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Volume 2, Issue 3 November, 2006 Caring—Our Way of Life
THE LOCKSMITH
Inside this Issue “What It Takes” A Word from the Lock-
A Note From the Editor:
smith Committee Heads
Key Club Divisional
BOOMBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Picture of the Month!
First things first. I hope that all of you enjoyed your turkey or chicken or both. I, myself, enjoyed a sampling of an 18-lbs turkey. Vacation was blissful (two days with over 10 hours of sleep—a rarity) and I hope you have been just as blessed. Secondly, I hope that you have all gone to at least one event this past month. If so, feel free to send articles to The Locksmith (what you’re currently reading or perusing through). We always welcome more writers! Just email them to thelocksmith0607@yahoo.com. If not, you can redeem yourself! We love seeing new faces at the events (not that we don’t love seeing old ones -_-). The point is that we want to be able to connect your names with your faces, and the only way we can do that is if you show up to events! Thirdly, I hope that you have been getting emails from your cabinet members and at least, know the existence of your team. My team, of course, is the coolest, but don’t fret. All the other teams aren’t shabby either. =) Lastly, have fun doing events! Let us know if you have any comments at all or if you have a wonderful new idea for an event that incorporates fun and community service. We are usually bored and check our email (stuykc@yahoo.com) around 2839479275 times a day, so please make our email checking time worthwhile by giving us input. J Yours truly, Lily Tsoi Editor
Meeting
4-5
BOWL-A-RAMA
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USACF: Zimbabwe
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[(l. to r.) Kenny Yu, Edward Mei, ZJ Lin, Bette Ha, & Courtney Ng]
q
Member of the Month of October !!!CONGRATS!!!
PUBLIC RELATIONS: Christopher Singh Sue Yee Chen
NEW PROJECTS: Melissa Wu Michelle Wong
FUNDRAISING: HuiZi (Anna) Lin Sally Cheung
ADVOCACY: Natalie Lam Danna Wei
F
ART: Jenny Liu Connie Liu
LOCKSMITH Ashley Cheng Richard Huang
WEB: Un Soi Chio Pawel Socha
USACF: Jing Wen Xiao Jane Yang
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!!!!!
3
Teensgivng ‘06 ACS Health Fair
CONGRATULATIONS COURTNEY! Who knew Key Clubbers were so COOL?!
Have fun. Enjoy life. Don’t forget about Key Club.
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BETTE HA
What It Takes Everyday, I pass by a homeless man. I see him everyday, and almost everyday, he never leaves his little corner. He just sits there with his large gray coat and loads of bags around him. He sleeps, he reads, and if you’re lucky enough, you can sometimes see him talking to churchgoers or friendly passer-bys. He never asks for any money, and he never asks for help. He sits there everyday, lonely, watching everyone else live their lives. Whenever I see him, I always feel guilty. Every time, I want to help him, but I never do. Everybody joins Key Club for a reason. Some do it because there’s nothing else they want to do. Although most do it for the service credit, there still exists, in everyone, a small amount of motivation that does not come from points. A small bit of it comes from the desire to help the less fortunate. After all, if we had merely wanted service credit, we could have just found a job at any old deli, grocery store, or even around the school, but instead we chose Key Club. Somewhere in our hearts and some time in our lives, we just wanted to help somebody. Don’t tell me that you have passed by a homeless person and felt no desire to help. There’s a better satisfaction than getting points—it comes from helping someone. Instead of thinking about points, we should realize where real motivation comes from. When you ask for donations or donate yourself, think about where the donations are going to go. When you participate in a walk, think about the lives you are saving. Know that you are not doing it for the points, but for others. I don’t see that homeless man anymore. I regret never doing anything for him and hope that Key Club will help me change my selfish ways. -Gavin Huang
Hey everybody, we are your Locksmith Committee Heads, Ashley Cheng and Richard Huang. This is the first time we actually have a word in any of the issues so keep reading! The Locksmith is definitely worth reading, so take some time to look over it. DON’T JUST SKIM IT AND THROW IT AWAY! The Locksmith is something we work really hard on to put together and provide something for all you cool Key Clubbers to remember the events that you have attended. This month we’ve had many events— a lot of them which you will be hearing about in this issue, if you haven’t been to them. We hope to see everybody attending these events and upcoming events so make sure you guys go! Push all your plans aside and make space for the wonderful hours of serving our community with people you will get to know and become friends with! Haha, all joking aside, however, we would really like to see a lot of you guys try to go to these events and if you feel a passion inside of you about your experience at an event just burning to be told, then you should write it down and send it to us! We will be more than happy to accept any article that anybody sends in; you will even receive points for them! If you feel like you aren’t the best of writers, then you can take pictures! The Locksmith is always looking forward to seeing all the pictures that Key Clubbers take at the events. So if you want to share your pictures with the rest of Key Club, send them to thelocksmith0607@yahoo.com and you will also receive points for them too! If you guys actually look at the front page, you can see that we have a little contest inside the Locksmith called “Picture of the Month!” Got any silly pictures of your friends doing community service? Got that group photo taken after an event? Send it all to the Locksmith! If your picture gets chosen, you will receive 20 extra points for your submission! That’s a total of 30 points, which is basically half an hour of community service! So get those articles and pictures in to the Locksmith and you might see them in the next issue! And DON’T FORGET to have fun at these events! Take care everybody and enjoy the Locksmith. =) -Your ULT RA COOL LOCKSMIT H Ashley Cheng and Richard Huang
COMMI TT EE
HEADS
On November 6, we went to the first Key Club Divisional meeting of the year [btw, we're division 11]. We met many of the Key Clubs in our division like the clubs from Bronx Science, Washington Irving, and High School for Math and Engineering, as well as other clubs from schools that I forgot. We also met our Lieutenant Governor, Sarah An, and the Lieutenant Governor of Division 12, Dennis Chang. From the presentation of each club’s president, I saw that many of the clubs did the same events such as the MSABC Walk, the Memory Walk, and the JCC events. It was also pretty embarrassing when a club of only 40 or so members raised the same amount of money we did, particularly when we have like 300 members. Bronx Science served us some really tasty food; I mean it was really good. They had this chicken sandwich that was like "Wow" and these noodles that were "OMG good." It was a fun time where I got to learn about other clubs, meet new people and spend more time with my fellow Key clubbers.
“Fortunately, they weren’t as lame and cheesy as I thought they would be.”
~Nelson Chiu
On Monday November 6, Bronx High School of Science invited all Key Clubs in Division 11 to their school for a divisional meeting. Seeing as the next day I had no school, I decided to go along to see what an official meeting of Key Clubs would be like. After spending some time on the train, we finally arrived at Bronx Science a little before 5:00 pm. I felt a little weird wearing a Stuy sweater, but I later found out that it didn’t really matter since everyone was cool and friendly. Sarah An, our division’s lieutenant governor from Bronx Science, began our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Key Club Pledge. After introducing some old timers involved in Key Club International, Sarah An commenced with the business of forms that needed to be filled out by various club officials. She also talked about how it was Key Club Week (November 6-12) and how everyone should show their KC Spirit by getting involved in activities or even wearing a volunteer shirt and talking about helping the community. Then, we did ice breakers. Fortunately, they weren’t as lame and cheesy as I thought they would be. Everyone was broken up into various groups, and we got to learn about each other in a tell-two-truths-and-one-lie game. There were many Bronx Science Keyclubbers in my group, all of whom were rather nice. There was also some food to eat during the mingling. We then heard about what each of the clubs had done so far. It was interesting to hear what other clubs did; in fact, there were some snatch-worthy ideas, like a dance off to raise money. After everything was said and done, we finished the meeting with an ending gong of the Key Club bell. - Michael Chu
Bette Ha Involve Me, and I’ll Understand The annual event Teensgiving [held on 92nd St. and Lexington] began bright and early on Sunday, November 12. Around 600 students from all over the city, Stuyvesant Key Club included, showed up to do their part for their community. Students from all over New York City proceeded to check in at the volunteer desk where they were assigned to a group and received spiffy volunteer T-shirts. I, for one, was put in group 5, along with several other Key Clubbers. Our task was to head out to Riverside Park and beautify the gardens. For some reason, getting there seemed to be the hardest of our tasks. After taking the bus, subway, and walking from one end of Harlem to the other, and then climbing over a fence, we finally made it to the park. It was there that we were given directions. The supervisors gave us awesome painting mittens [kindergarten nostalgia, anyone?], which we used to paint the seemingly-endless fences bordering the Riverside Park gardens. Other volunteers raked leaves to keep the pavement clean and free from autumn clutter. The sky was growing dark, and the cold began to get to us. In a fence-painting frenzy, the entirety of group 5 worked together to effectively finish our task. In the end, the pavement was leaves free, and the fences were newly painted. It just goes to show how important teamwork is and how great these events are. “Tell me, and I’ll forget. Show me, and I might remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.”
On November 12, Key Clubbers joined hundreds of other New York City high school students for the annual Teensgiving event held by the 92nd St. Y. We first gathered at the 92nd St. Y to register and wait for everyone to arrive. This year’s volunteer tshirts were bright yellow. After registering, we were split into different groups that would travel around the city to sites that needed improving. My group was sent to help clean up and paint the fences at Riverside Park in Harlem. We took the subway and had to walk quite a long distance before we could find the park. However, we started immediately after we arrived. Each volunteer was given a paint mitt, which he or she wore over one hand and dipped directly into paint. Having the mitts made it easier to apply paint to hard-to-reach areas of the fences. Aside from the fact that it was difficult to rub the sticky paint onto the bars of the fences, it was pretty fun using the mitts. We ended up dripping a lot of paint on ourselves as we tried to transport the paint-soaked gloves back to the parts of the fences that we were working on. To make the fences easier to paint, other volunteers helped rake leaves that were covering parts of the fences. Soon it became very cold, but we finished quickly enough. We left right before it started raining very hard. By the time we reached the train station, we were pretty wet. Although it was not the ideal day for painting, we still had a lot of fun. The important thing is that we were able to contribute to the betterment of our city, even if it was something as insignificant as painting fences in a park. - JOANNA CHEN
“Tell me, and I’ll forget. Show me, and I might remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.”
COOL! PAINT MITTS!
This year’s Teensgiving featured hundreds of volunteers from all over the city. After registering and receiving fabulous T-shirts, we were sent to the auditorium of The Y building for a pep talk. Unfortunately, Stuyvesant Key Club was split into two groups, each assigned a different task. My group (Group 4; the better one) was assigned to clean up St. Mary’s park all the way up in the Bronx. On the train ride there, Key Clubbers socialized and discussion topics ranged from gum spots to fashionable jeans. When we got to the park, the majority of volunteers got raking jobs. A privileged few got to plant daffodils. I was initially supposed to rake leaves, but later on I became a planter; so I get to tell you about both jobs. Raking was fun. I made huge piles of leaves and sang as I made them. Planting was harder. I had to punch holes in the dirt with primitive tools, drop in a bulb, and put the dirt back. Three rows and hundreds of bulbs…the job quickly became monotonous. Punching holes wasn’t exactly easy either. Sometimes I had to jump on the dirtpunchers (a made up word) to get it to sink into the ground. Other times I hit rocks and had to go around them. We did pretty much the same thing after lunch until it started to rain really hard. We gathered up our tools and marched (or ran) back to HQ. Even though the task was hard and the day ended in a washout, Teensgiving was still very fun because I got to work alongside friends. But if any of you plan to do any planting for Key Club in the future, please where old jeans and boots. My sneakers that were sparkly white aren’t so dazzling anymore. - Pei Xiong Liu
Roaming the Streets of 8th Avenue The American Cancer Society Health Fair, hosted on November 4, 2006, was held in the Brooklyn Chinese Baptist Church. As I arrived, I saw fellow Key Clubbers already blowing up the balloons and setting up the decorations. Before we knew it, we were outside roaming the streets of 8th avenue, competing on who could give out all their fliers first while simultaneously trying to get people to attend the fair. It was…quite an interesting adventure. One of the very first people we tried to give fliers to, a crazy old man, shot up from his seat and started screaming at us, “GET THE F@#K OUT OF HERE YOU F@#KING BASTARDS!,” and kicked a newspaper at us. We didn’t let this discourage us, although all of us ended up saying “WTF?!” as we walked away from him. We continued with our journey, stopping everyone we saw and begging them to take a flier. Some of us tried making conversation to persuade people to take one, like ZJ did when he asked little children, “Do you know what cancer is?,” or called them “Gangsta.” He would hit on girls saying things like “Can I have your number?” and “Hey babe.” To our surprise, it actually worked (for a few people anyway)! Soon, we were out of fliers, and we headed back to the church. We got more fliers, and this time, hit the streets armed with tissue packs, pens, and balloons. We were overstocked so we started to give them out randomly. I’ll never forget how Courtney, our president, dropped pens into baby carriages when the mom wasn’t looking, ran up to street vendors and dropped the pens and tissues onto their stands and then ran off, and shoved tissues into little kids’ faces. Other times, we cornered people and forced them to take a tissue pack. One time, we surrounded this girl and this boy, and as soon as we backed off, they ran away as fast as they could. We’re not that scary, are we? Once again we were out, so we started to head back to the church. On our way, we saw a little boy crying and screaming bloody murder with the mom trying everything to get him to stop. We decided to give him our precious, precious balloon. The child stopped crying and the mom smiled at us, which made our day. When we returned, the place was PACKED! Our efforts had paid off! While some people were looking up health and medical information, others were giving out free stuff like mini-footballs (which by far are the coolest things ever), mugs, mouse pads, band-aids, post-its, everything! We took anything we could get our hands on. If you didn’t go, you missed out on your chance to get cool, awesome navy sunglasses! Also, the next time you see someone on the street handing out fliers, take them!!! - Kenny Yu
“C’mon, c’mon, more to the left. Yes!” Spares and strikes dotted the monitors above our heads as we played our intense games of bowling at Flushing’s Whitestone Lanes. There was more on the line than just our score or our pride. In fact, some Keyclubbers even put their bodies at stake, wagering up to 50 pushups each! DIESEL! That’s dedication right there! But push-ups aside, we had lots of fun playing one or two games and fundraising at the same time. Bowl-A-Rama has proven to be one of Key Club’s most successful fundraisers and with your help, will continue to be. What’s better than bowling for a good cause and getting points for it?! So, thank you to all of you who participated in this year’s Bowl-A-Rama. I’m sure Building a School in Kampala appreciates the help. We hope to see more Keyclubbers bowling away at the next Bowl-A-Rama. Who knows? Maybe there’ll be surprised guests, like future Keyclubbers, Alex Orza and Kingston Hu! - Anthony Choi
That’s Olivia Hu and Kingston Hu!
STRIKE! No, that’s not the call of an umpire as a batter misses a ball. That’s the sound of a bowling ball knocking down all ten pins! Saturday, November 25th was the day of BOWLARAMA - a day when groups of 6 or 7 would fight it out on the battlegrounds of Whitestone Lanes in Flushing. The rules were simple, knock down as many pins as you can, and hope the opponent doesn’t do better. This battle of skills and luck turned out to be a lot of fun for many, and some even took it further and made it even more hardcore—thirty pushups for the losers of the battle. =O To victory and beyond! Starting at ten in the morning, and ending roughly around twelve noon, the bowling balls were rolling down the lanes like ball bearings on a greased floor. Strike after strike, the members of key club who attended the event were laughing, screaming, and crying all throughout the games. Cheers ran up as opponents failed and cheesy curly fries were being passed around; joy and happiness enveloped everyone like a thick fog on a Sunday morning at the docks. No doubt those who emerged victorious came out more satisfied after the event, but everyone who attended the event, from little siblings, to adventurous adults, all had a jolly good time. It was a great way to spend the Saturday morning of your Thanksgiving break! =) - Valentin Hsu
Over the summer, Stuyvesant Key Club was introduced to the Mark Grashow’s amazing campaign for people in Zimbabwe. For the last three years, Grashow has been shipping out donations of books, school supplies, art supplies, toys, games, clothing, and other provisions to children in Zimbabwe. The successes of his program have been astounding: every school has a library and every child has a storybook. Due to the increase in supplies, passing and attendance rates have increased, more classes are available for the students to take, and more schools are able to create sports teams. Despite these successes, however, one group has yet to reap in all the benefits: orphans. Most Zimbabwean orphans are young and have to live with their extended families, all of which are already poverty-stricken. They don’t own shoes or socks and are forced to walk the three miles to school barefoot. Some also lack pencils and notebooks they need to participate in class. It is hard for them to attend school under such difficult circumstances. Now it’s time for you to help out, fellow key clubbers! Please donate toys, games, pens, pencils, notebooks, shoes (size 8 or lower), socks, shorts, tshirts, sports supplies, ANYTHING! It’s almost Christmas time! Be in the holiday spirit! Wouldn’t you like to make a little boy or a little girl happy for the holidays with just a simple gift?
(Top): The children watch as the boxes of donations are unloaded off the bus. (Bottom): Sheri reads a story to all the children.
-Alex Tam
**All pictures and logo were taken from the actual USACF website at
http://www.usacf.net/index.htm ^So everybody should check it out!
Take a moment to imagine that you are, once again, an elementary school student. Imagine coming to school eagerly everyday. Imagine the fierce and passionate desire to learn on your small face; a face filled with fatigue because you have just spent several hours walking across the dry, parched, barren land without any shoes. Imagine going to school in a place where lunch or a small dinner costs around 20,000 dollars. This must seem like the beginning of a movie to you, a movie where a hero saves the day after everything falls apart, but it is not. No, this is reality. This is what small children experience every single day in the country of Zimbabwe – but you can do something to help. You can be the hero in this tragic tale by donating school supplies, books, toys, games, sports equipment, sneakers, or any other item to a drive that we are holding in school. Donate anything you can because parents in Zimbabwe barely have the money to pay for the school fees and school supplies. Donate and think of how you helped make their lives easier. By donating even one thing, you can help – and if every person at Stuy donated just one thing, imagine how much help we could give. -Yuliya Feldman