Stuyvesant High School Key Club

The old and new cabs at District Convention… in style.

Picture of the Month!

Important Key Club Information!

The Cabinet

Richard Huang (President)

Sue Yee Chen (Vice President)

Anthony Choi (Secretary)

Olivia Hu (Treasurer)

Ashley Cheng (Editor)

Official Stuy Key Club E-mail

[email protected]

The Board

Jane Yang & Shadia Kim

(Advocacy)

Cissy Lin & Connie Liu

(Art)

Anne Tsay & Irene Kho

(Fundraising)

Send articles and pictures to

[email protected]

Visit our website

www.stuykc.org

A Word From

Your President

2

A Word From Your

Vice President

3

A Word From

Your Treasurer

3

A Word From

Your Secretary

4

A Word From

Your Editor

5

NYRR Colon

Cancer Challenge

6

Lunar New Year

Chinatown Parade

7

Chinatown Flower

Market

8

District

Convention

10

Coogan’s 5K 11

Word Search 12

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Stuyvesant

High School

Key Club

Joanna Chen & Pei Xiong Liu

(Locksmith)

Rachel Dekhterman & Judith Chow

(New Projects)

Jing W. Xiao & Snigdha Das

(Public Relations)

Gavin Huang & Victor Ma

(Web)

The Locksmith

Caring—Our Way of Life Volume 3, Issue 4

February/March

2008

THE LOCKSMITH —THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF STUYVESANT H.S. KEY CLUB Page 2

Gavin Huang, President

I woke up Friday morning as a student. I

went home as the new president of Key Club.

During my trip home in the pouring rain, I

thought about what I had just done, and I feared

I had doubts, and I still fear I have doubts. I still

doubt my ability to lead and represent the club

efficiently. Now that I’ve reached this far, what

am I going to do? Should I continue to set this

high standard on myself or take the hits and

continue walking?

I decided that becoming president is just another brick in my wall of

life experiences, that all of my doubts were just part of the transition phase.

After all, a president is just another member of Key Club. The president may

lead the club, but the members are what make it up. I can’t go through with

this job and continue without your reassurance. I can’t hold successful meet-

ings if dedicated Key Clubbers don’t continue to attend. I hope everybody

will continue to go to events, and that all of you will continue to dedicate a

part of your time and all of your heart to Key Club. I can find new events, I

can try to liven up meetings, but I can only go as far as you guys are willing to

go.

So back to the question I have asked myself. Should I continue to set

these high standards on myself or take the hits and continue walking? I’ve de-

cided I will continue to push myself over the edge because this is what I feel

will help us move further than last year’s cab: the will to pursue high aspira-

tions and to push ourselves beyond our own limits and capabilities. Next

year, we will recruit more members, we will find more events, we will start

more projects, we will publish more Locksmiths, and we will make it a better

year.

Thanks for the good times everyone. I know that you will all help us

make this year a phenomenal one. And yes, we will keep the website run-

ning.

VOLU ME 3 , ISSU E 4 Page 3

Victoria Tsang,

Vice President

BOOMBA! Hey Key Clubbers (who are just so

freakin‟ awesome :D)! As you all know I am your

future vice president of Key Club for next year.

I really want to thank the cabinet for doing a

good job this year and I hope to continue it with

the new cabinet and make Key Club an even bet-

ter experience for future Key Clubbers. I hope

that I will be able to become closer with mem-

bers and I‟ll definitely try to hear what you all

have to say (I say try because there are a whole

lot of members in Key Club and not all of you

guys go to the meetings so it is hard >.<). I hope

to meet all the members and remember your

names (but you will have to tell me your name

first). I have many goals that I hope to accom-

plish for next year and I‟ll need all the help I

can get to make my goals a reality. One goal

would be to try to have events in all the bor-

oughs and not just one in each and the rest in

Manhattan, because I know that many of you

don‟t actually live in Manhattan. I believe I‟m

supposed to keep this short, so…PEACE OUT!

First off, I owe a gigantic thanks all of you Key Clubbers

for electing me as Treasurer and you can be assured that I

will not let you down. And of course, we should be so

grateful to the current cab for doing such a tremendous

job in keeping Key Club up and running. As a future mem-

ber of ’08-’09 cab, I will continue the amazing job our cur-

rent treasurer, Olivia Hu, has done and as I had promised,

I will also include a few new ideas. I will want to hear a lot

more input from the Key Club members, as I’m sure you

have a lot to say. I’ll definitely want to start off the new

school year with a vote deciding which candies/snacks are

the most popular and easiest to sell, so those of you who

sell candy can be more secure in earning back all your

money. I will also make sure that there is always a box

available to anyone wanting to sell. And of course, bake

sales, who doesn’t love bake sales? As of now, we have

been having a steady rate of one bake sale per month, and

this will most likely continue for next year, unless based on

a vote, you guys would like to have more bake sales—for

those of you who have an easier time volunteering help to

Key Club during school. I am hoping that through collabo-

ration with the special events coordinator, we can achieve

a benefit concert as one of our greater fundraisers. In ad-

dition to in-school fundraisers, the ’08-’09 Cab has plenty

of exciting events in store for you guys outside of school.

But most importantly, if you have any ideas at all, I will

jump at the chance to hear it.

Adeline Yeo,

Treasurer


Kenny Yu,

Secretary

Thanks for voting for me (or rather not objecting

against me) for secretary! Thanks also to the old cabi-

net for making this year of Key Club as fulfilling and fun

as possible!

As your new secretary, I will do my best to make

sure that you guys have another awesome year of Key

Club Boomba-ness where paperwork will not be a

worry! But paperwork is never a worry, so I will do my best to make sure that you

guys have as much fun as possible while participating in exciting events to provide

service to your community!

In addition to fulfilling mundane secretary duties, I also want to improve our

club with suggestions from our very own members, you! That’s right, I want to hear

from you! How can Key Club be improved?

What events do you like going to or would like to go to? Tutoring kids in li-

braries, cleaning up parks, or marching in walks?

What fundraising ideas do you have? Would you like more out-of-school

events like Bowl-a-rama? Or maybe we can make a new annual Ice-skating-rama

(Come on, if Brooklyn Tech can do it, then we can SOOOO do it and do it MUCH

better too!)?

If you have any ideas on how to improve our

club or if you have any suggestions about events or

organization that require our club’s help, send an

email or give me a shout if you see me in the halls.

You are the most important part of the club after all!


Victor Ma,

Editor

¡Boomba! Hey Key Clubberrs. Greetings from

your new editor, Victor Ma. Yup, that’s me in that

(unapproved) photo Pei snapped when I wasn’t looking

at the camera.

So… what am I supposed to write here again?

New plans? Well, here’s what I plan to do. I plan on

printing the Locksmith again. (Yay!) This is mainly to

increase readership and besides, who doesn’t want to

see their own article or a photo of them in the newsletter? Instead of printing a hundred copies

(what were you thinking? I’m not crazy), I’ll run off, let’s say, one to two dozen copies of each

new issue.

Anyone who wants a print issue of the Locksmith should subscribe to it. This is to give

us an approximation of how many issues to print. Go to stuykc.org/subscribe/ and fill out the

really short form. If you can’t get to the issue online, then you might want to subscribe to it too.

Issues will be distributed during the meetings so if you want a copy, come! If there are any is-

sues left over, the rest of you can grab it (so that nothing is wasted). How’s that?

I know that a lot of you guys are environmentally conscious and that’s a VERY GOOD

thing. The issues will be printed on 100% post-consumer (recycled) paper. :] Make sure you do

your part as well by recycling them if you decide to throw them away. (Remember STUYSPACE

and forget the misspelling of Stuvyesant on the back of the t-shirts.)

Speaking of reminders, remember to go, go, go to events; bring, bring, bring a camera;

write, write, write something up (preferably an article); and get points! Articles go to lock-

[email protected] and photos and videos of events go to [email protected]. Umm… keep in

mind that word searches and crosswords are there just in case you get bored during the meet-

ing (tell Gavin I’m not insulting him ;) or on the way home.

Also, committee head applications will be coming soon! Hope everything is going well—

just a few more weeks until spring break, so hang in there! Enjoy the rest of the issue. :)


Ridiculous Weather

O.K. So I went to the NYRR Colon Cancer Challenge. Even though I wasn’t running, I

faced many challenges. First of all, I was standing by myself at an intersection and almost

none of the pedestrians listened to me when I told them to wait. They just ran right through

the runners. If they love to run so much why aren’t they running? Luckily no runner was dis-

tracted by these annoying flies on the road.

Second challenge: the weather. It was RIDICULOUSLY cold! You have no clue.

Standing at a windy spot, wearing a light coat, no hat, and Poland Spring Water gloves pro-

vided by the NYRR, I was shivering to death. I also had a bottle of cold water which didn’t

help me whenever I was thirsty. To make things worse, the run didn’t end at the time KC said

it would. It went on for another hour. (I know its not your fault, CAB) So I just stood there

shivering and yelling, “You’re doing great! Stay to your left”, whenever a group of runners

came. I was so happy when I bought that bag of hot peanuts. Never did something feel so

warm. Then I started walking the mile back to the Band shell.

The NYRR was kind enough to give volunteers a long sleeved, but VERY THIN, shirt.

That’s ok, better than nothing. And I stayed for another 10 min in the weather to wait for any

of the KC members who had not signed in. Finally, after being frozen, ignored by pedestri-

ans, and having waited a long time, I started for

the subway.

I advise you all to dress very warmly for

these events. I know it is spring but you should

still dress warmly. The e-mails KC send aren’t

joking whenever it says, “Dress warmly! Its cold

tomorrow” Believe me, if you don’t listen, you’re

going to regret it.

~Jensen Cheong


“When I say „Boomba!‟ you say „Hey!‟” “Boomba!” “Hey!” “Boomba!” “Hey!” “Woooo

Key Club!”

Nope, this wasn‟t a super enthusiastic Key Club meeting; this was the annual Lu-

nar New Year Chinatown Parade. Ever since I was a little girl, I would go to Chinatown

every year to see the Lunar New Year parade. Thanks to Key Club, I could finally be a

part of the parade.

The Lunar New Year Chinatown Parade officially started at 1PM. Most Key Club-

bers, however, arrived earlier, from 11AM to 12PM. When all had arrived, we were led to

our position between a group of Xiao Lin monks and the Daily News marching band. In

our Key Club caps and non-matching clothing, we looked unorganized next to these pro-

fessional performers. While we waited for the parade to start, we found other ways to

amuse ourselves. From waving to little kids in the buildings around us to getting the

monks to perform for us to attempting to lift members into the air, we had a good time

while we waited for the parade to start.

When the parade finally started, we were very excited. In columns of five, we

marched down the streets of Chinatown proudly. We soon realized, however, that

marching was not as easy as it seemed. It was very difficult to keep the Key Club banner

leveled, especially with the wind blowing against us, pressing it against our parties. Keep-

ing our strides even was another problem we had to overcome. Just when we got the

hang of it though, we had to stop; each float had to be announced as they passed Mul-

berry Street. While we waited for our turn, we decided that we would switch every few

streets, so that everyone had a chance to hold the banner up front.

And so, we marched through the streets of Chinatown, screaming “Boomba!” and

“Hey!”, which amused and confused spectators. As we neared the end of the parade,

there were less and less people on the sidelines and we got more and more tired. Al-

though we had fun, we were all relieved when we could rest our feet at a nearby restau-

rant, Jin Fong, where the Key Club officials were kindly treating us to food. But to our

amazement, there seemed to be no food left in the restaurant! Members took turns

running around the restaurant looking for food and bringing it back to the table. We

were eventually provided for and ate our fill. The officials then came around and gave us

all red envelopes for good luck, refusing to take them back because it was a tradition.

We finally left at around 4PM. By then, snow was gently falling, dancing in the air as the

wind blew them this way and that. It was the perfect ending of an exciting event.

~ Donna Koo

LUNAR NEW YEAR CHINATOWN PARADE


February 1st may have

been like any other Saturday. I

could‟ve easily just wasted my

time at home procrastinating;

however this was not the case. As

I walked to Columbus Park, my

heart began to beat faster in an-

ticipation of the fun day ahead.

Behind plastic vinyl doors was a

flower market bustling with peo-

ple. It was so full, the tent

seemed ready to burst.

When I set foot into in

the tent, I was overwhelmed by

the sights and sounds around me.

I decided to take a quick walk

around the area. I began to see

many familiar faces from Key

Club, and a smile crept up on my

face. It felt so wonderful to see

so many people willing to help and

give up their time on behalf of a

great event.

I began by helping at the

Moca bookstore table. There was

everything from books on Chinese

Cuisine to colorfully decorated

chopsticks with animals on them.

After helping for about half and

hour a staff member asked me to

retrieve some books from Moca,

specifically The Year of the Pig and The Year of the Dog. Walking

down the street I saw people go-

ing toward the giant tent, waiting

to find out what was inside. And

I saw others walking out with gi-

ant peach blossom branches.

One particular table in-

trigued me. There were figurines

of peoples and animals made en-

tirely out of rice and paint. I

looked admiringly at them and

even got to see them being made.

It was great to see the art and

culture of another country. In

fact, the whole day was filled

with cultural experiences. I heard

music in an entirely different lan-

guage and style even if they were

simply translated American songs

such as “Oh, Susanna.”

However, the masses of

people began to thin out when the

sun began to set. I signed out

knowing this wasn‟t an event in

which I only helped people, but

one where I also took away an ex-

perience.

~ Helen Song

A Blooming Flower Market

Growing up, Lunar New Year has always been

a special holiday that I look forward to. This year,

however, I got a different taste of the holiday as I vol-

unteered at the Chinese Flower

Market at Columbus Park in Chi-

natown.

When I arrived at the

Flower Market at eleven o’clock

with my friend, I could already

tell that we had a busy day

ahead of us. Inside the huge

white tent, there were tons of

people filling every corner. After

I pushed through five people to

sign in at the volunteer table, I

couldn’t help but to take a walk

around. Having spent ten years

in Taiwan, a country with deep

roots in Chinese traditions, I was

able to name most of the exotic

plants being sold: orchids,

money tree plants, Chinese lan-

tern plants, peach blossoms,

narcissus, mini orange plants, azaleas, and – my favor-

ite – lucky bamboo (which my not-so-Chinese friend

thought were some useless stems). There were also

stands selling cute little Chinese key chains, astonish-

ing works of Chinese calligraphy, beautiful Chinese

paintings, and even delicious boxes of Chinese pas-

tries.

After wandering around for ten minutes, it

was time to get to work. Along with five other fellow

Key Clubbers, I grabbed a poster from the table where

I signed in and walked six blocks to Little Italy. I held

the gigantic poster as high as my hands would allow

me to. The posters had a drawing of an adorable

brown rat hiding inside a pot of colorful flowers. Al-

though I thought the overall design of the poster was

quite ingenious, most people seemed less than enthu-

siastic about the flower market. Some even gave me

awkward glances. I tried to return each of them with

a warm smile, but quickly gave up

when I realized how tiring smiling

can be when you have to do it

every ten seconds.

My efforts finally paid off

one hour later, when a young

lady approached me and asked,

“What is this Chinese Flower

Market?” I explained to her

about the upcoming Lunar New

Year and how the flowers serve

as crucial decorations for this im-

portant holiday. Never had I felt

so triumphant as the moment

when she told me that she would

give the flower market a visit.

My next two hours were

spent standing in the brutal cold,

with nobody paying much atten-

tion to me and my sign. Disappointed, I made my way

back to the marketplace where a Chinese opera was

being performed on the stage. Just as my stomach

was starting to complain to me, the pizzas came. It

was the best pizza I had eaten in a long time.

Because there was a surplus of volunteers, I

was able to spend the rest of my day strolling around

the flower market, occasionally helping out with tiny

tasks. Although you could say that my attempt to

draw people to the Chinese Flower Market was

mostly a failure, the day still ended on a happy note.

After all, what could be a better way to greet the Lu-

nar New Year than to spend a day with those pretty

Chinese flowers?

- Zoe Wu

Lunar New Year Flower Market

VOLU ME 3 , ISSU E 4

Stuy Key

Club

Page 9


District Convention

Right off the bus, we were greeted with

“Hey Stuyvesant Key Club, how do you feel?” At

lunch time, “Hey Stuyvesant Key Club, how do you

feel?” At dinnertime, “Hey Stuyvesant Key Club,

how do you feel?” While changing, “Hey Stuyvesant

Key Club, how do you feel?” And every time, we

answered with a superficial “We feel good, oh we

feel so good, oh.” Everyone did it, from the old Ki-

wanis advisors to the governor to the lieutenant

governors all the way down to the member, they all

did it. And me? I did it too. I stood up with every-

one else with a smile on my face, jubilantly scream-

ing how good we felt.

But I didn’t al-

ways feel good. Some-

times I felt noxious.

Sometimes I felt uncer-

tain. Sometimes I felt

nervous. I never always

felt completely good. In-

side, I had doubts about

the future. At District

Convention, I realized

that our club was just a

speck in a large mass of Key Clubs. Suddenly, it

wasn’t about the caring or the fun I had at route

marshalling events or gardening events. Suddenly,

Key Club was this giant network of random groups

competing with each other, not in sports or with

grades, but with community service hours.

I wasn’t just a member anymore. I wasn’t

just going to events and having fun with friends. Eve-

rything that attracted me to Key Club, the inno-

cence and the family feel, was gone. Everything was

about business. Everyone was dressed in business

professional wear, slacks, shoes, and suit. Positions I

had never knew existed in Key Club were being

uttered throughout the halls as people stopped and

pointed. “There’s the governor.” “He’s a lieutenant

governor.” “She’s the district secretary.” This isn’t

Key Club, I thought. It can’t be. But this was what

Key Club had become when I went to District Con-

vention. This was what Key club had become when

I became president.

All the workshops we went to, all the pa-

perwork we had to do, all the elections we had to

attend, all the award ceremonies we had to sit

through. This wasn’t Key Club. I didn’t want to

think about it. All the duties I had even during Con-

vention—I didn’t want to think about them. I

wanted to just relax and have fun like everyone else

seemed to be, but I was still worried about work.

My mind was still on every-

thing I had to do then and

in the future.

But then, on the

Friday after we came back,

when we held our first

meeting, it wasn’t about all

that stuff anymore. I forgot

about the boring work-

shops, the sub-par hotel,

and the unnecessarily long

elections. It wasn’t about

the paperwork or the billion awards we could apply

for; it was just us, the members. All of that talk

about who will be elected district governor or

which club won this award, that wasn’t the point.

That wasn’t really what Key Club was. Key Club is

the meetings in the cafeteria. Key Club is the hours

of cheering we do every Sunday morning. Key Club

is the dirty hands from park cleaning. That was Key

Club.

I had a good time at District Convention,

and I saw so much of Key Club that I had never

seen before, but after a weekend of wearing a suit

and tie, I was glad to just be back with Key Club—

our Key Club. I felt good.

~ Gavin Huang

How Do I Feel?


The Coogan’s 5K on March 4, 2008 was a race in Washington Heights

on a very hilly course with some salsa and blues music playing along

the way.

In the kids’ races, kids ran a certain distance between half a block to ten blocks. About 10 Stuy Key Clubbers

showed up. It was unfortunate though, that Teensgiving (on the same day) was cancelled since a LOT of

members signed up to go.

It was another one of those super-early-in-the-morning NYRR events. All the people who went had to wake

up early. And of course, I did too, because of the very untimely and unfriendly LIRR weekend schedules. So

as I set out, the moon was shining brightly in the clear sky.

I realized something while walking through the streets that day—how we really don’t appreciate the morn-

ings enough. I (and any other Stuy student) would’ve gladly slept until noon, but I chose not to. After I spent

the morning there, I thought, wow, it’s only 11 am. If you’ve ever wished there were more than 24 hours in a

day, then you’d be amazed at how much time was left in the day for other things to do.

It was bitterly cold in the morning, but the weather got much better as the day went on and the sun rose. We

helped out by route marshalling, cheering—you know, the usual stuff that’s done at these events. We said

things like “GO RUNNERS! (Walkers!) Good job! Keep it up!” and the standard “STAY TO YOUR RIGHT!”

Each one of use received a bullhorn to borrow and it was fun using them. Besides yelling into them, we dis-

covered that they’re pretty effective speakers when you set your MP3 player to maximum volume, place the

earbuds on the microphone, and use them to blast the music. =)

I love these events in the morning. Well, doing homework on the way there is surprisingly and amazingly

effective. These events also (kind of) encourage you to go to sleep early Friday or Saturday, not an easy feat

to achieve. The frigidness of the morning really wakes you up. And when you get home, it’s about the same

time as if you didn’t go to the event and slept until noon, awake but blurry and discombobulated.

Oh right; you can also brag about how you took the 5:57 am train to do (what else?) community service! As

the weather gets warmer, you can definitely attend more of these NYRRs.

Hmm… here’s a tip for weekend subway takers: The MTA hates you. They’re out to get you. Well okay fine,

at least you have to admit that they don’t care about you. Make fewer transfers—as few as possible. It’s usu-

ally faster to take the local it if comes than to wait for the express (if it’s even running).

So after I arrived home, I took a nap and continued on the trainload of homework that somehow teachers

never forget to assign.

~ Victor Ma

Coogan's Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5K and Kids Races

VOLUME 3 , ISSUE 4 Page 12

NEW CAB AND EVENTS

A D E R T H V J A S S W G J K G D A E G J A C S E A

L U N A R N E W F L O W E R M A R K E T A A O D F A

Q S Y T J M L B F S C C V S O W V F J Y S J L D S A

S E D K L D E Y B R A A A M K M I S D P K G O Y X C

F G Y R S I C O O G A N K U O A C Q W E A Y N V J C

Q A Z X S W T O C D E R F V B G T T Y H T N C M J O

N D W G A V I N H U A N G Q U D O E M M E K A I U O

C V D W R H O J E T G F E R E E R Q F N V J N R E G

H K B N M H N A A R R G H D V Q I D G O Y I C N D A

I J E W E R S F R G J H T I D G A K O I R R E S F N

N U I N Y T R F G N M X C Z S D T F D T S A R A Y S

A B C V N B K J E E R T W Q I P S H T N U I C O P R

T D D D T Y G H Y N O M K H I T A C V E Z C H U X A

O J G H O L Y D P R I H F E R T N Y I V J J A J R C

W E K Y S D F U M V B N M K J Y G T R N E E L K N E

N T Y U I O R A A D R E F G G H J V X O X C L P L S

P Q W S C B D G I L N G S D X V B G R C Y U E F H G

A J M A S Q U E R A D E B A L L U P H T Y U N O O P

R Q A I O P D B H D A F H H W E R B C C S D G D H K

A D E L I N E Y E O F I T T I O P L K I T Y E R E T

D G G F H W C V H Y Q S F W F G C Z X R H J V S A Z

E W E Y O P V A S H N E W C A B ! G F T S Z F H K L

T R H S V G U E W S T R Y Z X C V B N S N J T S G Y

Q A Z X S W E D C C V F R G G B N H Y I U J H N M K

M L P O I K J G F D V B Y R E S S F G D Z B V X C Z

NEW CAB! (THAT IS A THING TO FIND)

GAVIN HUANG

VICTORIA TSANG

KENNY YU

ADELINE YEO

VICTOR MA

LUNAR NEW YEAR FLOWER MARKET

ELECTIONS

CHINATOWN PARADE

MASQUERADE BALL

SKATE-FOR-A-CURE

COLON CANCER CHALLENGE

COOGAN’S RACES

DISTRICT CONVENTION

345 Chambers Street

New York, NY 10282

STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL KEY CLUB

www.stuykc.org

[email protected]

Documents

Stuyvesant High School Key Club