Star Beacon
March 18, 2009 06:44 pm
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SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — With a new school comes new opportunities, and this year Lakeside High School students have the option of being members of Key Club, which is the oldest and largest service program for high school students. Key Club exists on almost 5,000 high school campuses, primarily in the United States and Canada. It has grown internationally to include the Caribbean nations, Central and South America, and most recently, Asia and Australia. Key Club International is a part of Kiwanis Interna-tional and is sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club.
Realizing a new opportunity for community involvement, last summer senior Kristie Fernberg researched the possibility of establishing a Key Club at Lakeside. After finding advisers for the program, she began the process of obtaining the necessary information to form a charter group. The advisers, along with Fernberg, met with two members of the local Kiwanis Club for induction and sponsorship into Key Club Interna-tional. Because this high school organization is sponsored by the Kiwanis, one Kiwanis member must be present at every Key Club meeting.
This year at Lakeside, Key Club meetings are held approximately once a month in Lynne Montgomery’s classroom before the school day commences. She, along with Janice Timonere and Karen Juhola volunteer their time to be advisers for the organization. The student officers include Kristie Fernberg as president, Alyssa Wheeler as vice president, Megan Volpone as secretary and Allison Luoma as treasurer.
All members of Key Club must obtain 35 hours of community service, similar to that of the National Honor Society, but the time requirement cannot be shared between the two service organizations. The vision statement of Key Club is “To develop competent, capable, and caring leaders through the vehicle of service.” Consequently, all members must volunteer their time to various organizations and hold numerous fund-raisers. Because Key Club is a non-profit organization, all proceedings must benefit the community in which the program is established.
Even though Lakeside’s Key Club is relatively new, many service based projects have already been accomplished. These include: working at the gift wrapping booth in the Ashtabula Mall during holiday hours, making paper butterflies to send to a museum in Texas (each butterfly symbolized the killing of a child in the Holocaust), participating with the care of animals at the Animal Protective League, volunteering at area nursing homes and helping with a local soup kitchen. The most recent project was to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday with preschool students at Windermere Elementary School by reading some of Dr. Seuss’ books to the youngsters and by making crafts to accompany the stories.
Other activities that the Key Club members would like to participate in this year include: sending care packages to soldiers overseas, hosting a sorting party for medical supplies, helping with the Ronald McDonald House in Cleveland, and raising money for children diagnosed with blood diseases.
This first-year program is open to any student enrolled at Lakeside.
“The purpose of the club is to volunteer and better our school and community,” said Wheeler.
In the near future the Key Club will be providing applications for pro-spective members. There is an annual membership fee of $10. For any student interested in joining Key Club next year, there will be sign up sheets, announcements and a meeting held in April.
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