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Volume 4 | Issue 17| December 2019 Randall High School Key Club | Region 1 | Division 7/33
Thank you to Emily Klein and Abigail Davis for all photos printed in this newsletter!
Table of Contents ToC .................................................................... 2
Editor’s Note .................................................... 3 Lettering .........................................................4,5 Riddle of the Month ....................................... 6
Upcoming Events ............................................ 7 Christmas Spirit.............................................8,9 Socks for Feet ........................................... 10,11 Calendar, Mark These Dates .................. 12,13 Officer Information ......................................14
Thank you , Sponsors! ..................................15
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Editor’s Note Hello Key Club! Hats off to the three members to earn their letters and one member to earn their bar this month! Read more about this on pages six and seven! Also, January is a short month for us, so be sure to get those hours in! Your Editor,
Emily Klein
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Lettering
by Emily Klein
Caption: Key Clubbers Abigail Davis, Leila Clark, and Emily Klein earn their letters
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t has been a successful semester for our members and our Key Club overall. The last week of school, our Club awarded three letters and a bar to members of our club. In order to earn a letter, members must earn at least eighty hours of service through our club, and to earn a bar, one must already have a letter (and those eighty hours) and each eighty hours after that is a bar. Interestingly, our three members who earned their letters this month were all board members: sophomore Leila Clark, our membership secretary, senior Abigail Davis, our historian, and myself, junior Emily Klein, the editor for our club. The member who earned his third bar of his Key Club career was sophomore Dylan Furman. I personally get the majority of my hours at the Washington Family Service Center, where we sack customized grocery bags for people and provided them with clothes from a donation closet. Abigail gets the majority of her hours by attending and cooking at the local Ronald McDonald House. She enjoys this particular project because it is “an easy service project because [she] enjoys cooking”, and she mentions that she especially likes seeing the faces of the residents light up when they see the meal that our club helped to provide for them. Leila claims that the majority of her hours come from helping pack Tuesday folders for the local elementary school Gene Howe Elementary. She enjoys participating in this particular project because she attended this school and wants to “help those kids like the school helped [her]”. Even though these members tend to get most of their hours through specific projects, our club is well-rounded in projects to participate in. We send members to many different types of service projects, from once-a-year golf tournaments and triathlons to our weekly Snak Pak 4 kids and Washington Family Service Center projects. And in addition to simply our types of projects available to participate in being varied, our ‘income’ of hours is extremely varied as well. For some, hours come from church affiliated volunteering, such as teaching Sunday school. Or, on the flip side, some members get hours from going to the irregular projects such as the triathlons mentioned before. Either way, our members create a varied and well-rounded presence in our community that is especially noticeable after time and has brought us many compliments and recognition from our community.
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Up co min g E ven ts • 13,14th—Snak Pak 4 Kids at the Warehouse off I-27, 4:30-6:00 • 15—Ronald McDonald House, 5:00-6:30 • 24—Big Cheese, more details to come on first meeting of the new year! • Gene Howe Folders every Monday, 4:305:15 • Washington Family Service Center every 1st and 3rd Thursday*
Don’t forget meetings every Monday during Flex! * WFSC occurs every Thursday for those wanting to attend more often!
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Christmas Spirit
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by Emily Klein
n the stress and hustle that make up a majority of the holiday season, it is easy to lose sight of one’s priorities and forget the true, giving spirit of the time; however, for the Randall High School Key Club, this is one of our
busiest times of giving and serving throughout the year. One of our major projects is participating in the presentation of the Christmas lights in the Botanical Gardens. With a display of more than three hundred thou-
sand lights wrapping trees, bushes, and sidewalks, this scene is a magical Christmas wonderland in the middle of downtown Amarillo. Admission is five dollars per person, and hot chocolate, coffee, and pastries are also available for purchase. We volunteer here every
on the evenings of every Friday and Saturday that they are open, and here are a few retellings of our experiences at this beautiful site!
The members of our Key Club often return to our general meetings on Mondays after volunteering here with many cute and even surprising stories, including proposals,
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lost children, and reunions of old friends. One member, Kaitlyn Andres, recalls her
time walking around the park and remembers seeing a group of strangers join in with the local choir singing carols at the entrance of the park. “It was just like a Hallmark movie,” she laughingly remarks. Another member, Alyvia Esquibel, witnessed another movie-like exchange when a man proposed to his girlfriend right in front of her inside
the tunnel of lights. She remembers the man asking her to take their picture, and “couldn’t believe it when he got down on one knee”! Apparently, this special moment was only one of many, according to the director of the program, who declared that that was the fourth one he had heard of this season.
While serving here, members are given the option to walk around and take pictures, help guidelines to meet Santa, or to welcome guests at the front gate. I personally man-
aged the Santa lines during my volunteering time here. We had to tell folks where the line started, how long the wait time was, and, occasionally, we helped calm screaming toddlers. Essentially, we were Santa’s Elves! The three hour shift flew by, and my friends and I were sad to
leave. At the end, we even got a complimentary photo with Santa Claus himself. This experience is one that I enjoy each year, and I cannot wait for next December to do it again.
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SOCKS FOR FEET BY JOSHUA SCHMITT
This year our Key Club has gone through multiple fundraisers already. We started out fundraising with UNICEF, and then we collected books for our local Kiwanis's Little Library, and we just finished up our second annual Sock Fundraiser! Last year we sold “Socks for Legs,” in which the money went to aid people who had amputated legs. This year we are selling “Socks for Feet.” The money will be given to the charity “WeHelpTwo,” which is the same charity we always give through; however, they have multiple causes to fund to. Anyone can buy socks, for themselves or for others, and they make great Christmas presents! There are a multitude of socks to choose from. Ranging from simple color-patterned socks, to a fun ocean like sock that is polka-dotted with manatees, the socks are nothing if not creative. Along with the sea-themed socks, we are selling Texas-themed, sports-themed, polka-dot-themed, color-themed and pepper-themed. My personal favorite to purchase was the avocado pair that was in the pepper-themed package. An individual pair of socks is $4, and a package of three is $12.
Similar to last year’s fundraiser for amputees, all the money given to WeHelpTwo will be taken to developing countries with children who suffer from “clubfoot.” The unfortunate birth defect occurs while the baby is in the womb. Roughly 150,000-200,000
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children suffer from clubfoot, and eighty percent of these children reside in developing countries, and to the best of their knowledge, have no hope for a change to their quality of life. Well that is exactly why WeHelpTwo is here, and what better way to raise money for such a cause than asking for help. The Raider Key Club remained exceptional as they reached out their hands to help in selling these funky socks. Many sold to fellow Raider students, to their work places, or even had their parents take socks up to their work places in efforts to beat the defect and maybe even prevent the limp causing bone misalignment. Looking back on this year’s fundraisers we realize the importance of everyone getting on board and working towards a common goal. To those who purchased socks for themselves or as gifts for others, we say thank you. In a season that is supposed to be about giving more than receiving, your support was felt and greatly appreciated. It’s encouraging to know that there are generous people all around us ready to encourage and support those who are much less fortunate. What is essentially inexpensive and affordable to us most certainly provided some genuine and much needed comfort to children who are often over looked. We consider it an honor and a privilege to notice those in need, especially children.
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JANUARY 2020 Sun
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UPCOMING EVENTS RANDALL KEY CLUB
13,14—Snak Pak 4 Kids 15—Ronald McDonald House 24—Big Cheese Gene Howe Folders every Monday Washington Family Service Center every 1st and 3rd Thursday*
Don’t forget meetings every Monday during Flex! * WFSC occurs every Thursday for those wanting to attend more often!
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OFFICER INFORMATION
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President
District Governor
Payton Brookshire (806) 670-0085
Ashna Patel governor@tokeyclub.com
Vice President
District Secretary
Elgin Godinez (580) 713-3460
Kareenna Patel secretary@tokeyclub.com
Parliamentarian
District Treasurer
Molly Sheffield (806) 679-3748
Katherine Chao treasurer@tokeyclub.com
Historian
District Editor
Abigail Davis (806) 640-2059
Vivan Thai editor@tokeyclub.com
Editor
Convention Liaison
Emily Klein (806) 290-7474
Dillion Grisham cl@tokeyclub.com
Recording Secretary
Lieutenant Governor
Addyson Reimer (806) 341-7597
Enrique Mata (806) 670-4953
Membership Secretary
Regional Advisor
Layla Clark (806) 567-8794
Olin Norrid (806) 679-7565
PARTNERSHIPS! Thank you for supporting our club!
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This month’s featured photo:
First Editor’s Committee meeting!