Combined

STUY KEY CLUB 345 CHAMBERS STREET NEW YORK, NY 10282 USA 1-800-KIWANIS

Official Newsletter of Stuyvesant H.S. Key Club/New York District 11

The Locksmith Adidas Run for the Parks

BY JENSEN CHEONG

What a great event! The weather was FINALLY warm and nice enough for Key Clubbers to get out of bed really early and go to Central Park to volunteer. I really can’t say what they did because I was never with them.

What was the point of coming, you may ask, if you weren’t going to volunteer? That’s easy. I went to the run to well… run!

O.K. keep laughing. Harharharhar. I know I don’t look like someone that can run, but I did. Hey, the sun was shining and it was WARM! (You keep laughing, rolling on the ground and your stomach starts to hurt because you are laughing too hard.) Anyway, there were over 10,000 people running so the NYRR had to make seeded corrals which placed the fastest people in the front and slowest in the back. I got placed in the last corral. (Stop laughing!) As I was saying, I was in the last corral and since the last corral started later, my first mile was 18:00.

Four miles isn’t very long. The race was just around the huge lake in Central park. My second mile was 9:00. Yup. That’s my usual pace if I wasn’t in the last corral. (Are you still laughing?)

Then in the middle of the third mile, I fell and hobbled for a while until the fourth mile, when I started running again and finished with a total time of 44:01 with a pace of 11:00 per mile.

Not bad, eh? You’re laughing.

Volume 3 Issue 5

In this issue!

Run for the Parks ........ 1 March of Dimes ...... 2-4 Parkinson’s Walk ........ 5 New Visions Garden .. 6 Word Search .............. 7 USACF Packing .......... 8 Committee Heads ..... 8

Man it felt good to see three Key Clubbers at the finish line with signs with my name on it. Then, when I got to the place where the other Key Clubbers were cutting chips, they cheered as well. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! (I hung the signs on my wall!)

What could be better than running in Central Park in warm weather? Yeah, that’s what I thought. I hope the next time there’s a 4M run, you guys run too! *Just to note: The other Key Clubbers were cutting chips. Wasn’t it fun guys? *drumroll**clap clap clap*

UPCOMING EVENTS! VISIT WWW.STUYKC.ORG FOR MORE DETAILS! Cystic Fibrosis Walk | AIDS Walk | Baby Buggy | JCC Operation Chicken Soup | New Visions Gardening

March of Dimes: March for

BY JING W. XIAO

It was an excellent way to end Spring Break – to wake up at 6:15 a.m. (which is an hour earlier than the time I wake up on a typical school day) just to volunteer at the March of Dimes walk. It was depressing to feel the raindrops softly pat my head as I went in and then out of the subway. But at the sight of balloons being blown up at the corner of 23rd Street and Madison Avenue (checkpoint 4), my mood lightened and expanded just like the balloons.

After standing around and laughing at the automatic toilet stall in front of Madison Square Park, we set off together as a group to drop four Key Clubbers off at each corner of the route walkers took to get to checkpoint 4. Because we were curious (or perhaps lazy), most of us were hesitant to volunteer at each corner. We wanted to know what would happen to those who do not get assigned to a station point since there were more volunteers than tasks.

Being one of those people who did not get assigned to a station point, I returned to checkpoint 4 along with the others only to discover that observing other people made the next twenty minutes pass by rather quickly. Some people were eating under their umbrellas while others were talking.

Gavin then showed up with pom-poms.

Eager to play some kind of a role in the cause for saving babies, I snatched the pack from him. My friends and I then went around the corner and stopped inbetween two station points. We practiced cheering and doing the wave with our

2

Babies

colorful pom-poms there.

For the next three hours, a huge diverse crowd walked past us. A few even ran.

There were adults walking with their dogs, mothers pushing their baby carriages, members of different organizations including Citibank, FedEx, Bank of America, and even Key Club, along with the regular walkers. The five of us screamed “Let’s go walkers, let’s go! *clap* *clap*,” “Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Saving babies is the way to go!” and “Go walkers! Go walkers! Go!” while waving our colorful pom-poms at them.

However, not every bit of it was enjoyable. Our voices gradually died, our jaws and mouths slowly became fixed at our smile-and-scream position (it hurt to break away from that position) and we kept attracting walkers who wanted to take our pom-poms. One even tried to snatch it out of our hands!

As my friends and I walked back to checkpoint 4 after the last of the walkers had passed, I realized that the sun still had not made an appearance on such a beautiful day, a day when people of various backgrounds came together to save premature babies. But that’s alright because at the entrance to checkpoint 4, the two gigantic “sticks” of balloons (made of many diagonals of alternating colorful balloons with one big white balloon on top) looked like candles.

They brightened the day. Or was the day brightened by our willingness to spend our entire Sunday morning marshalling a section of the March of Dimes route?

Either way, “Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Volunteering is the way to go!”

BY BETTE HA

The morning of April 27, 2008 was wet and dreary, with temperatures well below the normal, sunny weather we had been experiencing. As Key Clubbers were distributed throughout the neighborhood as route marshals, we wondered to ourselves, “Who would even think of coming out in this weather?” Walkers trickled by slowly, but we spared no expense in cheering them out. It was a feat in itself that they chose to support the cause in spite of the nasty weather!

As the rain lightened, and the sun found its way through layers of clouds, the atmosphere was suddenly filled with energy. Supporters for the March of Dimes poured through the streets, and we could hardly contain ourselves.

Waving our clappers and cheering enthusiastically, we welcomed each and every walker down 23rd St. and Lexington Ave. People of all ages and dogs of all colors, shapes, and sizes had come out on one of the worst days of Spring Break in order to support the March for Babies. We even saw a few Key Clubs from other high schools, and greeted them with the usual phrase: “Hey ___, how do you feel?” (you know how to answer that).

It was an inspiring moment when the first crowd of walkers passed me and my doubts of the success that March of Dimes 2008 would achieve evaporated.

Everyone was exhilarated, and I could almost feel the enthusiasm vibrating in the air around us. We were so excited, did the wave so many times, and cheered so loudly that we even got complaints (much to our vexation)!

If this didn’t prove the resilience of dedicated and passionate New Yorkers, then I don’t know what did.

The Locksmith: The Official Newsletter of Stuyvesant High School Key Club

“When I say ’March of,” You Say

BY ELAINE LIU

March of Dimes is one of the biggest events in Key Club, and this year was the second time I went to the event. When I arrived at the meeting place, I met up with my friends and socialized until we were told what to do. We got our LARGE purple T-shirts that turned blue in our cameras and clashed horribly with my teal coat. I was slightly annoyed, as this had happened once before. I was wearing a bright magenta long-sleeved shirt and had to put a lime green T-shirt over it. While we were there, we discovered a toilet place that looked like an elevator from outside, required 25 cents to use, and had a time limit of 15 minutes. This highly amused us and we decided to come back here later and use it.

Eventually, we were led to our posts. I was with four friends at the corner of the block. I remembered that last year, I only wore a sweater and was freezing as I cheered the walkers on, so this year, I made sure to wear a thicker coat.

Unfortunately, it was still not enough.

The rainy weather made the day colder than how it would’ve been and made the atmosphere drearier. Occasionally, my friends and I went into the Duane Reade that was right in front of us and walked around the store, pretending to be looking at stuff.

As we waited for the walkers to come, we sang and laughed and made up cheers.

We stood under our umbrellas, shivering, and began to dance in an attempt to warm ourselves up. Whenever we saw even one walker come, we would scream at the top of our lungs because we had decided to compete with the larger group of friends down the block.

3

‘Dimes’!”

It was a good while before the wave of walkers really came, and we were screaming and having fun in our states of hyperness when some lady came and started to curse (literally) at us and told us to shut up. We were silent, not knowing what to say in response. As soon as she went back up to her apartment, we started cheering again and, once again, she came down and yelled at us. This time, we talked back, and the walkers even began to cheer too, as if to tell us to ignore this stupid woman. The policeman who was there talked to her, but she still continued to curse at us. We just ignored her and kept up our cheering and eventually, she gave up. It made us very angry, so we decided to scream even louder so she wouldn’t get any sleep.

leadership

inclusiveness

caring

character building

Later we were joined by the larger group down the block, and we exchanged stories about how we were yelled at. The number of people more than doubled, which made us really happy because we could annoy that lady more. The whole group formed a line and we did the wave many times. We saw some of our other friends amidst the walkers and they stopped to talk to us for a little while. At the end of the wave of walkers, we saw more friends and since it was the end, we walked with them, still cheering energetically, now adding our own Key Club cheers (“Hey Key Club, how do you feel?”) to it. We walked back all the way to our starting point and, remembering the toilet, we went there, only to discover that it was out of order. All of us then went to a McDonalds still in our purple T-shirts and ate lunch. I went home after that, glad that I had made my morning wonderful and ruined somebody else’s.

The Locksmith ☺

SAVING BABIES

BY AMY LIN

obsessive clapper smacking, I don’t think I would have made it two hours.

SERVICE The weather had been good for the past few days. The sun was always bright, the temperature was always perfect, and it was clear that summer was well on its way. I woke up at 6:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Upon opening my blinds, my expectations for the day were instantly shattered. The sun was no longer shining, only to be replaced by cold, gray clouds.

After about an hour’s commute on the 7 and 6 train, we arrived at Madison Square Park. We were greeted by fellow Stuyvesant Key Clubbers, who were shivering as well. It had started to drizzle and I could tell that no one was in the route marshalling state-of-mind.

I quickly snatched up a purple March of Dimes t-shirt in an effort to keep myself warm.

The entire Stuy Key Club crew walked about two and a half blocks before Gavin and Victoria decided that it was an appropriate place to set up a group of volunteers. My friends and I decided to man that station, seeing as it was right in front of a 7-Eleven. It would be super convenient to get food if we were to become hungry.

We were given large, white clappers to motivate and cheer on the marchers.

Because the marchers would not come near our block for another two hours, we were forced to keep ourselves entertained. It was cold, it was dreary, and it was tedious waiting for the marchers. Honestly, without the

Then, the very first signs of marchers began to show. At first, we had difficulty differentiating between marchers and regular pedestrians. But after a couple of minutes, we able to tell that the marchers were the ones with bright smiles on their faces and high spirits while the pedestrians were the ones who were annoyed by our insanely loud cheering. After two hours of bottling up energy, it was a given that I would lose my voice the next day.

PICTURES

LEADERSHIP

Despite the wet and chilly weather, smiles and laughs were abundant. As we cheered the marchers on, they responded with great, positive attitudes. Often they would come up and high-five us! I know they were probably a lot tired than we volunteers were, but it was the feeling of being appreciated that kept our cheers loud and joyful. All was in the spirit of the babies and helping the world one step at a time. Literally.

After an hour of non-stop yelling, all Stuyvesant Key Clubbers returned to checkpoint 4.

We ended the day with the beaver cheer. Even though the sun still did not shine, I’m sure the hope and generosity in the air warmed us all.

KEY

CLUB 4

FREE WATER! FREE WATER!

BY BETTE HA

rotated and went along the sidelines to cheer for the walkers. Many people with the disease had trained for months to walk in the event, and it was awe-inspiring to see the determination in their eyes in spite of the struggles that they faced. All of the walkers and volunteers were so incredibly cheerful, and my day was kept vibrant and live.

SERVICE Now, if you had gone to the Parkinson’s Unity Walk on Saturday, April 26, 2008, you would understand the title and all of the memories that those few words hold. The weather was perfect, there was a huge turnout, free stuff, and even press coverage—what more could we ask for? The Stuyvesant Key Club was in charge of distributing refreshments to the walkers, and we most certainly did our job.

All of the walkers and volunteers were so incredibly cheerful, and my day was kept vibrant and live.

“Excuse me, sir, would you like some free water?”

“Don’t get dehydrated on the walk!”

The Unity Walk came to a gradual close, but our original job was still not done! Once we realized this, we tore open the boxes with bottles of water and gave them to people in the park, who gratefully accepted the free water, and asked us about the event and what we were volunteering for, an excellent way to gain supporters. We were so desperate that we even spelled out “FREE” with the bottles of water themselves!

leadership

inclusiveness

caring

character building

LEADERSHIP

“IT’S FREE.” Everyone was having a grand and leisurely experience at the water stations, but then, one of the staff members came up to us and said, “Guys, hussle! Get rid of the water, we don’t want to take any back.” We spared no expense. We walked up to each and every person at Central Park that day and handed them a bottle of water. We made sure that no one’s mouth ran dry, and that no bottles remained by the end of the walk (even if it meant stuffing some into our free book bags). We walked into the crowds of people and stood by the starting and finish line with boxes of water, ready to be distributed to walkers. We often

And, let it be known, that Stuyvesant Key Clubbers hold true to their word.

We had handed out all of the water bottles and fulfilled our duty. It was a sense of accomplishment that I had never felt before—not even getting into Stuyvesant could compare to that moment (well, let’s not go that far).

KEY

CLUB

5

Sharing New Visions CARING—OUR WAY OF LIFE

BY GAVIN HUANG

The train was nearly empty when I got off at the second-to-last stop in East New York. I ran down the stairs, scurried past a drunkard wandering in front of the deli, past a group of violently angry men, and turned the corner. I peeked through the fence and saw that my friends were already working. All the weeds we had pulled out in the summer had grown back and the woodchips we had strewn along the ground were sparse. I smiled to myself and rolled up my sleeves. I entered the garden and waved to Ms. Butler.

“Hello Gavin, ready to work?” she asked.

“Always,” I answered.

Our club has been working at Ms. Butler’s garden since 2006. We do everything there, from weeding to planting to digging to painting. I got started by shoveling soil into wheelbarrows. The shovel was being a little uncooperative and being in a garden wasn’t exactly helping relieve my already severe allergies, but I was doing what I enjoyed. Not even hay fever was going stop me from dedicating myself to the garden. After moving some barrows of soil to various holes around the garden, I started on pulling weeds, the tedious task everyone was reluctant to do. After an hour of pulling, I stepped back to see if I had made any progress. It didn’t seem so, but part of gardening is the patience.

But what was more valuable than the selfsatisfaction that came from the work and the results that could be seen in the garden were the stories that a wise lady like Ms. Butler had. When I was working over the summer, she would tell us her

stories of yore while we were resting.

“This used to be an empty lot,” she told us. “There were beer bottles all over the place. I gathered some of my neighbors, got ourselves a permit, and we cleared the entire lot. We picked up the garbage, we pulled the weeds, and we started planting. People come here all the time to get some vegetables or to just sit and rest. We got soda and water, but no alcohol. Everything but alcohol’s allowed.”

I listened intently when she told me her story. I had the utmost respect for her, and I wanted to show that we were genuinely dedicated to improving her garden in a community that seemed to be struggling to cross the border of poverty.

I wanted to show that we were genuinely dedicated to her new vision. I was exhausted after just three hours of work and most of us were standing round talking, laughing, and having wheelbarrow races. And while Key Club is about having fun, it’s also about the service. There’s nothing wrong with a few laughs, but at the same time, show that you care about what you’re doing. Part of the service is understanding their visions.

We left the garden at four. My back ached and my muscles were sore, but I still had the strength to bring my head up and look around. There was a flipped car across the street, a building maimed by graffiti at the corner, and broken beer bottles on the sidewalk. And then there was the small garden, penetrating the poverty of the neighborhood with its green vision.

The Locksmith – The Official Newsletter of Stuyvesant High School Key Club

6

WORD SEARCH

A P S E I N I E R S M F A C E N U C S N O A T R C O S C A S M U R E K C M A R O R A S C R I N E N C C R I T H M N Y C F I R S T R O E S R M N B Y P C N F E O R H D R S R C T D T N A U K D N I I Y I I S D N S Y T N S N M N U I U I N K G S C E G N D R F G R R O W S B I A U R D O E I Y N O T S G C C A C M O T N Y R R M O R E M A R D W U O I F O S F I F I A N N A S I S M N C N L N A O F R R E E N G K I W A N I S O N E

O J C C W O R K S D A Y K O T M A A A

B F A G O T A B C A S N A R H N N H Y

N U B R R I J J R O A G E H O N A R S

Y I T I R C N A I G O P N E N A T K R

APRIL EVENTS

a word from your

editor

BY JENSEN CHEONG NYC FIRST ROBOTICS

AFTER-MEETING BONDING

Wow. First of all, I realized how hard it was for our locksmith committee chairs to put an issue together. I finally finished this issue after a few days of working on it for hours on end. Well, with that said, I hope you enjoyed it! I myself was inspired by the heartwarming and uplifting articles you guys sent in. Thank you to all who did!

JCC WORKS DAY

KIWANIS ONE DAY MARCH OF DIMES

NYRR ADIDAS RUN

NYRR MORE MARATHON

PARKINSONS UNITY WALK SPRING RECESS

All the best, Victor

USACF PACKING

Induction is right around the corner!

Photo credits: Elaine Liu, Kevin Qiu, Jensen Cheong, Victor Ma, Jing Xiao.

Send articles and photos to locksmith@stuykc.org! groups.yahoo.com/group/stuykc

7

F S P A R B W Y O R I A F S A O O F D

a Kiwanis-family member

stuykc.org

Y O O M U S A C F P A C K I N G I E E

D I N A I M S O C K C S A F S A I O C

The USACF Packing - Unexpected Difficulties

BY KATHERINE CHEN

My dad drove me to Lincoln High before I realized I didn't know where the event was in the building. I entered the building to find that they were setting up for examinations. I asked the security guard where I should go and he said, “the third floor.” I went up, walked around the corridors, and then went back downstairs. I asked another security guard who led me outside to where there was a large truck, a small storage place filled with an assortment of boxes, and people standing around—two girls not from Stuy and two men in charge of this event.

The first thing we did was move a couple of bicycles out of our way. Then one of the men organized us so we could be as efficient as possible. I got the job of doing the inventory (I did not realize I wouldn't be doing the

heavy work). One girl got onto the truck and the other girl lifted the boxes up to her. I sat in a chair and marked off each box placed in the truck under different categories (ex. clothing, shoes, toys, textbooks, etc.).

Well, you'd think doing the inventory would be easy, since I'm just tallying up all the boxes. That's what I thought… but guess what? It's not. Occasionally, people forgot to tell me what was in their box. So I had to find out. Then there were these decisions I had to make. Many boxes were not labeled as specifically as the categories on the inventory sheet. For example, many boxes said books, but I had to put them under either textbooks, children’s books, or adult books. Also, I remember vividly, a few boxes were labeled chemistry building blocks. My initial reaction was o.O, but I put them down as toys. I quickly realized another disadvantage of inventory. You don't feel cold walking around in a t-shirt.

And there I was, freezing while wearing

Important Key Club

Information

Key Club Board (2007-2008)

The New Board (2008-2009)

Jane Yang & Shadia Kim (Advocacy) Cissy Lin & Connie Liu (Art) Anne Tsay & Irene Kho (Fundraising) Joanna Chen & Pei Xiong Liu (Locksmith) Rachel Dekhterman & Judith Chow (New Projects) Jing W. Xiao & Snigdha Das (Public Relations) Gavin Huang & Victor Ma (Web)

Antara Afrin & Rebecca Chowdhury (Advocacy) Snigdha Das & Brenda Nguyen (Art) Amy Lin & Shayra Kamal (Fundraising) Bette Ha & Bryan Nguyen (Locksmith) Amanda Cheng & Helen Luo (New Projects) Christine Ha & Peiyu Lin (Public Relations) Helen Song & Donna Koo (USACF) Jensen Cheong & Chris Yeung (Web)

a black puffy jacket....

We packed, tallied, and re-boxed opened and half-empty boxes for about an hour before the men in charge called for a break to tell us about this event. Instead of going to Zimbabwe, all the material is going to Tanzania, where children have very little toys and such. They explained to us how important this was (very) and how the lives of the children there will be changed after they get all this stuff. It felt good to be helping such a good cause!

Though originally the USACF Packing was going to last until 3:00, we were pretty much done by 10:15. Nearly everything — boxes, computers, furniture — had been put into the truck. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay after. I had other stuff to do and I regret to say I didn't see it end, but all in all, it had been a great morning!

THE CABINET Gavin Huang President

Victoria Tsang Vice President

Kenny Yu Secretary

Adeline Yeo Treasurer

Victor Ma Editor

stuykc@yahoo.com

a Kiwanis-family member

stuykc.org

8