Paschal Key Club Volume 4 | Issue 9 Key Clubbers enjoy the holiday spirit!
ď ś Fun Fact: The first artificial Christmas tree was made in Germany, fashioned out of goose feathers dyed green!
December 2015 Newsletter
Division 1S | Texas-Oklahoma District
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What's Inside:
Upcoming Events!
Page 2
Page 3
The Conversation on Conservation
A Note from Your President and Editor
Page 4
Page 5
DCON 2016
Christmas Cheer
Page 7
Page 8
Meet the Board!
Services & Socials
Page 9
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Upcoming Events!
George C. Clark Book Shelving (4-5pm) Recycling Club (3:40pm) BB - Braille Bibles (4-5pm) Agape - Agape Feeding the Homeless (5:30pm) Red Cross Kiwanis DCM at Dixie House (6pm dinner, 7pm meeting)
Agendas will be emailed weekly during summer!
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A Note from Your 3President and Editor
Hey Key Club! As December wraps up the first semester, it is important to look back on all of our accomplishments as a club. However, we must also look forward as the new year begins and we are provided with new opportunities to serve our community. In order to reach our goal of being a part of the Texas-Oklahoma District’s Top 25 clubs, we must all put forth our best effort in attending projects and socials. I know that with everyone’s hard work, we can be more impactful than ever before. It has been an amazing first half of the year, and I am looking forward to everything we will experience in the future! Yours in service, Page Trotter
Hello, Key Clubbers! It's the start of a completely new year - 2016! My hope is that our club would grow to be even more active and positive as we were in the past year. A new year is a new beginning, so let's all put in our best efforts in continuing to serve the people around us. Although the holiday season has passed, the cold weather is still upon us, and many projects will be available. Thank you all for selflessly investing your time in helping others. Shout out to the Key Clubbers who helped make this newsletter! Y'all are awesome, keep it up! Yours truly, Sue Youn Oh
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2015-2016 DISTRICT PROJECT: The Conversation on Conservation
Conversation on Conservation focuses on maintaining, protecting, and improving our community and environment through conservation of electricity, water, and gas. Key Club will be focusing on three main branches of the environment throughout the year: 1. Water: How can we cut back on our daily usage of water, work to keep our water clean, and provide water to those in need? 2. Deforestation: This topic goes hand in hand with the defense of animals. It is our job to help stop the rapid deforestation happening everywhere, destroying habitats and natural resources. 3. Pollution: How can we keep the air clean, cut back on fossil fuels, and stop daily pollution? information taken from http://tokeyclub.com/2012-2013-district-project-the-eliminate-project/
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Christma by Page
When I heard that our Lieutenant Governor, Vanessa, would be hosting a Christmas party for Division 1 South, I was super excited for the chance to meet other club members and introduce new Paschal members to the Key Club holiday cheer. Dressed in our best Christmas attire, complete with ugly sweaters and Santa hats, ten Paschal Key Clubbers arrived at Vanessa’s house. We each brought a gift to exchange, some more comical than others. Upon entering, we placed our wrapped surprises under the tree and gathered with the others. Members of Granbury Key , who we had never met before, quickly became our friends that night. To start off, we went around in a circle and introduced ourselves with our favorite ice cream flavor, a typical Key Club icebreaker that never fails to entertain. We compared our lives at school and found that while we had some differences, we all had similar interests academically and service-related. By the time all the other clubs showed up, the pizza had arrived and we'd all sat down in various locations throughout the house to eat and talk. There were also a variety of sides and desserts to accompany the delicious pizza. The Christmas cookies, which we brought, seemed to be the most popular. During our meal, I enjoyed hearing stories about service projects from other clubs and learning about the best ways to serve during winter. After dinner, it was finally time for the gift exchange. I didn’t fully grasp how many
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as Cheer Trotter
people had showed up until we all struggled to fit in Vanessa’s living room. Several chairs had to be brought around the couch, and there were even people sitting on the floor and on the staircase. It was exciting to see that we were all in one place together, as it is rare to see everyone you meet through Key Club at a single event. To begin, Vanessa explained that the exchange allowed people to steal gifts from each other, increasing the intensity of the game. We each drew a number from a basket and went in order to pick something from under the tree. Everyone watched intently as each gift was unwrapped, and its contents judged as worthy or unworthy of stealing. There were some items that were in high demand, such as Starbucks gift cards and cosmetics, as well as holiday mugs. When it came to be my turn, I unwrapped a Strawberry Shortcake movie that Noah, a friend of mine, confessed he had brought to the party. It was a funny gift, and though he apologized for having given me a kids’ movie, I was happy with what I got. When the exchange ended, almost everyone was satisfied with their new item. Before saying our goodbyes, we took a group photo, as well as a Paschal Key Club photo. To make an intentionally awkward-looking holiday picture, we all stood on the staircase together with our hands on the railing. We all laughed when we saw how much it looked like a Christmas card. It was a great way to wrap up the night, and I felt that we all had an amazing evening.
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Banking at the Only FOUR Food Bank months left!!!!!!
by Inho Kim
“Volunteers are the heart and soul of Tarrant Area Food Bank. Without volunteers, it would not be possible to respond to hundreds of hungry North Texans every day.” – Tarrant Area Food Bank website Paschal Key Club answered the call on June 22nd and helped sort out the charity items given to the Tarrant Area Food Bank. One of the Food Bank polices states that every item must be checked by a person before distribution, so every volunteer, including the regulars and other service groups, took up plastic gloves and went to work. The Food Bank was extremely precise and meticulous, with sections for inedible products (such as shampoo and deodorant), drinks containing
certain ingredients, canned foods, and many more, such as snacks and condiments. Our Key Club volunteers were at first like fish wading into uncharted waters, but there were regular volunteers who had worked for years to help us. As we began to get used to it, others did too, and we were able to quickly and effectively sort items. While working at the food bank, I learned that some products are still edible long after their expiration date. It made me wonder if the expiration date was created with food banks in mind in order to provide meals to the hungry. In one session, volunteers were asked to check the zucchinis stored in the warehouse. These zucchinis were not "fresh from the store" zucchinis, but involved ones which hadnow, been stored for post weeks. Surprisingly, Get and picturesmost from of the vegetables were fine with the exception of a few moldy ones that I the last DCON or Fall with cannot bear to describe in detail. This type of sorting could Rally only be done by volunteers, not machines, and through the process, we were able to provide #todcon2016! more food and satisfy the hunger of those who have fewer blessing than us.
April 21-24, 2016
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Services & Socials by Moni Gunderson
On Friday December 4, our president, Page Trotter, hosted a Key Club social and service project at her house. Once members arrived, the night started with a project helping the Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas. We filled packages for moms interested in donating breast milk. Everyone formed an assembly line so that each person was responsible for putting a single item or flyer into every bag. This made the project fun, manageable, and efficient. After completing the service project, we had pizza and conversed, getting to know everyone better. Then we went upstairs to the media room and to watch Spy. During the movie, people also just hung out and talked or played the Wii. Movie night socials are a fun way for members to hang out, get to know one another, and have some fun after doing service.
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Meet the Board! Page Trotter, President
Diana Lee, Vice President
paschalkeyclubpresident@gmail.com 817-946-8718
Reid Yanney, Secretary
paschalkeyclubsecretary@gmail.com 682-597-9197
Sue Youn Oh, Editor
paschalkeyclubvp@gmail.com
817-694-5124
Sujata Dalal, Treasurer
paschalkeyclubtreasurer@gmail.com 817-313-0445 Members-at-Large Parliamentarian: Carter Dickson (817-781-5909) Historian: Jillian Daugherty Social Chair: Chloe Underwood Advertising Chair: Moni Gunderson Attendance Manager: Andrea Rios Lieutenant Governor: Vanessa Castaneda <ltg1S@tokeyclub.com> Region 7 Advisor: Ms. Newsham <reg7adv@gmail.com>
paschalkeyeditor@gmail.com
District Officers: Rachel Iselin (Governor), Lily Nguyen (Secretary), Emily Zhao (Treasurer), Matthew Riley (Editor), Megan Reynosa (Convention Liason, CL) <Position@tokeyclub.com>