KEY CLUB
DIVISION 4 NORTH REGION 3 ®
CNH DISTRICT
| B O L S A G R AN DE H I G H S C H O O L | F E B R U AR Y 2 0 1 3 | VO L . 1 I S S UE # 1 1
WRITTEN BY DOMINIC NGUYEN
9401 WESTMINSTER AVE. GARDEN GROVE CA 92844
WELCOME TO KEY CLUB
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ARTICLES – PAST EVENTS
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FUTURE EVENTS
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UPDATES
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LAST WORD
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CONTACT LIST
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WELCOME TO KEY CLUB Kiwanis Educating Youth—for those who don’t know, that’s where the KEY in Key Club comes from! If you’ve been a member for Key Club for some time, it should be fairly obvious that Key Club is not for keys, as I had originally thought upon the first mention of club. Although Key Clubbers have probably heard this time after time, it’s always helpful to reiterate what Key Club is about, what its goals are, and the general beliefs that Key Club holds. Started in 1925 as a branch of Kiwanis International, Key Club exponentially grew over the next decades; by 1940, fifty clubs were active and in 1943, the first International Convention was held. Now, Key Club is recognized as an international organization as it spreads across thirty countries, boasts more than 5,000 high school campuses, and holds over 260,000 members. Key Club was established, among other Kiwanis-funded clubs like Circle K, Builder’s Club, K-Kids, Akiton, and Key Leader, to reach these goals: to develop leadership skills, to serve the community with goodwill, and to provide great experiences for youths in living and working together. Our core values are leadership, character building, caring and inclusiveness; our services provide members with a plug in order to reach out to their “home, school, and community”. At Bolsa Grande High School, we pride ourselves in being Matadors and Otters. Our members are filled with spirit, showing our enthusiasm through yelling and cheering at many of the events that we attend. In addition, we provide our members with various opportunities to bond, whether it is through just simply finding a variety of events for our members to attend, or holding socials. In the 2012-2013 year, the Executive Board hopes to continue the success that we’ve shared in the previous years and to bolster our members in getting even more motivated and involved with Key Club. For members, the newsletters provide you all with a medium to reflect on past events, look toward future events, and also see how members express their love for Key Club! If you happen to be a non-member that’s stumbled upon this newsletter in hopes to get involved in Key Club, then feel free to also stop by Room 102 on Thursdays for our meeting and see how our club functions. Enjoy the February Newsletter, and on behalf of the 2012-2013 Executive Board, you otter be loving Key Club! BOLSA GRANDE | OTTADOR OUR WAY
WADYS
On February 9th, 2013, Bolsa attended their monthly WADYs event at the local senior home; like normal, all of the members formed groups and helped deliver food boxes to the seniors. This particular WADYs was special—a Valentine’s Day Party was held! With cake, ice cream, and delicious treats, the seniors and Key Clubbers celebrated the day of love. The seniors played bingo, where they enthusiastically waited f for that four-in-a-row win. Overall, February’s WADYS was a success and the Key Club members helped spread a little love around.
TET FESTIVAL “As Tet Festival 2013 was coming around the corner, I helped set up the village for Lang Viet Nam with many of the other volunteers. On February 6th, the first day of set up, I made hundreds of lanterns with Jacquelyn and Michelle. We made the ground really colorful as it was covered with tons of red, yellow, green, blue, and purple lanterns! After 4 hours, we ran out of lanterns to make; so we helped with other various jobs such as painting, tying things together, moving things around, and picking up palm leaves. Around 7, we had dinner where they served us soup, fried rice, and chow mein. Some of the volunteers hung up the lanterns afterwards and it turned out really nice! On the second day of set up, I tied fences together with Kathy, Duy, and Terri. While I was tying these fences together, I accidently poked a needle through my thumb causing it to bleed and hurt for a while. Although it was kind of hard tying fences after that, I put up with it!. The place was blasted with music as we carried around heavy boxes, made trash cans, and we even helped set up thousands of chairs! It felt endless as we had to move things around to line up the chairs around the grand stage. After we finally finished, Cindy and I helped Donald out with tying the leaves to fences. We were all rushing to finish setting up the village as the actual festival will begin the next day. This was my first time volunteering for Tet Festival and as I was project chair for this event, I signed up for almost every single shift. Although it was tiring, it was all worth it in the end as I got to bond with the other volunteers and made many new memorable experiences.” AMANDA LE | GRADE 12
RACE ON THE BASE
“On Saturday, February 23rd, I attended Race on the Base located at the Los Alamitos military base. After we met up at school, there was a shortage with rides. I was disappointed that not many members provided rides. There were some ride providers, but it was not enough. As a result, I had to call my sister to provide rides for us. There, the base was quite vast. There were many soldiers training there as well. The parking was a bit difficult because there were so many people trying to get in. After we registered, we went to the finish line for one of the races. We cheered them on, and they looked like they needed some motivation. We had some new cheers like "We are Proud of You". I hope that we will be able to volunteer there again next year. I am truly excited for the next event. JENNY NGUYEN | GRADE 10
SPIRIT RUN
“Starting off the month of March, Spirit Run 2013 (held on the 4th at Fashion Island) was a spectacular way to begin Key Club's community service in the month of March. The run was one of those "early" events that I had messed for quite some time; at 5 AM, we all met at school, still looking a little sleepy, but still ready to volunteer. At the event, Thang, Jackie, and I tagged along for helping out at a water station; unlike the huge chaos of runners during Surf City, Spirit Run's races were evenly paced out so that the water stations weren't overpowered. It was great to have breathing time because that gave us the time to cheer on runners (with a volunteer group from Chase) and stop to actually notice some runners. Vyvien and Jeremy joined us throughout our time at the water station, and helped us cheer on adults, children, and even dogs as they raced! When we were finished and a coordinator relieved us of our duty, we went back to enjoy the event festivities. Duy and Amanda ended up getting stuck in an inflatable balloon course! Volunteering at Spirit Run 2013 was a spectacular experience, mixed with laughter and the joy of volunteering.” DOMINIC NGUYEN | GRADE 12 BOLSA GRANDE | OTTADOR OUR WAY
\ Lincoln Education Center—or LEC—is back! Every Thursday from 5:15-7:30, members will assist with grading papers at LEC. Please meet 15 minutes prior to each time in front of the school if you have signed up for LEC. Note that there is also a required amount of 6 members max per session.
From 5:30 AM to 10:30 AM, Bolsa Grande will be helping with various duties at Coaster Run, held at Knotts Berry Farm. The event is to hold promote the Kids of Speech and Learning Development Center, as funds go to improve the center. Tasks duties may include handing out water, cleaning different areas, acting as course monitors, or cheer squads; members may even get the chance to cheer within the theme park itself! There is a max of 40 members for this event.
Wadys will be held on March 9th, at 15000 Pacific St., Midway City from 8 AM – 12 PM. We will be helping pass out food boxes to the elderly. As always, it’s appreciated if those who are bilingual (preferably Vietnamese or Korean) sign up to help translate!
IF YOU WOULD STILL LIKE TO SIGN UP FOR ANY OF THESE EVENTS, THEN BE SURE TO CALL YOUR CLASS DIRECTOR! YOU CAN SIGN UP UP TO ONE WEEK PRIOR TO THE EVENT DATE. (with exception to events that have a max # of members allowed)
BOLSA GRANDE | OTTADOR OUR WAY
VIVIAN LEDUC (APRIL)
KATHERINE VO (AUGUST)
TRAVIS NGUYEN (MAY)
JACQUELYN DO (JUNE)
JARED PHAM (OCTOBER)
HUBERT PHAM (SEPTEMBER)
MIMI NGUYEN (JULY)
JEN K NGUYEN (NOVEMBER)
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Over
the course of the last eleven months, I have had the pleasure of serving Key Club as the Technology Editor; when I had decided to run for this position, I did not realize how much the job would come to mean to me, and how much experience I would gain from it. I have been in Key Club for three years, and these three years representing "Ottadors" have been quite the joy ride. More specifically, the last year I've gotten to talk to just about everyone in the club on some capacity--it's superb to see such a wide variety of personalities and quirks work with one another and get along at community events, club meetings, and socials. I truly have found a second home in Key Club as I've made friends with my fantastic board and outstanding members; others might find Key Club as a group that has the singular purpose of community service events, but there are so many underlying benefits to being in the club. Any member that has fully immersed himself or herself into Key Club (which in turn has a reciprocal effect--Key Club becomes an integral part of said individual's life) will probably understand that throughout their course of being in the club, they've created so much more bonds and relationships than they had originally signed up for. Not every club on campus has that sort of spark that makes members connect, but luckily, Key Club is blessed with that wondrous ability. Like any job, there is something bittersweet about stepping down from a role that one has become so accustomed to doing. Every month, I would take at least six hours (spread throughout the weekends) to work on the newsletters--six prolonged and frustrating hours as I battled with Photoshop and Word to cooperate with me, yes-- but nevertheless six hours that I spent doing something that I absolutely love. At every event, I had the lovely privilege to ruin Key Clubbers as I took ridiculous pictures of them in compromising stances or derpy faces (although granted, I still can do this after I step down as Tech Editor). And then there's the joy of being an officer, helping serve the members to the best of my ability and fostering an environment that makes Key Club as attractive as it is to future applicants. Many of the elements of being a Tech Editor will leave a pang in my mind, yet I still am extremely happy that someone else will take my stead and will hopefully find the same joys I have found with my job. Even though I’m quite not leaving Key Club yet (and I still have to give another speech at banquet), I like to write profound things, so I think it’s only fitting to give my “last” words in my last newsletter. For anyone who’s reading this and who has read all of the previous newspapers: Thank you so much for being my beloved silent audience. I’ve truly had the pleasure with providing you all the “Ottador Our Way” newsletter.
Dominic Nguyen
BOLSA GRANDE | OTTADOR OUR WAY
BOLSA GRANDE | OTTADOR OUR WAY
FACULTY ADVISER Mr. Tonthat E-mail: rtonthat.01@gmail.com
PRESIDENT Kevin Ho E-mail: imaplealot@gmail.com
VICE PRESIDENT Jennifer Lu E-mail: lu.jennifer37@yahoo.com
VICE PRESIDENT Thang Thai E-mail: thangthait@gmail.com
SECRETARY/SPIRIT REP.
JUNIOR CLASS DIRECTOR
Tina Nguyen E-mail: ngyn.tina247@gmail.com
Carmie Mach E-mail: machcarmie@gmail.com
TREASURER
JUNIOR CLASS DIRECTOR
Nicole Martinez E-mail: nicolemartinez685@yahoo.com
Rachael Yi E-mail: rachael0296@hotmail.com
TECH EDITOR
SOPHOMORE CLASS DIRECTOR
Dominic Nguyen E-mail: specifics.dom@gmail.com
DCON CHAIR Amanda Le E-mail: amaandale@gmail.com
SENIOR CLASS DIRECTOR
Jenny Nguyen E-mail: jennienhu@yahoo.com
FRESHMAN CLASS DIRECTOR Duy Tran Email: narutofreak911@yahoo.com
Liza Dinh E-mail: lizaxkimxdinh@yahoo.com I pledge on my honor, to uphold the objects of Key Club International To build my home, school, and community To serve my nation and God And to combat all forces which tend to undermine these institutions
PICTURE CREDIT: DOMINIC NGUYEN (COVER, WADYS, SPIRIT RUN, CONTACT),JACQUELYN DO (TET FESTIVAL, RACE ON THE BASE, KATHY MOTM) JACKIE NGUYEN (QUINTON MOTM), RESPECTIVE LOGOS BELONG TO THEIR ASSOCIATIONS/GROUPS
BOLSA GRANDE | OTTADOR OUR WAY