October 2021 Newsletter by Randall Key Club

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Randall Key Region 1 | Division 7/33

Volume 6 | Issue 3 | October 2021

Table of Contents Editor’s Note

Photos

Article: Arden Road Fall Festival

Riddle of the Month

Article: Perseverance

Upcoming Events

November 2021 Calendar

Article: Pumpkin-Palooza

Article: Halloween Happening

HOTO: Kaeleigh Miller

Officers

District Officers

Partnerships

Editor’s Note Dear Key Club, Happy October, and Happy Halloween! I love how big all of your hearts are. You all are making the world a better place with your smiles, your service, and your skills. Our cake walk, our fall festivities, and our fundraisers have all been a smashing success. I can’t wait to see what next month holds.

Your Editor, Brooke Newson

Arden Road Fall Festival By: Brooke Newson The chatter of children fills the air, catchy songs play, and candy is spread brightly upon the ground. There’s sack races, candy fishing, and plinko. There’s raffles, there’s dancing, and there’s food. Where can you find all of this fantastic fun? The Arden Road Fall Festival, of course. The Randall High School Key Club volunteered at this fantastic event, along with Randall’s Student Council. From 6 to 8 PM, the students stood outside, helping teach kids how to play the games, giving them candy, and cheering them on enthusiastically. The high schoolers and the elementary schoolers had a spectacular time together. The playful elementary schoolers had Halloween baskets filled to the brim with Reese’s cups, Tootsie pops, and Laffy Taffy. They wore Halloween costumes and bright smiles. They would run up to the different game stations and be welcomed by lively Key Club members and Randall Student Council members. The kids would ask questions, passionately play the games, and jump up and down with joy when they were given handfuls of candy. The high schoolers were tapping into their inner child, reacting to the energy all around them. They too licked lollipops, hopped in the sack race, and sang Halloween songs. Among all of this energy and excitement, one thing remained most important: service. The Randall High School Key Club goes to the Arden Road Fall Festival to enjoy the fun and support their community, but the main reason they go is to serve the children and bring light into their little lives. We hold sack races and run fishing booths not just for the sake of the activity itself, but for the experience that we can provide for the younger generation. We can help them enjoy Halloween, feel appreciated, and simply have a good time. We cheer them on and clap for them, whether they win or lose, so that they know there are people in this world that are supporting them and that care for them no matter what. When we say “Happy Halloween!” we don’t just mean “go eat some candy, dress up, and enjoy yourself.” We mean “make the most of your life, make the most of this season, and embrace who you are!” We mean we want the kids to have a happy Halloween, a happy fall, a happy year, and a happy life. Key Club has the unique opportunity to make fun little fall festivals like Arden Road’s happen. We can be the helping hands in other’s lives, whether by smiling at a kid and giving them a piece of candy or hosting a full on service project. We can “build our home, school, and community” by collaborating with groups like Student Council to optimize on opportunities to serve the elementary schools in our community.

Riddle of the Month I was there for your first, and I was there for your last. Everyone has me, yet I am unique to you. What am I?

Answer: Your Name! 5

Perseverance By: Brooke Newson The Randall High School Key Club is certainly “growing into service” this year but not without its fair share of problems. One particular challenge that we have faced this year has been various scheduling conflicts, but we have faced this problem with the optimism and compassion encouraged by our Key Club values. Many of the Randall High School Key Club’s officers are members of the band, work jobs outside of school, and are involved in several other organizations at the school, so finding a good time to hold our meetings has been difficult over the past three months, as everyone had conflicting responsibilities. First, the Randall Key Club officers began by meeting on Tuesdays after school, then had to move their meetings to Thursday, and finally, they had to move them to Fridays before school. We are still determining which of these times will be the best. As we’ve been experimenting with various meeting times and discussing what would be best for each person, the officers have carried themselves with positivity and a willingness to perform their duties. They have gotten up early, stayed after school for hours, and sacrificed their free time to make sure these essential officer meetings happen. They have continued to speak with kindness, to enjoy each other’s company, and participate fully in our meetings despite the exhaustion and frustration rescheduling has caused. Plus, even though a few of the meetings have been frantic or last minute, the Randall High School Key Club officers have managed to use them to be incredibly productive. They’ve used them to create t-shirts, plan pumpkin parties and other projects, and organize socials. They’ve truly made hours out of minutes. They’ve made excitement out of dread and fun out of stress. Most importantly, these scheduling conflicts have told all of the officers to have more patience with one another and with other Key Club members. It’s helped us to “combat all forces which tend to undermine [our home, school, and community].” We’ve had to combat our own anxieties and frustrations to put service first. We’ve put this wonderful club before ourselves and our wild schedules, and it has paid off. Key Club is so much bigger than all of us. It is international. It is changing lives all around the world. Thanks to members’ choices to change their lives’ schedules to make Key Club planning and events happen, the Randall High School Key Club thrives and survives. We are even in the top twenty-five clubs in our district. We can persevere and we can achieve our dreams if we don’t give up when things get tough.

Upcoming Events ● Mondays in November (November 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th)- Gene Howe Folders (3:55-4:45) ● Monday, November 1st & Tuesday, November 2nd - Fill with Hope (4:30-6:00 PM) ● Saturdays in November (November 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th)- Washington Avenue Family Service Center (8:30-10:30 AM) ● Thursday, November 11th- Kiwanis Flag Delivery (4:30 PM) ● Thursday, November 18th- Kiwanis Flag Pickup (6:30 PM)

November 2021 Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursda y

Friday

Saturday

1 Gene Howe Folders Fill With Hope 4:30-5:30

2 Fill With Hope 4:30-5:30

6 Washington Ave. Family Service Center 8:30am to 10:30am

8 Gene Howe Folders

11 Flag Pickup 4:30pm

13 Washington Ave. Family Service Center 8:30am to 10:30am

15 Gene Howe Folders

18 Flag Pickup 6:30pm

20 Washington Ave. Family Service Center 8:30am to 10:30am

22 Gene Howe Folders

27 Washington Ave. Family Service Center 8:30am to 10:30am

29 Gene Howe Folders

Pumpkin Palooza By: Brooke Newson October. The month of pumpkin spice, scary decorations, and everything nice. One of the nicest things this month, however, was the Randall High School Key Club’s efforts to work on the Governor’s project. On Tuesday, October 26th, we worked on the challenge to “make pumpkin themed crafts to donate or decorate your school with” by decorating small pumpkins with googly eyes, pipe cleaners, craft pom poms, paint, and sharpies. We all met together after school in our school sponsor’s, Mrs. Shipley's, room. We had an exciting social beforehand, during which we ate mini cupcakes and listened to Halloween music before a youtube video of a fireplace. After talking about our lives and stuffing our faces with sugar, we got to work making our pumpkins look pumpkin-tastic. Each of us decorated one or more pumpkins for our teachers here at Randall High School. A few Key Club members made pumpkins for the club to use as decorations during the Randall High School Halloween celebration, known as Halloween Happening, coming up later that week on Thursday, October 28th. Emme Vasquez made an adorable nurse pumpkin, complete with a little pipe cleaner stethoscope for Mrs. Vanmeter, Randall High School’s EMT and health sciences teacher. Ali Acosta made a funny nerd pumpkin for his computer science teacher, Mrs. Srygley. Brooke Newson made a patriotic red, white, and blue pumpkin for Randall’s passionate geography teacher, Mrs. Weston. Many of the Key Club members made pumpkins with googly eyes for Randall High School’s Key Club sponsor, Mrs. Shipley. Mrs. Shipley was so grateful and loved each of her pumpkins dearly. Each pumpkin was a delight in and of itself, and the teachers were thrilled to have them. The best fact about these artsy pumpkins is that they help promote holiday spirit, service, and the arts. Communities, and schools especially, have failed to give the arts proper support in many areas. For example, football and other sports often get far more support than theater departments, arts classrooms, and creative projects. In Key Club, we wanted to help support and encourage creativity and the arts inside and outside of school. We wanted to let our members feel free to express themselves and share their creations with others and in turn, encourage those who received the pumpkins to embrace creativity themselves. Key Club is all about celebrating the wonderful parts of life and helping others who are having a difficult time. It’s all about being yourself and expressing yourself through service, and, sometimes, pumpkins.

Halloween Happening By: Brooke Newson Halloween was here, and the Randall High School Key Club celebrated it. We joined other clubs in our school (i.e. National Honor Society, the Robotics Team, Cosmetology, Student Council, Art Club, and FFA) in helping out at Randall’s annual Halloween celebration, Halloween Happening. Halloween Happening is a fall festival where all of the children, preteens, and teens in the Canyon Independent School District, are welcome to come and play Halloween games and get lots of candy. Elementary students are especially encouraged to come and enjoy all of the commodities the high school students and teachers have set up for them. This year, Halloween Happening was on Thursday, October 28th from 6 to 8 P.M. The Randall High School Key Club students were thrilled to participate in it once again after it was cancelled last school year due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The Key Club has a tradition of hosting the cake walk at Halloween Happening every year, and it was broken last year, but we were determined to not let that happen again. All Key Club members were asked to bring cakes, cupcakes, and baked goods galore as the prizes for the cake walk, and they delivered. Members made homemade lemon cakes, cakes with Halloween frosting on them, and chocolate chip cookies. They brought boxes upon boxes of sugar cookies, cinnamon cakes, chocolate cakes, gooey brownies, and colorful cupcakes from the store. The cakewalk winners absolutely loved these various, vibrant treats. Key Club members then volunteered at the Halloween Happening event itself. They set up tables, decorated with their adorable pumpkins from the Pumpkin Palooza, Halloween tablecloths, and orange and black streamers. They set up all of the cakes and cookies and placed three large bowls of candy upon the spectacularly spooky tables. Then, at 6 PM, the festivities began. People quickly gathered around the cake walk in expectation of the delicious delicacies they could win. Different members took turns regulating the Halloween music, featuring classics like “Monster Mash.” Different members also took turns drawing numbers out of a bucket, watching for the joy on the faces of the children on the little numbered squares on the ground. The night and the cakes went away fast, passed in a blur of costumes and candy. Halloween Happening was a success, and it was a wonderful way for the Randall High School Key Club students to serve their school district and their community.

HOTO: Key Club President, Kaeleigh Miller By Kaeleigh Miller I am Kaeleigh Miller and I am currently a senior at Randall. I’ve been a part of Key Club all four years of high school and this year I have the honor of serving as the Randall high school president. Last year it took a lot of contemplating whether to run for president or not. On one hand I would get a lot of extra time to do homework, catch up on sleep, hang out with friends, maybe even get paid for work and on the other hand there didn’t appear to be much. I believe God wanted me to run because he had a plan for my school and I. It’s a fact that the act of serving is completely selfless yet thousands of us continue to do it everyday. Why? Despite popular belief I believe people genuinely care about others. As human beings we have an innate desire to help each other even when we get nothing in return. Little did I know Key Club would also serve me back. I have learned life long skills through Key Club that I could never have learned in the classroom. Including public speaking, organization, large scale communication, and even compassion. Not to mention the life long bonds that have been created, I have made so many amazing friends including Brooke Newson, Selamawit Yemane, Emma Williams, Rachel l Maxwell, and Alyssa Mosley. In addition, Key Clubbers play a huge role in their communities and it has provided me with a sense of purpose and belonging. Going back to last year everything was out of whack due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Coming up with new ways to serve was hard and our club fell apart fast. This year I believe it’s Randall’s time to come back and this year we plan on being better than ever. We will not only continue to serve but we will build lifelong friendships, leadership and communication skills and as our pledge says we will continue “To serve our home, school and community to serve our nation and god and to combat all forces which tend to undermine these institutions.” Even though I have received less sleep, freetime, and social abilities it is totally worth it to be able to call myself a Key Clubber.

Randall Key Club Officers President: Kaeleigh, (910)-358-4661 Vice President: Selamawit, (806)-443-2854 Membership Secretary: Selamawit, (806)-443-2854 Recording Secretary: Emma (806)-681-8443 Editor: Brooke, (801)-560-3249 Historian: Nikki, (806)-673-1651

District Officers District Governor: Lilian Thai District Secretary: Ginna Galindo Gomez District Treasurer: Makayla Hsieh District Editor: Anushka Ranjan Convention Liaison: Val Hennessee Technology Producer: Noah Obuya International Trustee: Salma Eldeeb

Partnerships