UNICEF is Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. Every club in the NJ District should receive a bundle of orange boxes, stickers and other information before Halloween. Some leave the boxes in local businesses or in various rooms throughout their school. Others stick them in friend’s lockers or teachers’ mailboxes. The most common method is, of course, going around Trick-or-Treating on Halloween with the bright box in hand! Whichever way you choose, you can contribute! This year, the fundraising goal for UNICEF for the NJ District of Key Club International is $33,190.25, which is broken down in the following way: --3.3 million: The number of newborns worldwide dying in the first month of life is 3.3 million --190 countries that UNICEF works in --25 for 25,000 children dying every day from preventable causes. To reach this goal, we need everyone’s help so please pick up an orange box today and start Trick-or-Treating! (http://youth.unicefusa.org/trickortreat/ )
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ISSUE V, SEPTEMBER 2010
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FRIEND-A-GORILLA CAMPAIGN The mountain gorilla. One of the world’s most majestic animals. To observe one in it’s natural habitat is a wonder to behold. However, time is working against this beautiful creature. Today, there 719 mountain gorillas in the world. Since the species is unable to survive in captivity, the only chance we, as humans, have to save this creature is to study them and preserve their habitat. This is where we, as Key Clubbers, come in. By working with Friend-AGorilla, an organization dedicated to helping the Uganda Wildlife Authority in their quest to save the mountain gorillas, we can make a difference. Recently, Key Club International unveiled a special partnership with Friend-A-Gorilla to encourage teenagers all over the world to help in this amazing cause. If we, as Key Clubbers, raise $250,000 for Friend-A-Gorilla, the club that has raised the most money will have the opportunity to send an advisor and two students on a trekking expedition to see the gorillas in Uganda while accompanied by celebrity spokesperson Simon Curtis. If we exceed this goal and reach $500,000, Key Clubbers will be allowed to name a nine-month gorilla anything they choose. Time is running out for these majestic creatures. The time to act is now. For more information on Key Club’s partnership with Friend-A-Gorilla, as well as lesson plans on gorillas and tips on fundraising, visit http://www.kcgorillas.com.
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While growing up, children should have access to four basic essentials: Food/Water Health Security Education Unfortunately, many children are deprived of these four basics. Below, you will find four charities, each of which focuses on a different essential for children in need. As Key Clubbers, there is no limit to our service, and I wholeheartedly encourage you to support these charities alongside our work with Children’s Specialized Hospital and our International Service Partners.
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Food/Water: THE H2O PROJECT One of the most essential needs of people everywhere is clean drinking water. However, over one billion of the world’s population lacks this most basic of necessities. Many children will will walk miles everyday to a water source, and miss school because of this. Oftentimes, even this water is not fit for human consumption, but if the children do not drink this, they will inevitably die from dehydration. Water is the source for 80% of all disease in central Africa, and is a bigger killer than even war! Every 15 seconds, a child dies from either dehydration or a water-related illness. Meanwhile, in the United States, while most of us are merely the turn of a faucet away from clean water, we spend nearly $61 BILLION on soft drinks annually. This is where the H2O Project comes in. It is, in essence, very simple: 1. Make water your only beverage for two weeks. 2. Save the money you would usually spend on other beverages. 3. At the end of the second week, donate the money you have saved to the organization of your choice. The beauty of this project is that you can do it by yourself, with a group of friends, or you can involve your entire club by challenging your members to try out the H2O Project. You can find a list of H2O Project-sponsored organizations here: http:// www.theh2oproject.org/waterpartners.html And you can download materials, and order wristbands and scorecards here: http://www.theh2oproject.org/order.html
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Health: OPERATION SMILE Not only water, but health, too, is an important element in a child’s wellbeing. But before even immunizations and regular checkups, many children are born seemingly doomed to live their lives as outcasts. Every three minutes, a child is born with facial deformities such as cleft lips or cleft palates. That amounts to 200,000 children per year. Such a condition renders the child unable to eat, speak, socialize, or even smile. While in the United States, such a condition is easily remedied by surgery, in many countries, the child’s families are too poor to afford the operation that will give the child a chance at a normal life. This is where Operation Smile comes in. Founded in 1982, Operation Smile is dedicated to providing free surgical procedures to remove the cleft palates and cleft lips of kids whose families cannot afford the surgery. The organization has a presence in 50 underprivileged countries, including India, the Philippines, Russia, Kenya, and Colombia, and has to date performed over 150,000 procedures, with nearly 13,000 of them having been performed in the past year alone. In order to perform all of these procedures, Operation Smile needs our help. It costs only $240 to perform a procedure and to change a child’s life forever. Set a club goal of how many lives you want to change, and hold fundraisers to reach this goal. If your school already has an Operation Smile club, partner with them and provide them with the support they need to change lives forever. For more information, visit http://www.operationsmile.org.
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Security: INVISIBLE CHILDREN When we go about our day-to-day lives, we take not only our health and access to food for granted, but also our level of security. Few of us go to sleep every night afraid that we will be kidnapped before the next morning. None of us live in fear of being forced to serve as child soldiers. Yet, that is the life of the hundreds of thousands of children who live in rural Uganda. In this region, rebel militia organization the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abduct children from villages, and slowly turn them into emotionless puppets. Oftentimes, abducted girls are also forced to serve as sex slaves. Due to fear of abduction, many children walk countless miles nightly to sleep in urban areas that the LRA rarely raids. In 2003, three young US filmmakers uncovered this conflict while traveling in Africa. They released a documentary entitled “Invisible Children: Rough Cut” from the raw footage they captured, and began dedicating their lives to help the children of Uganda escape from this conflict through their new organization, Invisible Children. Invisible Children conducts countless programs to help the children of Uganda. Among these include the “Bracelet Campaign,” and “Mend,” in which one can purchase bracelets or bags made by rescued child soldiers. Meanwhile, entire clubs can get involved with Invisible Children by advocating and fundraising for their “Schools 4 Schools” program. This program focuses on rebuilding schools in rural northern Uganda. Clubs can also host screenings of “Invisible Children: Rough Cut” to raise awareness of this struggle within their own communities. For more information, visit http://www.invisiblechildren.com
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ISSUE V, SEPTEMBER 2010
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Education: BUILDING TOMORROW Aside from having food and water, good health, and a sense of security, underprivileged children need an education if they hope to one day rise out of their poverty, and building tomorrow’s unique approach to providing children with education fits perfectly with Key Clubbers’ own involvement in their communities. Building Tomorrow’s work is based around not only education, but around the idea of community. When Building Tomorrow selects a site to build a primary school, they ensure that the local community and parents have a vested interested in the school. During construction, Building Tomorrow assigns local villagers and residents to oversee the project, and after construction, Building Tomorrow leases the school to the local government, so that the school can be as self-sufficient as possible. These schools serve students from kindergarten to sixth grade, and give many students their first chance to learn in a classroom environment. While the local people are always very involved in the project, Building Tomorrow provides for the land, construction materials, and desks required to build the primary school. This comes out to $45,000, and this is where Building Tomorrow needs our help. Sell Building Tomorrow paper bricks for $1 each, and, for each sold, Building Tomorrow can purchase 9 clay bricks for a school in Africa. Encourage school wide pledges; if 50 desks for students in Africa comes out to $1000, and there are 1000 students at your school, encourage as many people as possible to donate a dollar. Every dollar counts. For more fundraising ideas, and for more information on Building Tomorrow, be sure to visit http://www.buildingtomorrow.org/key-club.
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ISSUE V, SEPTEMBER 2010
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PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL MEETING (PCM)
CSH PRESIDENT’S REC THERAPY
When:
When:
September 4th, 2010
September 4th, 2010
Where:
Where:
Heavenly Temptations Cafe
CSH Mountainside
712 Main Street
150 New Providence Road
Boonton, NJ
Mountainside, NJ 07092
Time:
Time:
5-6:30 PM
1-3 PM
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN
This session is for President’s only. I
ATTEND BY AUGUST 30th.
will be able to provide transportation to anyone who needs it. From here, I
This meeting is mandatory for
will provide transportation to
Presidents. All other officers, advisors,
Heavenly Temptations for the PCM.
and members are invited to attend.
DO YOU HAVE AN EVENT COMING UP?
Be sure to let me know all of the details, so I can put the information for fellow Division 19ers to see in this newsletter and on our divisional website! 10
ISSUE V, SEPTEMBER 2010
UPCOMING EVENTS SEPTEMBER 10: SEPTEMBER CMRFs DUE SEPTEMBER 25:
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SUMMER ASSIGNMENTS All summer assignments are due September 1st. If you
NORTHERN RTC @ MILLBURN SENIOR HIGH
have any questions, or are
SCHOOL IN MILLBURN, NJ
unsure of your position’s
SEPTEMBER 26:
assignment, feel free to ask
CENTRAL RTC @ J.P. STEVENS HIGH SCHOOL
me through an email or text
IN EDISON, NJ
message!
OCTOBER 10: FALL RALLY @ SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE IN JACKSON, NJ
NEED ADVICE? Then use the New Jersey
WEBSITES, GALORE!
District’s new advice form!
Both the New Jersey District and the
answering any questions you
Division 19 websites have been
have at:
revamped! Visit them here at:
http://www.njkeyclub.org/jkey-
http://njkeyclub.org/index.html and http://njkcdiv19.webs.com/ 11
Governor Rachel will be
advice.html
ISSUE V, SEPTEMBER 2010
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STANDING COMMITTEE CONTACTS Following are the contact emails for the chairpersons of all the standing committees on the New Jersey District Board. Feel free to contact either me, or any of the chairpersons, if you have a question regarding the operations, programs, and projects of the District PUBLIC RELATIONS Neepam Shah- LTG Division 19- nshahltgdiv19@gmail.com Brian Cheung- LTG Division 20- ltgcheung@aol.com DISTRICT PROJECT STEERING Chris Godshall (Fundraising Chairperson)- LTG Division 6- chrisltgdiv6@gmail.com Ami Shah (Service Chairperson)- LTG Division 3- amishahltg3@gmail.com DISTRICT PROGRAMS Kevin Sun- District Secretary- secretarysun@gmail.com Julia Dickhaus- LTG Division 5- juliadickhaus@gmail.com INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS Jared Greene- LTG Division 16- jaredltgdivision16@gmail.com Harsh Swaminarayan- LTG Division 15- harshltgdiv15@gmail.com
District Governor
Zone Administrator
Rachel Orbach
Mrs. Jeanne Hagen
governor.orbach@gmail.com
jeannehagen@verizon.net
District
District
Secretary
Treasurer
District Administrator
Kevin Sun secretarysun@gmail.com
District Editor Nicole Darrah njkceditor@gmail.com 12
Mr. Barrie Werfel
Devan Corona devancorona@gmail.com
NJDAWerfel@aol.com
District Webmaster Shivam Patel spshivam72@gmail.com