The Locksmith - September '06

ool’s High Sch t n a s e v Stuy

Key Club

Volume 2, Issue 1 September, 2006 Caring—Our Way of Life

THE LOCKSMITH

Inside this Issue Letter From Your President

A Note From the Editor:

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New Visions Garden

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NYC Half MaraFirst of all, WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL! I hope that everyone enjoyed the summer vacation regardless of how short it may have felt. Many of you Key Clubbers went to the events that we had this summer and I cannot express the gratitude that the cabinet feels for such devoted people. Kudos for those of you! Here are some (but not all) of the events we participated in this summer: Relay for Life, New Vision Gardens, Prospect Park cleanup, NYRR Dash and Splash, Kumon, Nautica NYC Triathlon, Cove to Cove, and Lil’ Toot. We are beginning the school year with a great start and we plan to extend this greatness throughout the year. I look forward to seeing new faces (as well as old ones) participating in our numerous events this term! To new members: Welcome to Key Club (by the way, we don’t make keys) and I hope that you will grow to love this organization as much as I do.

Picture of the Month!

Lil’ Toot

Chinatown Beautification Day

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Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!! A toast to a wonderful Key Club year!

Lily Tsoi

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Have fun. Enjoy life. Don’t forget about Key Club.

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Member of the Month of September !!!CONGRATS!!!

Dianne Yee Wendy Deng

Committee Heads!!!

PUBLIC RELATIONS: Christopher Singh Sue Yee Chen

NEW PROJECTS: Lauren White Michelle Wong

FUNDRAISING: HuiZi (Anna) Lin Sally Cheung

ADVOCACY: Natalie Lam Danna Wei

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ART: Jenny Liu Connie Liu

LOCKSMITH Ashley Cheng Richard Huang

WEB: Un Soi Chio Pawel Socha Articles? Pictures? Send them to: thelocksmith0607@yahoo.com New Project/Advocacy idea? Email us at: stuykc@yahoo.com LET THESE ADDRESSES BE YOUR NEW BEST FRIENDS!!!!!

*Thank you two for dedicating most of your summer to Project Captain the Kumon Event!

Letter from Your President: To all Key Clubbers (old and new), You’re probably pursuing the pages of this newsletter, thinking that you have better things to do than read articles about some cheesy community service event. You probably want to go home, get your work done, and fall asleep. And chances are, you’re about ready to toss this packet into the nearest trash. DON’T. Besides the fact that doing so would mean that a tree has died in vain, there really is some very important information in these pages. I’m going to preface some of that information with advice—some things I wish I had known about Key Club and Stuy in general when I was a freshman, sophomore, and even a junior: Don’t stereotype. Yes, Key Club members are mostly of Asian descent. However, to me they are all simply people. Key Clubbers, at least I like to believe, are compassionate, proactive members of the Stuyvesant community who want to show that they are capable of effecting big chances through tiny acts of kindness. Don’t draw boundaries based on race. By doing so, you are only preventing friendships and good memories from forming.

Don’t dismiss the power of community service. Besides the obvious benefits of helping people in need, community service is also about serving yourself. It’s about building confidence, understanding your strengths and weaknesses, learning extremely useful “people skills,” being reminded constantly of what is really important in life, becoming a leader, and creating strong friendships. The biggest mistake you can make when doing community service is to not take advantage of everything you could receive in return.

Do it for the right reason. While college applications always loom over us in our high school careers, it’s important to know that the experiences you have in high school, whether in Key Club or outside of it, can do so much more than fill a space on an application. They ultimately define how happy you are in high school, how much you learn, and how you are remembered once you leave. If you do things you enjoy in your high school career, then no one, not even a lousy college admissions officer, can tell you it was a waste.

In short, put your heart in it.

This year is your chance to revolutionize Key Club.

So sign up, reach out, and get active.

We’re here to help you along the way.

Sincerely, Courtney President ’06-‘07

Tucked away in a quiet neighborhood of East New York , Brooklyn is a little vegetable garden that is run by the kind and spirited Eliza Butler. Here, people from the neighborhood rent “boxes” that they use to grow vegetables. Then, they take the vegetables to the farmers’ market and sell them or take them home to eat. Ms. Butler takes her vegetables and donates them to feed the homeless. New Yorkers generally have poor access to fresh produce and New Visions Garden is a portal for just that.

Ms. Butler first requested Key Clubbers to help paint some fences and picnic tables. The sun was fierce and painting was no easy task; however, a table with a fresh coat of red paint was a satisfying sight. Some of us, new to the art of furniture painting were dressed too decently for the job. We left the garden with new clothes designs that—to our horror—wouldn’t wash off! This prompted future New Visions notification emails to contain this warning: “Wear old clothes!”

In the next few visits, Key Clubbers were given varying tasks like weeding, sawing, digging, and more painting. Weeding was a somewhat educational experience, as we learned to distinguish between weeds and non-weeds (F.Y.I., some weeds actually have flowers). We sawed off branches of overgrown bushes and dug holes looking for treasure. Actually, the holes were for birdhouses, but we were able to dig up some worms.

During each visit, Ms. Butler provided us hardworking Key Clubbers with snacks and drinks like apple juice and ginger cookies (which actually taste pretty good). There was plenty of fresh air in the garden and all the strenuous tasks gave you a nice workout. Hopefully, there will be some more events at New Visions before winter sets in, but when spring comes around, there will be new vegetables growing, which means new weeds to pull.

- Pei Xiong Liu

“6 AM?!?! Only a week of summer left, and I have to be in Manhattan by 6 AM on a Sunday?!?” Chances are that this is what went through the minds of the Key Club and Arista members who went to the NYC Half Marathon on August 27th, 2006 . Although it was tiring to have to be in Battery Park by 6 am, a decent amount of dedicated volunteers did show up that rainy morning, and fortunately, the event turned out to be quite fun! The task of the day was to help sort the baggage of the runners. To begin, all the volunteers were divided up into groups of 3 or 4, and separated into 10 trucks, numbered from 0 to 9. In each truck were the bags of the runners who had numbers that ended with numbers corresponding to the truck number (i.e. runner 1909 would go to truck 9 to find his bag). The volunteers had to organize the bags in number order, and then distribute the bags to the runners when they came to claim them. All this was in the rain!!! The event couldn’t have gone more smoothly, and after all the bags were distributed to their rightful owners, the volunteers had a celebratory lunch among themselves.

The bagged lunch was complimentary for all our hard work, and included a turkey sandwich, fruit, and a bag of chips. The event ended around noon , so everybody could say that for half a Sunday, they had done a good deed to begin the new school year with. What fun!

- Valentin Hsu

THE LIL’ TOOT! Key Club Sails the Waves of Lower Manhattan On Sunday July 30th, Key Clubbers could be seen sailing the Morris Canal in Lower Manhattan . We had first arrived at the North Cove in Battery Park City, lower Manhattan , at 12:00 pm . After everyone gathered together, we met our small red and white striped boat, Lil Toot. Every summer, during the weekend, free boat rides for kids are given on Lil Toot. Instead of having to pay for a boat ride, each Key Clubber donated $5 to Cure Autism Now. After everyone boarded the boat, Lil Toot began its journey through the canal. The captain gave a rather loud blast of the horn, quite a big toot instead of the ship’s oxymoronic name. The waves moved pleasantly, rocking the boat as it chugged through Manhattan . After a while, the boat did make a splash, lightly spraying us with salt water.

The ride brought us through the canal, where we could see the Statue of Liberty in the distance. It later brought us through the Manhattan Sailing Club, and then back to the North Cove. The ride was very relaxing, a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Although the ride was only 45 minutes, it was a very amiable experience that allowed us to successfully raise $60 for Cure Autism Now. - Michael Chu

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It was a Sunday morning and as usual, I had gone to church. However, after church, I didn’t go home. Instead, I took the N train to Chinatown . I arrived at CCBA (Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association) around 11am . Everyone there was watching the performance by the Notorious MSG. I signed in and got my free GREEN t-shirt! After the “concert,” everybody was trying to take pictures with and get autographs from the Notorious MSG. Soon after, all the volunteers got into their groups. We all went to our assigned streets and cleaned, cleaned, and CLEANED. Some people in my group swept and some people picked up garbage. I was in charge of taking the “before” and the “after” pictures. Midway into our shift, however, I took one of someone’s gloves and started to help pick up garbage. After a long and vigorous workout from cleaning up the streets, we were finally able to go to lunch. After eating, we had to go out AGAIN and CLEAN some more. However, at the end of the day, my group happily went home, having accomplished our task. =) - Betty Zhao

CHINATOWN BEAUTIFICATION DAY! Finally, a chance to give back to our local community! On such a nice summer day, what else can be more fun than cleaning up Chinatown ? To start off the event, we were delightfully surprised by The Notorious MSG! They were totally ripped and totally awesome! Performing hits like “Dim Sum Girl” and “Chinatown Hustler,” these original Chinatown bad boys definitely gave us a show to talk about. After a brief autograph session, we hit the streets of Chinatown in our respective groups.

Maybe it was just me, but there was something very special about picking up tiny cigarette buds and stripping ancient layers of ads off the rusted streetlights. Maybe it was the fact that we had passed by the same murky puddle everyday, but had never had the opportunity to do anything about it. Well, now we had the opportunity, the will, and the equipment to do it!

Speaking of those strange puddles, I think I’ve finally cracked the mystery! So here’s what happened. As we slowly inched up East Broadway, I spotted, in the corner of my eye, a 3-year old Chinese boy contributing to the puddle, the very puddle that we were about to clean a few moments later! Now isn’t that fun? Anyways, we worked really hard and by the end of the day, East Broadway was a much cleaner street than it had been before. Free from old cigarette buds and soggy ads, the street seemed to be renewed and full of life again. Well, not really, but you know what I mean!

- Anthony Choi