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  • Winning strategy

    August 27, 2009

    What happened when the Key Club of Colebrook Academy in New Hampshire created games to build kids’ self-esteem? Fun, excitement and pride.The Key Club of Colebrook Academy in New Hampshire had some fun with Key Club’s Service Initiative, Live 2 Learn—and they helped kids learn along the way. First, club members played around with some ideas. Then they decided to produce educational games, says Heather Hibbard, immediate past president of the Key Club. Searching for a “signature game” the club turned to the Internet and hit the jackpot.

    “At a teachers’ learning shop, we found unique ways to use Bingo to enhance learning, which fit the criteria of Key Club’s Major Emphasis Project,” Hibbard says. “We developed our project to make the learning process for children ages 5 to 9 easier and more effective.”

    The club’s goals were to teach games that parents could do at home with their children, to make learning fun and less stressful for everyone, to help the children overcome learning obstacles and to help them succeed in school. They hope to have a hand in helping students participate in school with good behavior and gain greater self-esteem.

    “Children who believe in themselves are more likely to help out at school, at home and in their community,” Hibbard says. “They see us teenagers mentoring them, and we hope they’ll want to do the same once they are older.”

    Everyone loved the games. Parents said it was a great idea. Two school board members and the superintendent were
    interested, too. In all, the club gave away 55 sets of games. What they got back was even better.

    “We all had a great time,” Hibbard says. “We felt we made a difference.”

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  • A taste of hunger, a taste of the real world

    August 27, 2009

    The Key Club of Southeast High School in Bradenton, Florida, treats guests to dinner in the third world.In life, Mary DeLazzer fed the hungry for more than 20 years at Our Daily Bread, a soup kitchen in Bradenton, Florida. After she died in a tragic accident, the Key Club of Southeast High School, Bradenton, took up the cause and raised $2,700 for Our Daily Bread, as well as awareness of the world hunger issue.

    The club’s World Hunger Banquet offered attendees the chance to experience a brief glimpse into life in a thirdworld nation. “When people entered the banquet, they drew a ticket out of a box that determined whether they were a person of the first, second or third world,” says club member Kiah Brown. Half of the tickets indicated third world, 35 percent second world and the remaining 15 percent were first world. Then, guests were led to their respective areas. Here’s a taste of what they experienced:

    First world
    • Nice chairs
    • Tables adorned with tablecloths
    • Sparkling silverware
    • Three-course meal of salad, spaghetti and cake

    Second world
    • Plain tables and chairs
    • A paper plate with rice and beans

    Third world
    • A small area with only blankets on which to sit
    • No plates or utensils
    • Only rice to eat—after everyone else had been served

    Following the banquet, guests learned about hunger locally and around the world. A grant, food donated by the school’s culinary department and through a silent auction and ticket sales helped support the event.

    “The banquet helped remind people to appreciate what they have and to inspire them to help those who are less fortunate,” says club president Severin Walstad.

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  • Back to school

    August 27, 2009

    The Sa Pa school as it looks now.

    The Rocky Mountain District of Key Club is at it again. After holding countless bake sales, dog washes, lollipop sales and spaghetti dinners to raise more than $40,000 to build a school in Vietnam a few years ago, the Key Clubbers discovered a new way to help Vietnamese kids. Once again partnering with Children of Peace International (COPI), the district set a goal to raise $72,000 to renovate another school, this time in Sa Pa, Vietnam. Sa Pa is in a rural, mountainous part of the country, so transportation and construction costs are high.

    COPI is dedicated to building schools, orphanages and hospitals in poverty-stricken areas of Vietnam

    , says Andrea Novotny, Rocky Mountain District governor. Her Key Club has been helping build a school in Doan Hung and plans to renovate an existing school in Sa Pa. “The fact that our involvement deals specifically with building schools sets COPI apart,” she says. “We’re focusing our efforts on helping people our age, or close to our age.”

    It also means a lot because the kids have no other access to education. “Through working with this organization, we have gained an understanding that the only way to ever truly help anyone is by helping them to become self sufficient.”

    Currently, the district is busy raising funds to ensure the project, which is set to begin construction later this year, stays
    on track.

    “Most of the fundraising takes place in the clubs or divisions,” Novotny says. Fundraisers include car washes, school dances or, “due to the fact that we live in the Midwest, cow bingo.” The club also does some fundraising at its district convention in a competition known as Copper for COPI. “It’s basically a penny war between teams,” Novotny says. Each club also turns in funds raised at convention. “This year, we set a goal of $25,000. If we met this goal, Dave Harris, our district administrator, pledged to shave off all the hair from his beard and head. We exceeded the goal, and Mr. Harris did, indeed, shave his head and beard! This wasn’t exactly a fundraiser, granted, but it was certainly a great tool for promoting our goal.”

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  • Bowling for breath

    August 27, 2009

    The KIWIN’S Club of St. Lucy’s High School in California, bowls for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. This past year, the club partnered with a restaurant to raise almost $5,000.A family connection and lots of fun keep the KIWIN’S Club of St. Lucy’s High School in California bowling for breath.

    The club began participating in the Cystic Fibrosis Bowl for Breath in the 2005–06 school year under past president Britney Blackburn, says club president Isbella Diaz. Blackburn’s family already was involved with the organization because she had a cousin with cystic fibrosis.

    This year the club participated in two bowl-a-thons, Diaz says. The reaction from club members is always enthusiastic. “It’s one of our most popular and wellknown events for KIWIN’S,” Diaz says.

    “We raise money and help out, but it’s an event that really lights a fire inside every KIWIN. There’s nothing like that feeling of getting out of school, changing into your blue KIWIN’S shirt and heading over to the bowling alley. You find your friends, pick your lane and, all the while, you’re supporting an amazing cause!”

    The club works with a local restaurant that donates $1,000 for every $1,000 raised by the club. This past year, that translated into a donation of $4,539 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

    The club also raised awareness of cystic fibrosis through creating and distributing information packets on the disease, which helped gain sponsorships.

    Club members hung posters advertising the event around their school and in the bowling alley on the event days, and the club shared cystic fibrosis facts during school announcements.

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  • House of honor

    August 27, 2009

    Jesuit Key Club of Tampa senior Trey Warnock and junior Charlie Kutt move an interior wall into place at the club’s Habitat for Humanity project to honor a sponsor’s late wife. Their club built a new house for a family with children.By now, most people know about Habitat for Humanity and the good it does for families who need homes. One Key Club took a Habitat project to a whole new level.

    “In July of last year, our friend and thengovernor-elect of the Kiwanis Florida District, David Liddell, suddenly lost his wife, Nancy,” says Eileen Charette, a member of the Tampa Jesuit High School Key Club.

    The Liddells had been true friends of Key Club in the Florida District and special friends to the Jesuit Key Club in Tampa because they belonged to the sponsoring Kiwanis Club of Tampa, Charette says.

    The Key Clubbers wanted to make a statement about their admiration for Nancy. They decided the best way to honor her was by providing safe and permanent housing for a family with children.

    The club raised $45,000, found a co-sponsor and, on April 4, 2009, held the wall-raising ceremony
    in Plant City, Florida. For seven weeks, culminating with the dedication on May 16, 2009, volunteers arrived at least
    twice each week to build the house, Charette says. Each day included prayer, safety talks, meal times and serious work for seven or eight hours. Jesuit Key Club members, their families, Kiwanians, Gerdau Ameristeel workers, teachers from Jesuit and local Habitat volunteers all pitched in.

    What did the club learn? “Don’t consider how difficult the project is. Consider how amazing the impact will be,” Charette says. “Figure out what you’ll need, say a lot of prayers and ask for help. If the project matters, you’re going to sweat a lot.”

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