K E Y C L U B hunter edition

Official Newsletter of Hunter Key Club in New York District 11

Hunter Key Club Starts Strong

In this issue…

Club Open House ....... 2

Kidney & Urology

Walk, NY Cares Day ... 3

JDRF Walk.......................4

Upcoming Events ........ 5

UNICEF

Trick-or-Treat...................6

MEETINGS // Thursday Activities, Room 420

Volume 1 Issue 2 October 2010

We're off to an amazing start!

In just this month of October,

we've drawn new members from

across the terms and have tripled

our attendance from last year.

In particular, it's been exciting

to see so many individuals from

the seventh and eighth grades

show up at our weekly meetings.

After all, you are the future leaders

of Key Club!

We've had a lot of

extraordinary events in October. I

hope that despite confusing

commutes and the often hectic

nature of volunteer work, all of

you who attended were able to

gain a sense of the value of

community service. You should

feel proud: you truly have

impacted other's lives!

Aside from joining the plethora

of activities that we have

scheduled for each month, I

encourage Key Clubbers to

understand and become involved

with Key Club as an organization.

We have plenty of opportunities

for leadership: the Projects

Committee, the Newsletter

Committee and the Publicity

Committee, all of which can be

joined by simply contacting your

board.

In addition, due to the

substantial attendance of the

middle school terms, the board will

be working on developing a

Builder's Club branch throughout

this service year. We are open to

anyone who is interested in leading

this branch.

All in all, keep your minds open

to all the opportunities Key Club

will offer to you in the coming year.

There will be many.

-Ella Cheng

By Ella Cheng

G.O. Club Open House was a great success! The

board arrived at the beginning of activities period to

set up the booth, when the school auditorium (the site

of the open house) had already been filled with crowds

of excited parents and students. Displaying official Key

Club merchandise and distributing brochures we had

ordered from the Key Club organization prior to the

event, we attracted much attention and were able to

take advantage of the opportunity to introduce Key

Club to many onlookers. In total, we had over forty

interested students sign onto our email list. Most

notably, we were approached by an array of students

from different grades, aside from the customarily

curious seventh and eighth graders.

We'd also like to extend our gratitude to the Vice

President of our sponsoring Kiwanis Club Heather

Chin and Editor Jennifer Lee for visiting us during

this important event and giving us valuable

encouragement and support.

Undoubtedly, we were able to successfully publicize

and recruit numerous new members for our growing

club.

Club Open House Emma Cheng, Treasurer Photos by Heather Chin, NYCYPK Vice President

2 HUNTER KEY CLUB // District 11 Newsletter

The bustling of open house

Treasurer Emma Cheng and President Ben Flikshteyn

flaunt Key Club gear

Editor Ella Cheng speaks with a parent

SERVICE

LEADERSHIP

Despite my troubled and long commute,

New York Cares Day at P.S. 346 was a great

experience. We worked with a few older

volunteers by taping student drawings and

quotes (on pink paper) to the walls and tying

huge pink ribbons in support of the fight

against breast cancer. Later, we labeled the

books in the school library. Everyone was

willing to help out and the mood was very

relaxed. In the school library, we looked up the

Guided Reading Levels of books, and wrote

them on the front and back covers for

reference. This was a more tedious task than

arranging ribbons, but our volunteer

coordinator identified with us and told us that

we could turn on some music while we

worked. This induced a lot of music sharing

and head-bobbing in our seats. At about 3PM,

our jobs were over, and the principal of the

school thanked us wholeheartedly for the

service we had done for their school. Finally,

we boarded the buses going back to the NY

Cares office in Manhattan. I fell asleep for the

whole way back, thankful that I did not have to

re-experience my earlier commute.

COMMUNITY

On Sunday, October

31, from 9 am to 12 pm,

Hunter Key Club

volunteered for the Kidney

& Urology Foundation of

America's Walk in Central

Park to raise money and

awareness for kidney

disease and prostate cancer.

3

Kidney & Urology Walk New York Cares Day Photos by Sera Kwon, Secretary Emily Yeo, Head of Projects Committee

K E Y C L U B

TEAMWORK

Sera Modeling a Balloon Creation from the Walk

From left to right: Katherine Huynh, Stephanie Huang,

Cheyenne Biolsi, Henry Ho, Kevin Cheung

4 HUNTER KEY CLUB // District 11 Newsletter

JDRF Walk Sera Kwon, Secretary

On October 24th, I woke up early to

meet Key Clubbers at Flushing Main

Street. After hastily grabbing a bag of

chocolates for breakfast, I shook my

mom awake and pleaded with her to

drive me.

With my maps, service credit letter,

a bag of chocolates in hand, I and

three ninth grade Key Clubbers

(Henry, Musfiqur, and Kevin)

embarked on the trip to Corona Park

by the 7 train. As we neared the Globe,

I nervously observed that it looked

suspiciously devoid of

anyone…including volunteers. “I

didn’t get the place wrong, did I?” I

thought.

After calling the volunteer

coordinator’s office to receive no reply,

I decided that we should walk around

trying to find people who knew where

the walk site was. Finally, Kevin

figured out the actual place we were

supposed to be, by re-reading the email

the volunteer coordinator had sent us.

We began our trek back to the

subway station (I offered more

chocolates in the hope that they would

cheer up my ninth grade friends) as the

sun began to rise. It was a pretty cool

sight but my legs were aching and I was

thirsty for some free volunteer coffee.

We finally reached the subway station,

but before we could go in, Henry

noticed that there were people coming

out of it! So I ran after two tough

looking men and asked them if they

were going to the Juvenile Diabetes

Research Fund (JRDF) walk. Happily,

they were! So we followed them.

Once we arrived at the walk site,

Hunter Key Club was assigned

positions at the registration tables (the

refreshments and gifts bag table had

been occupied by other Key Clubs),

where we were soon joined by three

more Hunter Key Clubbers. We also

met our LTG Sharif, who hung out with

us for awhile before re-joining his table.

After waiting for one and a half hours

for the walk to start, people started to

show up! We quickly got busy as swarms

of people bombarded us with questions

about how to register, why they needed

to register, how to submit donations,

how to get T-shirts, and where to find

restrooms. Hunter Key Clubbers were

busy filling out sample registration forms

as guides for the walkers and answering

the deluge of questions that were

thrown at them.

A good portion of the walkers were

also Key Clubbers. Besides Key

Clubbers, I also saw teams of families

(many of which had personal reasons for

walking) and businesses, in addition to

groups of high-school and college

students. They all milled around in the

park, playing Frisbee and guzzling the

free coffee while waiting for the walk to

start. And then, suddenly, the people all

disappeared.

The walk organizers had finished their

countdown and we were left with

the sight of coffee cups and

streamers littered on the grass.

We spent the next half hour

awaiting our next task, with little

to do. A couple of our Key

Clubbers disappeared into the

game van (where they spent their

time playing free video games).

Eventually, we were told that we

had completed all the necessary

volunteer work and we left

Corona Park.

Despite all our scrambling for

directions and the chaos of

registration forms, the Key

Clubbers who volunteered found

it to be a valuable experience.

Freshmen Henry Ho reflected, “I

was extremely excited, since it

wasn't just my first time

volunteering at a walk, it was my

first time volunteering for

Hunter! I was very excited

because I liked being able to help

other people, and make their day

go a little faster and be a little

better."

Back left to right: Leon Lian, Kevin Li, Richard Li

Front left to right: Sera Kwon, Henry Ho, Kevin Cheung

At the Registration Table

K E Y C L U B

5

Upcoming Events

November 10th: Animal Haven We'll be eating lunch together before heading out to help out at the

shelter and work with its pets.

November 8th: Divisional High School of Math, Science and Engineering, 5:30-6:30

November 19th: Tulip Planting Hunter College High School, After-school

November 21st: Fight for Air Climb Walk

November 13-14th: Tulip Planting West Side Community Garden, 12-6:00pm both days

November 20th: Key to Your Future Day

November 29th: Bake Sale

“Key Club is the oldest and largest service program

for high school students. It is a student-led organization that

teaches leadership through service to others. High school

student members of Key Club perform acts of service in their

communities, such as cleaning up parks, collecting clothing

and organizing food drives. They also learn leadership skills

by running meetings, planning projects and holding elected

leadership positions at the club, district and international

levels.”

“Members of the Kiwanis International family, Key

Club members build themselves as they build their schools

and communities. Key Club has approximately 250,000

members in approximately 5,000 clubs. Key Club is

represented in 30 countries.”

--Keyclub.org

Find more information at:

6 keyclub.org or nydkc.org

Every year, Key Club partners with UNICEF to raise

money through its renowned Trick-or-Treat donation

boxes.

This year, donations will be going toward Operation

Uruguay, to help the nearly half a million children and

adolescents who are living there in poverty.

The funds will help to create and manage educational

and cultural centers to improve their conditions.

This year, the goal is $1.5 million dollars.

All donations from Hunter Key Club will be connected

in early November by treasurer Emma Cheng.

TTHHEE BBOOAARRDD

Nancy Zhang International Trustee

Ben Flikshteyn President

Irek Habrylo Vice President

Sera Kwon Secretary

Emma Cheng Treasurer

Ella Cheng Editor

What is

Key Club?

UNICEF Treat-or-Treat