By contributing writer Dzenisa Hodzic, ’28
Key Club is organizing a food drive competition in all of the J-D homerooms to help fill pantries before the holidays. The competition will run from Tuesday, Nov. 12 through Thursday, Nov. 21. Key Club representatives will be responsible for delivering collection boxes to each homeroom. The homeroom that collects the most canned goods and other non-perishable items to donate to the Food Bank of CNY will win donuts.
Key Club is a service organization made by Kiwanis that allows students from freshmen to seniors to take action in their school and local community by volunteering during after school hours. Since Key Club is an organization that’s all over the country, students must pay a $12.00 fee to enter the club. Kiwanis saves all the fees and at the end of every year donates that money to organizations that help children in need.
“When the old adviser for Key Club retired after 20 years I was presented with the opportunity to become the new adviser and I was more than happy to take the role,” said English teacher Diane Rushford. Rushford said the reason why she wanted to become the new adviser for Key Club is because she was very interested in community service and thought it was a good opportunity to work with new students. Rushford’s role as adviser is to look for volunteering opportunities in the school or local community and to supervise meetings.
The co-presidents of Key Club–juniors Elizabeth Downing and Lilly Engel–were happy with the turnout of members this year. “We were thrilled about the amount of freshmen who joined this year because over the last few years the number of members in Key Club were decreasing,” said both Downing and Engel. The reason why Downing and Engel joined Key Club was because the club sounded fun and also seemed good to put on a college application. As the co-presidents of Key Club, their responsibility is to raise money by doing bake sales and other fundraising activities while also making sure to schedule meetings and for club members to attend meetings.
The secretary and vice president of Key Club are freshman Kathryn Downing and junior Olivia Yang. Downing joined because her sister is the co-president of Key Club while Yang joined because her friends are a part of the club. Downing’s role as secretary of Key Club is to keep numbers straight, like determining what cookies are the highest demand and which cookies are the lowest in demand. Yang’s role as vice president is to organize fundraisers and to assist the co-presidents whenever they need help.
Catherine Wells, a freshman who joined Key Club this school year, said the reason why she joined is because she wanted to help her school and local community. Wells’ role in Key Club is to promote and raise money for fundraisers the club does. Wells’ favorite part about the club is helping people in need and meeting new friends who also share an interest in helping other people in need.
