THE LOCKSMITH New York District / Division 11 Volume 4 Issue 5
Stuyvesant High School November/December Issue
Editor’s Note: Hi Beavers! I hope you’ve all had a great break and got the chance to spend some time with your families and made room for some volunteering too! Now that we’re back at school, I wish you the best of luck with exams, quizzes, and finals. Shout out to you seniors for meeting the January 1st deadline! I hope all of you are doing well and I look forward to seeing you at more events! Director's Note: Hey y’all! I hope you had a great break and a happy holiday. Thanks so much for reading our newsletter! Hope you continue to volunteer and spread love in events despite the cold(ish) weather. Thanks for all the articles and photos; continue sending them! Good luck on your tests, quizzes, projects, and finals!!
16-’17 Stuyvesant Key Club Board: President: Jiaqi Gao jiaqigao12@gmail.com Vice President: Michelle Yang librasapphire2000@gmail.com Editor: Yvonne Pan ypan1@stuy.edu Webmaster: Alvin Zhu alvinzhu33@yahoo.com Secretary: Yuki Lau stuyyuki@gmail.com Treasurer: Sarah Rim sarahrim1221@gmail.com Contact Us: www.stuykc.org www.facebook.com/groups/stuyve santkeyclub/ Stuyvesant High School 345 Chambers Street New York, NY 10282
Table of Contents
Timeline of Past Events November/December Events Barnes & Noble Bookfair Upcoming Events LTC Key Club Updates Our pin! Key Club Apparel Design Contest End of Year Summary Maker Faire Concern Worldwide Kidney Walk Canstruction Goddard Book Fair JCC Wrap It Up
4 5 9 10 12 14 15 16 17 18 24 27 29 34 38
Timeline of Past Events November 3: November 5: November 6: November 8: November 11: November 13: November 16: November 19: November 20: November 28: December 9: December 10: December 11: December 15: December 18: December 21: December 22:
PS 124 PTC Translation Maker Faire SHSAT Crowd Control Maker Faire Election Day Concern Worldwide BT5K 2016 Kidney Walk Seeds of Hope Gala Canstruction Goddard Book Fair Goddard Book Fair 17th Annual Winter's Eve Stockings with Care Stockings with Care JCC Wrap It Up '16 Bit Awards Running Festival of Lights Make Music Winter Winter Celebration
November/December Events PS 124 PTC Translation (Thursday, November 3rd) Time: 4:30pm to 7:30pm Location: PS 124 - 40 Division St, New York, NY 10002 Description: We'll be helping out at one of PS 124's parent teacher conferences. We are looking for volunteers who can speak Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) who can act as translators for parents. This is a cool opportunity to brush up on your Chinese-speaking skills! Maker Faire (Saturday, November 5th + Sunday, November 6th) Time: 11:00am to 5:00pm Location: Barnes & Noble near Stuy! Description: We'll be helping out at Barnes Noble with their demoing STEM educational toys; Stuy's robotics team will be doing a demo of their robots and we will help with the customers. SHSAT Crowd Control (Saturday, November 5th) Time: 7:30am to 12:00pm Location: Stuyvesant! Description: Stuyvesant High School will be hosting the SHSAT on the days listed above. We need volunteers who will be helping out with crowd control as well as organizing registration cards! This event is capped at 20 people, so be sure to sign up ASAP! This is your chance to experience what the organizers felt when you were the one taking the SHSAT. How nostalgic! Election Day (Tuesday, November 8th) Shift Times: 10:00am to 3:00pm; 3:00pm to 8:00pm Location: 29 Bay 25th St (btwn 86th St & Benson Ave) Brooklyn, NY 11214 Description: We will be volunteering for Election Day. Volunteers will be handing out fliers. Lunch will be provided!
Concern Worldwide (Friday, November 11th) Time: Afternoon, exact time TBA Location: Concern Worldwide US, Inc. (16th floor, 355 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10017) Description: We'll be helping Concern with their rolling and packaging hand-stitched embroidered calendars they order every year by women from one of their programs in Bangladesh. BT5K 2016 (Sunday, November 13th) Time: 6:30am to 12:00pm Location: Hudson River Park – Pier 84, New York, NY Description: We will be volunteering at ABTA BT5K at Hudson River Park. Volunteers will be assisting with event check-in, registration, refreshments, course marshaling, and a host of other things. Kidney Walk (Sunday, November 13th) Time: 7:00am to 11:00pm Location: Foley Square Description: We'll be helping at NYC Kidney Walk. The walk raises awareness and funds lifesaving programs that educate and support patients, their families and those at risk for kidney diseases. Seeds of Hope Gala (Wednesday, November 16th) Time: 3:30pm to 9:00pm Location: Metropolitan Pavilion West - 639 W 46th St, New York, NY 10036 Description: We will be volunteering at NAMI-NYC Metro Seeds of Hope Annual Awards Gala. Volunteer will be greeting guests, help with crowd control, assist with live auction, etc. There will be pizza at 5pm! You are allowed to arrive a little later if you don't have 10th free. Canstruction (Wednesday, November 16th) Time: 4:00pm to 5:00 pm Location: Brookfield Mall Description: We are proudly participating in a new initiative called Canstruction for the first time! Canstruction is an event where architects, engineers, and students design and build giant structures made entirely out of cans! We will be traveling to Brookfield (230 Vesey Street, New York, New York 10281), a five-minute walk, as a club to donate canned food and learn about their amazing initiative. All the cans donated and used in the construction of these sculptures will be donated to City Harvest, which will distribute the food locally. We will be meeting in the grass lawn in front of Ferry's after tenth period on Nov 16th and will be promptly leaving at 3:45pm–3:50pm. Please bring a canned food to donate. If you don't have any at home, the cabinet bought extra canned food that you can purchase for $1 to subsidize to purchases.
Goddard Book Fair (Saturday, November 19th + Sunday, November 20th) Shift Times: Sat: 9:00am to 2:00pm, 1:30pm to 6:00pm ; Sun: 10:00am to 3:00pm, 2:30pm to 7:00pm Location: Goddard Riverside Community - 593 Columbus Ave, New York, NY 10024 Description: We will be volunteering Goddard Riverside Community Center facilitate their book fair by working at different sections of fair, and help with assisting customers. 17th Annual Winter's Eve (Monday, November 28th) Time: 3:30pm to 9:00pm Location: Winter's Eve Command Center, 125 Columbus Avenue at 65th Street, 3rd Floor (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Description: Winter’s Eve at Lincoln Square is a celebration for the entire Lincoln Square neighborhood. It kicks off the holiday season with the Upper West Side's only tree lighting ceremony and keeps the excitement going all evening with dozens of free live performances, food tastings from top local restaurants, and tons of family fun. Winter's Eve is an outdoor event, so please dress warmly and wear comfortable clothing! Stockings with Care (Friday, December 9th + Saturday, December 10th) Time: Friday: 4:00pm to 9:00pm ; Saturday: 11:00am to 5:00pm Location: 114 West 47th St (6/7 Ave) 19th floor Description: We'll be helping Stockings with Care at their Santa's Workshop! You will either help with gift wrapping or transport the gifts to the workshop location. Stockings with Care aims to help New York City families in homeless shelters and assistance programs create the magic of Christmas morning for their kids. You need to be 16 in order to do this event. Make sure to bring an ID with you for this event! JCC Wrap It Up (Sunday, December 11th) Time: 1:00pm to 4:00pm Location: 334 Amsterdam Ave Description: We'll be helping JCC Manhattan with their decorating and wrapping of donated presents to families receiving service from City Santa and Coalition for the Homeless. Volunteers should bring a roll of wrapping paper! If you don't have wrapping paper, we might be able to provide it. Sign up ASAP! Spots are filling up fast.
'16 Bit Awards (Thursday, December 15th) Time: 6:00pm to 11:00pm Location: The John L. Tishman Auditorium Parsons, the New School of Design 63 Fifth Avenue, Room U100, New York, NY 10003 Description: We'll be helping Playcrafting with their '16 Bit Awards.This event will include the award ceremony, including musical performances, special guests and surprises. Refreshments and drinks will be served before and after the event while a number of games will be playable onsite too. Volunteers will help with directing people, registration, social media and more. Running Festival of Lights (Sunday, December 18th) Time: 6:45am to 12:30pm Location: Bay Ridge Avenue at Shore Road, Brooklyn Description: We'll be helping NYCRUNS at their Running Festival of Lights, a half marathon event in celebration of Hanukkah. Volunteers will be assisting with course of marshaling, handing out water, and bag registration. Make Music Winter (Wednesday, December 21st) Time: 4:00pm to 6:00pm Location: City Hall Park, Jacob Mould Fountain Description: We'll be helping with MMNY with their annual winter music festival. All around the city, they will be hosting a series of parading sections in which the participants turn into the music-makers. Winter Celebration (Thursday, December 22nd) Time: 3:45pm to 5:00pm Location: The elusive Teacher's Cafeteria! (on the fifth floor, next to the student cafeteria) Description: We'll be celebrating together for the holidays in teacher's cafeteria! The recommended donation is $10, but you're are only required to donate $5. We will have food of course (Subway sandwiches + assorted holiday snacks), raffles (!!!), and fun! There will be a variety of activities, including card-making for hospitalized children. You can also invite your friends who are not in Key Club to come since we will be doing charity work and will appreciate any additional help. You can also come pick up your membership items!!
Barnes & Noble Bookfair Thank you for those of you who bought books from Barnes & Noble!!!
Upcoming Events Central Park Cocoa Classic (Sunday, January 8th) Time: 7:30am to 12pm Location: 102nd Street Transverse, Central Park, NY Project Captain: *needed* Description: We'll be helping NYCRUNS at their first run of the year! This event will have plenty of hot cocoa for participants to enjoy. Volunteers will help with water stations, bag checks, refreshment, etc. Bronx Science Passenger Movie Fundraiser (Monday, January 16, 2017) Time: 10:30AM Location: TBD (Manhattan) Price: $12 Bronx Science will be holding a fundraiser to watch the movie Passenger and it will be on MLK day, which means student metro cards will be working! CNY Firecracker Festival (Saturday, January 28th) Shift Times: 8am to 1pm; 12:30pm to 5pm Location: Sara D. Roosevelt Park Project Captain: *needed* Description: Better Chinatown is hosting the Lunar New Year Parade Festival! We will be helping with set-up, break down, and helping the different companies run their booth. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time during the event itself to enjoy the festival! Lunch will be provided.
Division 9 Ice Skating Fundraiser (Monday January 30th, 2017) Date: Monday January 30th, 2017 Time: 11:00 AM Location: LeFrak Center at Lakeside Prospect Park (171 East Drive Brooklyn, NY 11225) Price: $10 WITH skates $15 WITHOUT skates Division 9 will be holding its annual ice skating fundraiser. Everyone is invited so bring all your friends and family! All proceeds will be going towards the Governor's Project, Voices for the Blind. No school so student metro cards will be working! Chinese Culture Night (Thursday, February 3rd) Location: Barclays Center Description: The Chinese Culture Night is a great event for children and parents to create a link. The ticket is $30. Jeremy Lin is playing at Nets and he may be playing that night! Kiwanis Club can pay tickets for 25 Key Club members but and we/children must bring one or both of the parents. The parents have to pay their own tickets. Everyone may go but have to pay their own tickets. In addition, everyone will receive a Brooklyn Nets hat with Brooklyn Nets spelled out in Chinese. Sign up if you're interested!
LTC Also, in just over three months, our annual Leadership Training Conference (LTC) will be held in Albany. It is a large annual conference held in Albany where all the Key Clubs from across New York gather for a weekend of fun! We will be releasing more details regarding LTC later on, so be on the lookout for that!
I hope you're all ready for this year's Leadership Training Conference! There will be workshops, dances, and food! This year, LTC will be held from March 30th to April 1st at the Desmond Hotel and will be $290 per Key Club member and $320 for chaperones. If you are interested in assisting with the conference, consider applying to be a conference staff member. You'll get to go to the conference a day earlier and you'll only have to pay $100 instead of $290. Contact your club officers for more details on how to sign up for LTC. Below is also the link for the registration tutorial created by our District Executive Assistant Kacie Luo, but keep in mind that this is only for your faculty advisor to fill out.
District Elections If you are planning on running for District Governor, Secretary, or Treasurer or International Trustee, Vice President, or President, make sure to check out the elections packet detailing the roles of each office, as well as the elections process. The letter of intent and signed service agreement are due by February 1st. Keep in mind that if you are running for a district position, you must attend LTC. Elections Packet: http://ltc.nydkc.org/static/NYDKC%20Elections%20Packet.pdf Awards The deadline for district awards submission is coming up! One of the most applied for award is the Distinguished Key Clubber (DKC) award, which recognizes Key Clubbers who have gone above and beyond the call of service. This award is non-competitive, which means that more than one person may win it, so I highly encourage everyone to apply for it (it's mandatory if you're applying for outstanding). There is also the Outstanding Key Club Member (OKCM) / Outstanding Key Club Officer awards, which recognize a single Key Clubmember/officer. One member per grade may receive OKCM and one officer may receive the Outstanding Key Club Officer award for their respective position. If you would like a recommendation letter from our LTG, Kalvin Chi (anyone applying for Outstanding is required to have one), please fill out the form below. All deadlines are listed in the awards booklet. Awards Booklet: http://nydkc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016-2017-Awards-Booklet.pdf DKC Application: http://dkc-app.nydkc.org/ DKC Application Guide: http://nydkc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Guide-to-DKC-Award.pdf Recommendation Requests: https://docs.google.com/a/stuy.edu/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdTYdu1JqeYjL5H-YsYw0g Vu4Gj8kEMFKzQeBhQuxazh6IH6Q/viewform
Key Club Updates Governor's Project T-Shirts Don't forget to order a governor's project t-shirt! They are now being sold for $10.50 and all you have to do is fill out the form below and you will receive an email shortly after instructing you on how to make the payment. If you need help filling out the form, there is also a tutorial video. Governor's Project T-Shirt Order Form: https://docs.google.com/a/stuy.edu/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftExQ-OYrvCxOoOuUbPf47OeR3N3wpr9EO UxeMqkMq2FvZKA/viewform Thirsty Thirty Key Club has officially begun its Thirsty Thirty campaign in association with The Thirst Project! Thirsty Thirty is a really easy way to raise money for one of our new service partners! If your interested and want to learn more, you can check out this link: https://www.thirstproject.org/thirsty30/ Anti-Bullying Essay Contest The New York District of Kiwanis will be holding this contest as their Governor's Project focuses on Anti-Bullying. The criteria are very simple except that it is open to anyone 16 and under. The winner will win: a trip to Albany with their family visit the state Assembly and have lunch with an assembly person. a $200 gift card The deadline is April 30, 2017. NYC Key Club Windbreakers Division 11 has joined together with divisions 8-13 to bring you the first ever NYC Key Club windbreaker! Each windbreaker is $35 uncustomized and $40 customized. The deadline for ordering a windbreaker has been extended to January 31st. If you haven't already, please give Kalvin or Gavin (or someone who will be seeing one of us) the money for the windbreakers. We need to collect money from everyone before placing the order! Windbreaker Order Form: https://docs.google.com/a/stuy.edu/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfgcLf3bWUo1UKz50XK46FjIY1tRigSHMSwT cjpPFRDiR9Uzw/viewform?c=0&w=1
Our pin!
Hey everyone! We still have pins if you would like to buy them! They’re just $1.00, and they look super cool! You can put them on your backpack (we can twin!), your Stuyvesant Key Club shirt, or anyplace else! Message anyone in the Cabinet if you’d like one!
Key Club Apparel Design Contest! Every year, we hold a contest for our fellow Stuy Key Clubbers to make the design for our hoodies! If you’re interested, begin designing! Designs are due January 21st, 2017, and we’d love it if you sent your submission on time. The winning design will be chosen by a club-wide vote sometime in early February. Here are some guidelines for you to keep in mind: -
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The design can be anything as long as it has "Stuyvesant Key Club" or some variation of it such as “StuyKC.” You can contact the cabinet if you want to make sure your variation is acceptable. Email us a PNG of your design as well as share a Customink link (http://www.customink.com/lab) so we can see where your design goes and what the color of the hoodie should be.
Some ideas for the design: -
Our Mascot: Panda and/or Beaver The Key Club Colors: White, Blue, Gold Our Motto: Caring-- Our way of life
We can’t wait to see all of your designs! StuyKC represent!
End of Year Summary Hello Stuyvesant, 2016 has been a tough year for several reasons, but there are still many reasons it should be celebrated along with the new year! Stuyvesant Key Club will be releasing our mid year progress report in January on our website, stuykc.org, but until then, here's a debrief of the amazing impact we've made as a club. 2016 marks our 26 year anniversary (we've been in Stuy since 1990!) and we have a total of 358 club members this year who've taken the initiative to join a club devoted to volunteerism and leadership. Together, the club has completed a total of 3,014 hours of community service for many local organizations/institutions as translators, walk marshalls, gift wrappers, tutors, ushers, and many other roles. We've held several fundraisers (some with partnered Key Clubs) and raised a total of $1821.5 for reputable charities including YUDA Bands, Icing Smiles, American Cancer Society, and UNICEF (for both Neonatal & Neonatal Tetanus Treatment and Hurricane Matthew Relief). We learned about local issues afflicting our city such as hunger and learned about steps the city has taken to address the issue by personally going to CANstruction, an exhibition dedicated to raising awareness of the issue. Over 30 members participated in donating canned food for the organization at the site. Learn about the organizations mentioned above in our mid-year progress report. We hope to continue inspiring the amazing Stuyvesant and Key Club community to make a difference in the world. We have more amazing events planned for the new year; look forward to them! Enjoy the rest of your break!! Best Regards, Jiaqi Gao, Stuyvesant Key Club President
Maker Faire By Jeffrey Chen The Maker Faire was a great experience for everyone involved. There were several activity stations set up with Barnes & Noble’s educational STEM toys, where kids enjoyed building with Legos, Magformers, Squigz, Strawbeez, stackable blocks, plastic cups, and popsicle sticks. Participants were even able to try on virtual reality goggles! Key Club members helped with facilitating these activities and providing guidance. Additionally, Stuypulse, the Stuyvesant robotics team, put on a demonstration of two of their robots: Michael 1 and Destiny. Michael 1, a space-themed robot from Stuypulse’s 2009’s season, dispenses webbish rubber balls (“moon rocks”) and picks them back up with a pulley-like system. Kids engaged in a basketball-like game where they threw the dispensed “moon rocks” back into Michael 1’s top storage compartment. The other, more recently built robot displayed by Stuypulse, Destiny, picks up foam balls (“boulders”) and aims to throw them through an opening in a makeshift tower. Some kids engaged in a soccer-like game with Destiny where they kicked back a “boulder” Destiny threw. Overall, the Maker Faire was a great experience for everybody: the kids involved had a lot of fun and we (the volunteers) really enjoyed working with them.
Photos taken by Sammi Lin
Photos taken by Sammi Lin
By Jenna Foo I excitedly entered Barnes and Nobles and walked to the back section where different tables were being set up. I took a few seconds to browse the foreign technology before being friendly greeted by two of the organizers for the event. They were both inviting and introduced me to the activities enthusiastically. What I found the most memorable were these gadgets called littleBits that connected together magnetically to allow you to build different machines like fans and flashing lights. The job of us volunteers was to guide the little kids in exploring the technology and to answer any questions. It was fun being around small children and seeing how creative they could be with technology. For example, I was really surprised when one kid built a detailed clothing store made out of scrap legos from several different kits. It was even complete with mannequins and display cases. Another toy on display was Strawbees, which involved using straws cut to different sizes to make more advanced creations like catapults and claws. I realized just how ingenious these kids were when they started coming up with their own blueprints for designs made out of Strawbees, like a boomerang and a ball, and used their imagination to make it all work. Another section was dedicated to more tech savvy and electronic linked toys like 3D pens, a virtual reality headset, a customizable board that connected to a phone app, and a robotic sphere that moved around at your whim. The Maker Faire was a really enjoyable event for me and I'm grateful that I was able to meet so many other people here, both volunteers and organizers. Even though I thought I was up-to-date on today's technology, I got to see a lot of new things I never knew existed. The customers were great, the toys were cool, and overall, the atmosphere was just really warm. I would definitely want to volunteer for this event next year and see all the new technology that will be developed in 2017!
Photos taken by Jenna Foo
Photos taken by Jenna Foo
Concern Worldwide By Cathy Cai I didn’t know what to expect from the Concern Worldwide event. The location itself was in a towering glass building full of busy business people, and I remember wondering to myself how this professional office could have anything to do with the poor slums of Bangladesh. When I walked in, I was taken aback by the friendliness of the directors, who prepared for us “goodies,” as they called it, which were comprised of chips, popcorn, pretzels, and munchkins scattered on a table in their conference room, and right next to them were mountains of calendars wrapped in plastic. The two volunteers taught me how to wrap the calendars around a piece of paper explaining their Heart Handicrafts’ Women’s project, and then tie the roll together with a piece of thin ribbon. I looked around and saw that all around their walls are framed pictures of people they helped, a girl going to school or a boy drinking clean water in places including Bangladesh. We finished almost an hour early, which is an anomaly. Before she came, this one woman explained, there would be two to three staff members rolling them every day for like three days. Last year, it took people working in shifts seven hours to finish. Then, she proceeded to ask about Stuyvesant and how she knows Ms. Dunitz, who left last year (Shout out to Ms. Dunitz!). I still didn’t know exactly what I did until I went home, and read a copy of the flyer I took a picture of. Apparently, the calendars were hand-stitched by disadvantaged Bangladeshi women who are incredibly talented in handiwork but had no way to exploit their talent. Concern offered them development programs to start small businesses. I’m really glad that Key Club gave me the opportunity to help such a humanitarian organization and be part of an effort much greater. And the food was good too.
Photos taken by Cathy Cai
Photos taken by Cathy Cai
Kidney Walk By Cathy Cai If there’s one thing I remember about this event, it’s that it was freezing cold. The second thing I remember was being really impressed by the entire dynamic of the event. When I arrived at the peak of dawn, everyone was rushing around, setting up tents, organizing the supplies, and putting up signs. What really struck me was the fact that everyone, who were all working really hard, were all volunteers. Even kids probably around the age of seven or eight were running around in the signature orange “Staff” shirt, helping their parents organize the walk. I mostly just sat in the check-in tent signing people in, watching as they readied themselves to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Every family was there for a different reason. There was an old man who said that he saw the tents outside his apartment window and wanted to join in on the fun. There were entire “teams” walking in memory of a lost loved one. There were also the labels, “donor family” or “organ recipient” that marked what each person who walking for. The entire event was for a remarkable cause, and I was really astonished by the dedication of everyone there—both the walkers and the volunteers who organized the whole thing. I’m really glad to have attended this event, and I hope to volunteer again next year.
Photos taken by Cathy Cai
Canstruction By Yvonne Pan After a long Wednesday at school, I ran down to Ferry’s park, where a group of Key Clubbers were already waiting. We made our way to Brookfield Mall in just five minutes, and I was astonished by the sheer size and creativity of the structures made entirely out of cans. We took the escalator to the second floor of the building and proudly dumped our cans into a box filled with cans from former contributors. A sweet, perky lady that would later join our group photo informed us that all the cans donated and used in the sculptures would later be donated to City Harvest which would then distribute the food locally. I think that Canstruction was a great event that combined artistic creativity with the power of giving back. The art exhibit had 25 unique can sculptures with admirable stories and descriptions of the significance of the structure as well as an account of the process it took to create the magnificent construction. As a carousel enthusiast, the carousel sculpture was my favorite. The structure won two awards and it’s easy to see why. I’m so glad we took a group photo in front of it. Canstruction was a delightful event in that it spread awareness of world hunger through exhibits that all could I enjoy. I’m sorry that we went on the last day and I could therefore not visit it again.
Photos taken by Cathy Cai, Jenna Foo, and Tiffany Chen
By Tiffany Chen I walked to the group of Key Clubbers that crowded in the park close to Ferry’s with a can of white beans in my hand. I was so excited to go to Canstruction. I knew it was the last day and I really wanted to check it out. The description of it was so cool and I was glad that I heard about it a few days earlier. As a group, we walked to Canstruction together. It was in Brookfield Mall, so it only took a few minutes. When we first walked in, I was stunned. There were sculptures made out of cans throughout the floor. We quickly found our way to the second floor where they were taking cans and dumped our cans in the collection box. I was incredibly happy that the large box was close to full. It was to the point that some of the cans fell out of the box, so a bunch of friends and I went to pick them up and place them in the box to make sure every donated can went to where they belonged. Afterwards, we split up to look around the mall. There were about thirty can statues, and each of them were amazing. My personal favorites were the carousel one, the Pidgey one, and the yes-no one (the word changed depending on which angle you looked at it), but the Starry Night statue has a little piece of my heart because that’s my favorite painting. I also loved looking at all of the awards the different sculptures receives, although, in all honesty, all of them deserved an award for how beautiful they were. Overall, I was incredibly happy with the experience, and I was so glad that I was free after school that day. I think that this is such a creative way to get people to donate cans to City Harvest to be distributed locally, and I was glad to be a part of that. Hopefully Canstruction will continue to happen for years to come.
By Kalvin Chi Canstruction was on Wednesday, November 16th at Brookfield, which was a few blocks away from Stuyvesant. As soon as I walked in, I noticed a giant shoe sculpture made completely out of cans. While I looked around for other Key Clubbers, I noticed several other sculptures placed all throughout the shopping center. Once everyone met up, we dropped all of the cans that we brought into a giant donation bin, which would be going to City Harvest, which would distribute the cans locally. Then, we went around looking at all of the sculptures, including a carousel, a giant Pidgey, and even the snapchat ghost. We noticed that each sculpture was labeled with the number of cans used and looked around for the one with the most number of cans. Most of the sculptures used thousands of cans and the one of the most used over 8,000! One of my personal favorites was the YES/NO sculpture. When we looked at the sculpture from one side, it looked like it said "YES", but once we walked around to the other side, it looked like it said "NO". It was stunning how someone could create such a cool optical illusion using just cans. Although the idea of sculptures made out of cans sounded kind of boring at first, it was actually amazing seeing all of the things that people had created out of these household items, while also being able to help people in the local community. I look forward to going again in the future and seeing all of the new creations that people have come up with.
Goddard Book Fair
Photos taken by Cathy Cai
Photos taken by Cathy Cai
By Sammi Lin On Sunday, November 20, I gathered up my heaviest coat, shivering against the bitter wind as I headed to the Goddard Riverside Community Center. Being a self-proclaimed book nerd, I thought that volunteering at a book fair and being able to surround myself in an equally as enthusiastic community would be the perfect opportunity to raise money for charity, rekindle people’s love for reading, as well as a fun way to spend a typical Sunday afternoon. Upon arrival, I immediately noticed that there was a myriad of signs and members of the Goddard volunteering staff kindly guiding and directing both customers and volunteers alike to their designated location. I was immediately impressed with the organization of this event, complete with a sign in table for the volunteers and rows of bins containing all the necessary equipment we would be needing to help out at the event. As I sauntered down to the main selling area, I was taken aback at the scale of the book fair. I had expected a well-sized room with maybe a couple of tables and bookshelves for books, but this book fair was much larger than I had imagined. There were three sections of the fair, with two indoor spaces that were separated for children’s books and more mature books, as well as an outdoor space, enclosed within a large tent, selling games and coloring books and such. I was stationed by young adult fiction, as it is my specialty, however, there were many other sections, including adult mystery, science fiction, cook books, science, religion, crafts, and the like. Overall, the experience was overwhelming at first due to the scale of the event, but I had a great time. Interacting with customers and inclining them to buy some of my favorite books at the fair was great fun and the organization’s hospitality was incredible. “Mentors” rotated amongst the table, ensuring that the event ran smoothly and answering any questions the first-time volunteers (including myself) had. As well, a free lunch and T-shirts were also provided, which only increases my excitement to attend this event again next year.
Photos by Sammi Lin
JCC Wrap It Up
Photos taken by Elizabeth Doss
Photos taken by Elizabeth Doss
Thank you for reading the November/December Issue of the Locksmith; please email any feedback to locksmith@stuykc.org.