Parisppany High School Keynote Volume 3

THE KEYNOTE

VOLUME 3 | INTRO TO KEY CLUB Parsippany High School

Table of Contents What is Key Club?

2

What do we do (as a club)?

3

What do we do (as a district)?

7

Why should you join?

10

Expectations

11

Meet the Officers

12

What is Key Club?

Key Club is a student-led organization whose main goal is to serve the community and create leaders. Part of Kiwanis International, it is one of the oldest and largest high school service groups having being founded in 1925. The core values of Key Club are leadership, character building, caring and inclusiveness. Members of Key Club help Kiwanis with their mission of helping children around the world by serving their communities. Today, Key Club is over a quarter million members strong, contains around 5,000 clubs, and is located in 37 countries.

What do we do (as a club)?

The goal of Key Club is to be able to provide service to our community.

Members in the club participate in service activities and volunteer with organizations in order to effectively achieve this goal. For example, Key Club allows members to be able to volunteer at Care One, an assisted living facility for the elderly.

At Care One, volunteers help out the staff with various tasks and also spend time with the elderly in activities such as board games. It is an opportunity not only to meet new people but also to make someone else’s day brighter. Also, Key Club is partnered with the Parsippany Child Day Care Center right across from PHS. Volunteering at the Daycare usually entails assisting the teachers as well as playing and taking care of the kids.

Key Club also volunteers with the SKIP program at Knollwood Elementary School. Here, key clubbers are able to participate in fun activities, such as arts and crafts, with the students. In fact, there is a SKIP Committee, that is responsible for planning these activities.

Service Nights and Canning This year, Key Club will be giving hours for those who attend the service nights. Service night ranges from many different things- from making cards to organizing donations for those in need to decorating the school with encouraging quotes. It is a fun way to earn hours and get involved in school organizations, as well as get out of Saturday detention!! Also, service nights count for student council points and many teachers give extra credit to those who go!! It is highly encouraged that members participate in this event. The tentative dates for these nights @ 7 pm are: 9/18, 10/24, 11/14, 12/19, 1/23, 2/20, 3/13, 4/24, & 5/22.

Canning is going to various places (like Shoprite, Quickchek, etc.), and asking for donations for organizations. March of Dimes and Pennies 4 Patients are the two Key Club helps. March of Dimes is an association that helps raise money for babies who are premature, the #1 cause of death in babies.

Pennies 4 Patients is a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for blood cancers. It is a great way to earn hours with your friends while helping to raise money for those who need it!

Canning is usually on Saturday and Sunday, for two hours.

Main Events Throughout the service year, Key Club holds several large annual events. The first of these is Halloween at the High. For one night, Key Clubbers transform Parsippany High School into a spooky funhouse for kids. Members liberally decorate the hallways, hand out candy for trick-or-treating, scare children in the haunted house, and host games in the auditorium. After the pumpkins and cobwebs make way for snowflakes and peppermints, and students make their way back from winter break, the stage is set for one of the most iconic events of the year: Coffeehouse. Draped in string lights and wreathed in coffee steam, the PHS cafeteria becomes quite the snazzy stage for talented performers. While listening to poetry, music, and more, the audience is served food and drink by Key Club waiters. With the advent of spring comes new life and new Key Club leaders.

Class Projects are the perfect opportunity for any general member aspiring to become an officer to showcase their abilities. Leaders are elected from each grade level to create and organize a project of their own. Examples from the previous service years include: movie nights, trivia game nights, and restaurant fundraisers. Finally, as summer break draws closer, one of the most important days of the year arrives. On the day of both Redstock and Relay for Life, members participate en masse in a great showing of Key Club spirit. All afternoon, Key Clubbers run a sponge and bucket race for some refreshing fun underneath the scorching sun. Alongside the setting sun, members prepare for a long night on the track for Relay for Life. Using the luminaries decorated by the Key Clubbers themselves, members respect cancer survivors and tribute those that passed on in conjunction with helping the Kiwanis Club of Greater Parsippany run their booth. With the changing of the seasons, Key Club promises a service year of fun, service, and fulfillment.

What do we do (as a district)?

Welcome Key Clubbers! Whether you have been with us for three years or you are a fresh new member, there are always things about Key Club on the district level that you should know about.. Key Club not only operates at a club level (PHS Key Club), but we also operate internationally as well! The state level, sandwiched between the club and international level, is what we call the "district." As a lieutenant governor (Steph Shen), my job is to serve as the liaison between your club and the district level.

This year, our District Project is Hunger in New Jersey. This means that from now until the end of the service year in April, all the Key Clubs across New Jersey will be raising money and donating food towards this project. With this initiative, the New Jersey Federation of Food Banks and the New Jersey District of Key Club International have teamed up to galvanize awareness for hunger and poverty that are affecting our neighbors right here in New Jersey. You may not know it, but 1 in 8 people in New Jersey struggle with hunger - put that in the perspective of whichever school you attend, town in which you live, or activities in which you engage.The District has recognized that our service hour goal toward the New Jersey Federation of Food Banks is 14,000 hours.

Our monetary goal as a district is to raise $60,000. And our collection goal is 56,000 pounds of food.

Along with our District Project is our 2017-2018 Advocacy Focus. Advocacy is speaking out on behalf of those who are unable to do so, and therefore, it is our job as Key Clubbers to act as that voice. Our Advocacy Focus this year Is Teen Suicide with a Major Emphasis on Bullying.

District Events Fall Rally is an event in which Key Clubbers from all over the NJ-district gather to establish and celebrate the upcoming service year. You will meet our district board and other guest speakers that will inform you about our goals and projects. The event is located at Six-Flags Great Adventure, so after all the hard work, you can go have fun on rides and all Six-Flags has to offer. As the name suggests, Fall Rally is during the fall, more specifically, October 9th this year. Attending this event will provide you insight on what Key Club is all about.

Around late march, you will be provided the opportunity to attend NJ’s DCON! DCON(District Convention) is similar to Fall Rally, as you get to meet with the district board once again. However, there is much more to offer on this amazing adventure. Not only will you be staying at a quality hotel for a weekend, you will be attending workshops that will benefit your Key Club skills. Representatives from each division will elect our new district board at this event, and general members will be able to listen to each candidate’s platform at the caucuses. Some fun activities to do at DCON include exploring the shore and attending the dances at night.

Why You Should Join Service hours The obvious incentive is that Key Club offers a clear method to accrue service hours to put on college applications. While we do not deny these benefits that the club offers, we would like to HEAVILY emphasizes that you should not do Key Club just for the hours.

If you force yourself to do this club, not only will you not enjoy it, but you will take away from the experience of the others who are here because they want to be.

Therefore, if you do Key Club with the right intentions, not only can you have a great time helping the community, but it can pay off in the college admissions process as well!

Member of the Month In addition to the self gratification that comes with impacting the community for the better, the individuals who go above and beyond within the club are awarded the title Member of the Month! The Member of the Month is recognized at our General Meetings, has their picture plastered on the walls of our school, and has their name read on the morning announcements. It is a prestigious honor to be held, so we ask, do you have what it takes to be a Member of the Month?

Expectations There is a membership fee and you must pay it Key Club is an international organization which has thousands of member clubs cooperation around the world to improve their communities. Each individual member of the club must pay a due to keep the club running without any problems. So we ask that all members pay their 25 dollar fee to Key Club. There’s also an award given to clubs that do so quickly, so please do so as quickly as you can!

Must come to meetings and actually do stuff All members are required to come to as many meetings as possible. Participation is important in Key Club, and allows our club to function to its greatest and help many groups in our community. Besides coming to meetings, all members must participate in community service projects and activities either hosted by or partnered with Key Club. Key Club is a club made for community outreach, so it’s essential for all to help out besides just attending meetings.

Don't just join for the sake of joining Though participation in Key Club looks excellent on a college resume, making yourself look better shouldn’t be the reason that someone joins the club. By joining Key Club you have you are dedicating yourself to helping those around you and those who need assistance. Be sure that you are following the Key Club motto, “Caring — Our Way of Life” in conducting yourself and when making decisions and deciding to help others.

Who are the officers?

Samantha Lee President

Udhay Khullar Vice President

Nick Lim Vice President

Angeline Jiju Corresponding Secretary

Ellie Xu Recording Secretary

Albert Chen Treasurer

Mark Hoeltge Webmaster

Alice Limanova Editor

Jess Ho Historian

Contact Information President Samantha Lee sllee18@pthsd.net Vice President Udhay Khullar ukhullar18@pthsd.net Vice President Nicholas Lim njlim19@pthsd.net Recording Secretary Ellen Xu exu18@pthsd.net Corresponding Secretary Angeline Jiju ajiju18@pthsd.net Treasurer Albert Chen aychen18@pthsd.net Webmaster Mark Hoeltge mhoeltge18@pthsd.net Editor Alice Limanova Ajlimanova18@pthsd.net Historian Jessica Ho jho19@pthsd.net

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www.keyclub.org 3535 Trace Woodview Indianapolis, IN 46268 USA 371-875-8755||US and Canada: 800-Kiwanis