Randall High School Key Club September Newsletter 2021 by Randall Key Club

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Randall Key Region 1 | Division 7/33

Volume 6 | Issue 1 | August 2021

Table of Contents Editor’s Note

Photos

Article: Plans for Success

Riddle of the Month

Article: Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF

Upcoming Events

October 2021 Calendar

Article: Kiwanis 50th Anniversary Dinner

Article: Gene Howe Folders

HOTO: Brooke Newson

Officers

District Officers

Partnerships

Editor’s Note Key Club, Thank you for starting off the year with strength and dedication! From fun runs to blood drives, September has been filled with exciting events, and we look forward to October! You are all awesome. Let’s make the rest of the year this great!

Your Editor, Brooke Newson

Plans for Success By: Brooke Newson

A new year means a new Key Club, made up of new people, new plans, and new ideas. This year, the Randall High School club plans on becoming more united. Its members plan on getting to know each other better and share more ideas. The first change the club is making as part of this plan is taking advantage of more opportunities to organize socials. Our goal is to have at least three socials a month, with each social involving delicious food and time to have meaningful conversations. Randall Key Club President, Kaeleigh Miller, has been the driving force behind this endeavor, providing food and ideas. In the month of September, the Randall Key Club met its goal and had three successful socials. The first of which was an early morning adventure at IHOP on September 25, 2021. The members got together to eat a delicious pancake breakfast before volunteering at the Washington Avenue Family Service Center. The second was a chance to chat and eat Domino’s pizza after the Coffee Memorial Blood Drive at Randall High School. The final social was a short and sweet picnic outside Gene Howe Elementary School. The Randall Key Club ate chips and talked about our school experiences. All of the social events contributed to the development of new friendships and the growth of existing ones. The second step in creating solidarity is making “icebreakers” for the Randall Key Club General Assembly meetings. By participating in “icebreakers,” Key Club members can learn each other’s names and understand more about each other’s experiences and backgrounds. Thus far, the Randall High School Key Club has played get-to-know-you jenga and a name game. Both games seemed to increase team morale and unity. People seemed excited to be known and get to know others. The third and final step in creating a unified Key Club is having an accessible and consistent source of information. The club is using several different platforms to accomplish this, including Issuu, Remind, Google Classroom, and Instagram. President Kaeleigh Miller works hard to post reminders, Key Club notices, and event sign-up sheets on Google Classroom, Editor Brooke Newson posts newsletters on Issuu, and Historian Nikki Boron tirelessly attends to the upkeep of the club’s Instagram feed. Through the use of various, user-friendly programs, the Key Club board can help its members come together and be aware of what is going on in the club. As the 2021-2022 school year continues the Key Club hopes to continually increase in friendship and unity. Each month will bring a variety of opportunities for socials, icebreaker activities, and information distribution. These changes will hopefully help the Randall Key Club feel like a true club.

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

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF By: Brooke Newson One of the greatest fundraising events of the year is here! During the beautiful month of October, the Randall High School Key Club is participating in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF (the United Nations Children Fund). Through this event, Key Club raises change to donate to UNICEF. This year the funds will go through UNICEF to help with water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) efforts in Haiti. Each Randall High School Key Club member will get a box to carry around with them this autumnal season and can collect loose change from friends, neighbors, and any willing donor. These coins and dollar bills will then be collected by the Randall High School Key Club and sent in to UNICEF at the end of the month. Halloween is usually a holiday that, unlike Christmas, has many service opportunities that get overlooked. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF transforms the candy-crazy, spooky-scary Halloween season into something much more than costumes and self-satisfaction. It allows Halloween to become a time of generosity, a time of compassion. Instead of just worrying about the fake scary decorations and thrilling haunted houses, teenagers actually get to worry about the scary reality of Haiti’s struggles with sanitation and the Covid-19 pandemic. The Randall High School Key Club can help address this reality and give much more to children than Halloween candy. They can bring hope to the youth in Haiti through their Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is far more than a fundraiser. It’s a fun-raiser! It’s exciting to hear all of that change jingle around in a cardboard box. It’s thrilling to know that the people in the little panhandle of Texas can actually make a difference in the lives of children and families in a foreign nation. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF unites the Randall High School Key Club in a common cause and a common celebration. Together, we celebrate the joy of raising funds to help people other than ourselves, of using a holiday for more than self-indulgence. We all work together to ask friends, family, teachers, and new acquaintances for small but impactful donations for the life-changing UNICEF fund. Finally, the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF fundraiser is a great opportunity for Randall High School Key Club members to complete their hours during the busy month of October. With band competitions each weekend and plenty of sports games, the members can easily feel overwhelmed. This coin collection is a simple yet effective way to serve during a difficult time. All in all, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is an event of global significance! This year, Halloween will be like Christmas in October, a time of goodwill and generosity. Haiti needs help, and Key Clubs around the world, along with National Honor Society and other Kiwanis organizations, can provide that help. Let’s bring a Happy Halloween to those in need! Just 5 dollars can pay for 59 sachets of oral rehydration salts, 38 can pay for purification tablets that can create 50,000 liters of safe water, and 360 dollars can pay for an entire hand pump! A little money can go a long way.

Upcoming Events ● Monday, October 4 and Tuesday, October 5- Fill with Hope (4:30-5:30 PM) ● Mondays in October (October 4, 11, 18, and 25)- Gene Howe Folders (4:00-4:45 PM) ● Saturdays in October (October 9, 16, 23, and 30)- Washington Avenue Family Service Center (8:30-10:30 AM) ● Saturday, October 16- Arden Road Elementary Fall Festival (4:00-7:00 PM) ● All October- UNICEF Coin Drive

October 2021 Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

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

5 Fill With Hope 4:30-5:3 0

Fill With Hope 4:30-5:30 Gene Howe Folders 4:00-4:45 pm @Gene Howe Library

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

11 Gene Howe

16 Arden Road

Folders 4:00-4:45 pm @Gene Howe Library

18 Gene Howe

Elementary Fall Festival 4:00 -7:00pm 19

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

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

Folders 4:00-4:45 pm @Gene Howe Library

25 Gene Howe Folders 4:00-4:45 pm @Gene Howe Library

Kiwanis 50th Anniversary Dinner By: Brooke Newson

On the early morning of September 30, 1971, at 12:01 AM, outstanding members of the Amarillo community founded the Amarillo-High Plains Kiwanis Club, which is known affectionately as the “parent club” of the Randall High School Key Club. The Amarillo-High Plains Kiwanis Club has helped the Randall Key Club with many of its events including flag pickup and its end-of-the-year banquets. Finally, on Thursday, September 30, 2021 the Randall High School Key Club was able to give back to its caring “parent.” Members of the Randall High School Key Club were invited to attend a 50th Anniversary Dinner for the Amarillo-High Plains Kiwanis Club on the day aforementioned at 6 PM at the Trinity United Methodist Church on 34th and Jackson Street. They gladly accepted this invitation and excitedly prepared to celebrate the Kiwanis Club with food, speeches, and announcements. They were especially excited to see two of their greatest mentors from the Amarillo-High Plains Kiwanis Club, Gilbert and Mrs. J, who have helped them exceedingly on multiple occasions. At the wonderful 50th anniversary event, the Randall Key Club and the Kiwanis Club enjoyed delicious Spicy Mike’s barbecue catering, including an array of chicken, beef, potato salad, coleslaw, pickles, and bread. This dinner was followed by a delicious dessert. The Kiwanis Club had created a gorgeous 50th anniversary cake, decorated with their logo made from white and blue frosting. The cake was amazing just like the Kiwanis Club it represented. After these refreshments, the ceremony commenced. Randall High School Key Club President Kaeleigh Miller opened the meeting and Randall High School Key Club Editor Brooke Newson led the pledge of allegiance. Following these demonstrations, Key Club and the Kiwanis Club joined in singing, “God Bless America,” because we live in America and particularly in the patriotic state of Texas. God bless America! And Kiwanis Club! Finally, a plethora of wonderful speeches by officers of the Amarillo-High Plains Kiwanis Club followed. Each speech was inspiring, reminiscent, and heartfelt. Nothing can compare to the kind words and compassionate smiles of the Kiwanis members as they stood on the stand, as they spoke, and as they sat humbly and watched. The Randall High School Key Club honors the 50-year history of the Amarillo-High Plains Kiwanis Club and wishes it the best of luck in the next 50 years to come. Their hard work and devotion to service will forever be an example to our club of the value of the community service work we do.

Gene Howe Folders By: Brooke Newson Last school year (2020-2021), the Randall High School Key Club missed out on many opportunities due to the raging Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, some of these opportunities have resurfaced this fall. One of these amazing opportunities is going to Gene Howe Elementary to help teachers organize and distribute papers into student’s folders. The Randall High School Key Club is thrilled to be back at the beautiful and bright school again and is so happy to help the amazing teachers in their very own school district, Canyon Independent School District. This service opportunity at Gene Howe Elementary is a unique opportunity for the Randall High School Key Club to give back directly not only to its own community but also to its own area and neighborhood. Many people at Randall High School or in Canyon Independent School District have siblings, cousins, friends, or neighbors who attend Gene Howe, and this is their chance to give back to them. The teachers at Gene Howe work tirelessly to educate their students in math, science, reading, writing, history, and the arts. They work long eight-hour days, five days a week. They often stay after school and hold meetings in the library. The least the Randall High School Key Club can do for these hard-working teachers is organize their folders, removing one tedious task from the teachers’ long lists of duties. Every Monday of the school year, Randall High School Key Club members head over to Gene Howe Elementary as soon as school gets out. They walk to the school’s beautifully painted and organized library and get to work on the baskets of folders left inside. Each teacher leaves a basket with their name, their papers, and their group of folders. The Randall High School Key Club members then take out the folders and papers and put one of each of these papers in each of the folders. Once they finish this process, they return the folders to the basket and repeat the same process for the following baskets. The work is simple and quick, but it makes a big difference in the teachers’ lives. Paper by paper and folder by folder, the Randall High School Key Club can detract from teachers’ stress and give back to the school district that has benefitted them in their day-to-day lives. Every Monday, after school, one person going to one school to help out with a few folders can make all the difference.

HOTO: Brooke Newson By: Brooke Newson

Hello. My name is Brooke Newson, and I am the editor of the Randall High School Key Club, and I currently a senior in high school. My Key Club experience has been transformative. It has helped me grow socially and emotionally as a human being, and for that, I am eternally grateful. I have been in Randall’s Key Club since my freshman year, when I was rather shy and socially anxious, and it helped me to socialize with people in my community. I had a desire to serve but an aversion to speaking to people, and I was afraid to go to any service project by myself; however, Key Club forced me to overcome that. It changed me. Through positive experiences with many service projects and many wonderful people, I grew to be sociable. Now, I love seeing people and I am no longer afraid to walk into places by myself. Furthermore, Key Club helped me realize how fortunate I am and helped increase my empathy for others in my community and world. Through Key Club, I’ve learned about people in desperate need. I’ve seen difficult circumstances and people who have overcome them. I’ve seen kids who have overcome cancer and their families, I’ve seen impoverished families, and I’ve seen people living in unlivable situations, and all of them have shown me gratitude and kindness as I’ve tried to help them. They have taught me to always wake up with a grateful heart and to show courage and kindness in all circumstances. To me, Key Club is a way to build up ourselves, others, and our community. Key Club is a safe space where we can celebrate humanity, and we can embrace the joys of service. Key Club, as its name would portend, is the key to improving our community one step at a time. Key Club is the way “to be the good you want to see in the world” (Anonymous). Key Club is a source of hope in the midst of a hopeless world. It is a source of strength in the midst of the stress of school and the anxieties of a pandemic. Key Club has been my key to staying sane throughout my high school career. It has taught me the value of patience, hard work, and service. It has taught me that I can overcome my own struggles through helping others who are struggling. I love Key Club, and I love every single member I’ve gotten to have the joy of meeting. Thank you for reading my HOTO!

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