The Official Alameda High Key Club Newsletter VOLUME 1 ISSUE 3 DECEMBER 10, 2012
Alameda High - Division 2 - Region 9 Cali-Nev-Ha 1
Inside This Issue Historian Says What? …………..…..…….….…. page 2 A Word From Our Officers ………..…….….…………. 3 OMCA Gallery Sneak Peek ……………….....………. 6 Special Olympics Bowling Tournament……..….….. 8 Salvation Army Thanksgiving Luncheon ……..…..... 9 November DCM ………………...………….….…....… 13 March of Dimes ………..…..………..……....….…..… 14 UNICEF……….………………………………...……….... 15 Credits……………………..…….………….………….... 16
Food Faire! Nov 30
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Historian Says What?
Just me creeping on the taxidermied (not a word) animals... Oh wait, is that a turtle I see there?
Hey, everyone! As usual, it’s been a lot of fun putting this issue together and going to events to take pictures. Last week, a member noticed that I didn’t have the newsletter ready and it was already the first week of the month. That made me really happy/excited/proud to see that someone actually takes notice of these things because I really do hope that everyone has as much fun looking through this as I do.
The main focus of these newsletters are specifically for the members — to catch up/recap on the events that have been going on in the past month and to become aware of key (hah!) Key Club-related information. There is so much about Key Club International (partnerships, Kiwanis, club structure, projects) that many of us probably do not know about and to become aware that you are part of something so big is essential. As for me, actually realizing I was apart of something monumental like that motivated me to become more involved and educated. And I hope it does the same for you.
- Danica Everyone should come to the DCMs more! Ice skating was so much fun. Look, I’m literally glowing with happiness! :) 3
A Word From Our Officers KEY CLUB— A REWARDING EXPERIENCE Hello, Key club members! My name is Jio and I am your Co-project chair with Tina, and as project chairs, our duty is to look for events around the community, some of which will be chosen for our future volunteering events. Now, I have been in key club since junior year, and although I merely stumbled upon it at first (I was asking a friend of mine in key club for homework help), I am not at all regretful of being dragged into the club. In fact, Key Club has actually been quite a rewarding experience for me. Every event wherein we go to help out the community, is a satisfying chance not only to gain community service hours, but also to get out and do something new. It’s not too often when one gets the chance to learn from other cultures while participating in a certain cultural festival, to feel the exhilaration in being able to regularly help others, or just learning and interacting with other members of the club. Being a current officer in my senior year, I hope that my partner Tina and I would be able to do our duties well as project managers so that we could all have a enriching and entertaining year in Key Club. - Jio Calderon, Co-Project Chair
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A Word From Our Officers
KEY CLUB OPENS DOORS Hello Kiwis! My name is Jay and I am the treasurer for AHS Key Club. When I first joined Key Club as a freshman, my main intention was to just build up and decorate my college application. I initially believed that since colleges expect me to participate in a variety of extracurricular activities in high school, I am required to join in a club. I was skeptical about its name and honestly thought that it was a club where keys are made and sent to kids in Africa–something along those lines—but, no, I was definitely wrong. Key Club is not a club where we make keys, but a club where we unlock and open doors. I began to develop and formulate a different opinion. The more people I met, the more I was able to grow socially. The more the more events I attended, the more I felt like I was making a difference. Key Club is not only a club that benefits your college resume and supplies your required community service hours. It is a club that helps you develop your communication and leadership skills. It is a club that helps you find your values and enrich your character. It is a club that makes a huge difference in the community that we help to transform. After being in the club for a few years, I find that I have developed as a person and attained many important skills essential to life—thanks to Key Club. - Jay Zhang, treasurer 5
OMCA Gallery of California Natural Sciences Sneak Peek Event By Danica Liang On November 11, a small group of Keyclubbers from Alameda High helped out at the Oakland Museum of California for a sneak peek of their new gallery. The purpose of the event was to allow the public to give feedback on the progress made so far of the Gallery of California Natural Sciences. Sticky notes were scattered throughout the gallery for critique and ideas of improvement. Exhibits in the gallery included displays of taxidermy and these featured a variety of animals. There were also several interactive activities to help raise awareness in ecology and the environment. Most of the attendees were satisfied with the gallery. ―It’s going to be great,‖ said a visitor on her way out. Volunteers arrived there at around eleven o'clock and were quickly put to work, making gift bags for the guests. Two pencils and a pouch of Poppy flower seeds were placed in the middle of a piece of cloth. The cloth was folded to hold the gifts in place and pieces of string were tied around the folded cloth. (Continued on page ) 6
November 11
OMCA Gallery of California Natural Sciences Sneak Peek Event By Danica Liang (Continued from page )
When people started arriving, the volunteers were divided up and given different tasks. Danica Liang and Avery Kuang stood by the entrance greeting people and holding the door. Andy Huang and Oscar Leung held up signs to help direct people to the right place. Meanwhile, Jason Liu, Brian Zhen, Brian Ye and Nick Wong stayed behind to finish making the gift bags. For the second shift, everyone swapped jobs. Towards the end of the event, volunteers were given the chance to help draw images that would be featured in an animation for the exhibit. An animation would be created to depict the ―Future of Oakland‖ with drawings done by event attendees, children and volunteers. During the event, there were not many people who came. Nonetheless, the Keyclubbers had a lot of fun.
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Special Olympics Bowling Tournament By Scarlett Wu
November 18
While the rain splattered on the ground outside, 80 Key Clubbers and Kiwanis from around Alameda and Oakland gathered at the AMC Bowling Center on Saturday morning. We assisted and cheered on the special needs bowlers for their annual Bowling Tournament. Afterwards, some volunteers had fun bowling as well. The enthusiasm of the players was infectious; their cheers and exclamations of joy created a very energetic atmosphere for everyone there. I cheered loudly and clapped for my bowling lane. Each lane was composed of 6 players, and there would only be one winner. The winner of my lane scored over 400 points, which was more points than I would ever get. I was amazed at their vitality; they were skilled bowlers who genuinely loved the competition, but most importantly the fun, from the tournament. Their hearty high-fives and shouts of encouragement towards every player showed me their teamwork and respect. The experience I had volunteering there taught me even more how those with special needs are not any different from other people. They have fun and enjoy life the same way we all do. They even bowl better than I ever can! 8
Salvation Army Thanksgiving Luncheon November 22 The Alameda High School Key Club took part in serving free meals at the Oakland Salvation Army. We basically prepared a huge feast where everyone could come together, eat, and make friends. There were tons of willing volunteers to help prepare and serve Thanksgiving meals that consisted of juicy turkey, soft gravy, potatoes, and fresh salad. There was even a donation of around ten pumpkin and apple pies for dessert! In addition, two musicians filled the room with lovely music to lighten up the mood even more. What I liked about the event was the amount of supportive and kind people and how each one participated to give everyone a pleasant Thanksgiving. Thinking back I wished I could have more conversations with the friendly people eating instead of getting caught up with work. Unfortunately, it only lasted a little after noon, but next Thanksgiving, I would definitely return to help again.‖ - Aiden Sun
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Salvation Army Thanksgiving Luncheon
―Working for Salvation Army during Thanksgiving made me feel warm and fuzzy. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I was happy to help out others on a day that we should be thankful on. Not only did I see familiar faces, but I also made new friends through the event. It was great seeing so many volunteers working together to accomplish one goal – serving others. Each of us had different tasks to do such as packing gifts, serving food or water, wrapping utensils, and making food trays. Although there were a lot of things going on at once, this event was well organized. My job was to place the salad and cranberry sauce onto the food trays and then hand it out to the servers. To my surprise, hundreds of people came to this event and we worked almost non-stop. Even though my legs were numb and my arms were sore after finishing the task, I felt good contributing my part to our community and it made my Thanksgiving a day to be remembered.‖ - Qiqi Wu
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Salvation Army Thanksgiving Luncheon ―The Thanksgiving event hosted by Salvation Army helped to make for a day more memorable than most. That day, a considerable amount of volunteers all came to Oakland to help pass out about 1,500 free Thanksgiving meals. The event lasted several hours and volunteers helped with setting up, cooking, serving, and cleaning. The entire affair really embodied the spirit of Thanksgiving, and it really made for a fun event. Most volunteers began the day bundling soap with gift wrap, which was later handed out to those who came for a meal. After that sweatshop-like experience, the volunteers were all divided into different shifts. Serving duty was quite enjoyable; one was really able to get around and talk with everyone whilst also bringing both food and joy to those who received said food. After several hours that seemed way too short in retrospect, the event sadly came to a close, and cleaning duty began. All in all, the event was quite enjoyable and was one of the few times one could have fun working. The soap was quite nice too.‖ - Avery Kuang
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Salvation Army Thanksgiving Luncheon
―Working at Salvation Army was a great experience for me and I'm sure for many other people as well. Some jobs we had to do were serving the food to our guests, wrapping gifts to hand out, and trash duty. It was an enjoyable experience because we got to celebrate our Thanksgiving with the less fortunate of our society, and help them out on a day of thanks. I hope everyone else had as much of a blast as I did and I hope you all come to the next event on Christmas!‖ - Danny Wong ―During my experience as a volunteer at the Salvation Army Thanksgiving luncheon, I was given the opportunity to serve turkey to a great amount of people. The smile on their faces reminds me of how great volunteering is. I, myself, also had a magnificent time serving these people. And the ice cream was delicious!‖ - Jason Fan 12
November DCM @ Dublin Ice Rink! ―At this event, we joined Key Clubbers from other schools in our division, Division 2, and had fun ice skating. We met other Key Clubbers and reunited with friends from other schools. Along with the ice skating portion of this event, Charles Chu, our division’s lieutenant governor, held our monthly DCM. He and other divisional leaders discussed Key Club business. Overall, the event was really fun.‖ - Jennifer He
―I wasn’t planning on coming to this event initially, but I did and I am so glad that I did! I had so much fun. I think it was my second time ice skating, but I can barely recall when I did it my first time (I was pretty young) so I kind of counted it as my first real time ice skating. Ice skating is pretty scary. And it hurts your feet (but hey, they were cute ice skates). But it was so much fun to be with everyone and the event had such a positive atmosphere, you couldn’t help but be happy. It was the perfect opportunity to bond with people you know! Because there was another division there besides D2, there were a ton of people. I was a wonderful way to spend a Friday night.‖ - Danica Liang 13
March of Dimes What is March of Dimes?
A non-profit organization created by Franklin D. Roosevelt initially to fight against polio, a disease that can leave people physically disabled.
Its mission is to improve the health of mothers and babies through the prevention of birth defects, infant mortality, and premature births.
March of Dimes got its name when the organization used to have booths where children were able to donate a dime for fundraising.
It is one of Key Club’s three partnerships
Since 1978, Key Club has helped to fundraise and raise awareness for March of Dimes
The month of November is Prematurity Awareness Month and November 17th is World Prematurity Day with March of Dimes.
Random Facts: 1 in 8 babies are born premature. The #1 cause of death in babies during the first month of life is premature birth. Premature babies are at risk for lifelong disabilities and other serious health problems. 14
Unicef: United Nations Children’s Fund
UNICEF is one of Key Club’s three service partners. Through October’s Trickor-Treat For UNICEF service opportunity, we will donate money to help children in other parts of the world.
UNICEF is a fund created by the United Nations with the purpose of improving the lives of children and mothers
Goal: to help children overcome poverty, violence, disease, discrimination, and other problems that may interfere with a child’s success in life.
Have you signed the Zero Pledge yet? For each person that signs, a packet of rehydration salts will be donated to UNICEF. A packet is mixed with clean water and will help prevent a child’s suffering from a deadly form of dehydration. https://secure.unicefusa.org/site/Advocacy? cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=214&utm_source=U5MR_TAFe_20120913&utm_medium=email&utm_ca
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Credits
A big thanks to everyone who helped contribute to make this newsletter happen! :) And thank you for reading this!
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Want to contribute next issue? Contact Danica Liang (Historian) at Danicat_dog@yahoo.com! 16