IOLIAN
Feb.-March 2016 Vol. 1 Issue 5
The Official Publication of the Illinois-Eastern Iowa District
Table of Contents Pg. 3 Key Club 101 Pg. 4 A Word from the District Board Pg. 11 A Word from the Editor Pg. 12 DCLC 2016 Pg. 14 Eliminate Project Pg. 16 International Partners Pg. 17 Club Spotlight 2
Key Club 101 What is Key Club? Key Club is an international student-led organization which provides its members with opportunities to provide service, build character and develop leadership.
Why Key Club?
No other organizations provide the opportunities that we do. With us, you better lives, make friends, and grow as a person. You’re not joining a club. You’re joining a family.
Who Are We?
We are caring and competent servant leaders transforming communities worldwide. The core values are leadership, character building, caring and inclusiveness.
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A Word from the
Caring- Our Way of Life 4
District Board Executive Board
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Governor Update Dear Illinois-Eastern Iowa District Key Clubbers, Thank you for an awesome year! I had a blast getting to meet so many of you and hearing about your wonderful service initiatives. I hope that this won’t be a final goodbye. I hope that I can see many of you in the next few years at Circle K events or eventually in Kiwanis. Many of you have become some of my closest friends. To get back into business, the following message serves as a “Year in Review” to discuss the progress that has been made in the district so far. I am outlining the message to go along with the focus points I created for the platform I ran on as Governor: Communications–One of my focus points was to increase social media interactions in our district. I am very proud to say that we have come a long way and are continuing to grow with technology and public relations. Shoutout to our Technology and Public Relations Chair, Justin Wiggins! We have revamped our website to include more pictures and have it connect to our new Instagram account! In hopes to portray more service into our accounts, we started to put more pictures of Key Clubbers around the district serving their communities. In addition to the Instagram, we also created an I-I District Officers Facebook Group so officers could ask questions and Execs could post updates. The momentum of all of these social media outlets for communication is continuing and growing with the next board. Follow us and hit up Governor Abby Mast or Tech/PR Chair Justin Wiggins for more information! Promotion—I also wanted to increase promotion of Key Club’s International Partners, such as March of Dimes and Children’s Miracle Network. This was accomplished via Lieutenant Governor Newsletters and the Iolian. I do believe that we can go further to promote these partners, especially on our new and revamped platforms of social media. On your Club Monthly Report Forms many of you listed that you would like more information on service projects. I am confident that the new District Board will be on top of that to provide new and fun options for you all. Strayed Key Clubs—This past year’s board did a wonderful job of communicating with clubs and advisors. We did not have as much of a problem with strayed Key Clubs as we have in past years. If your club is not so much involved with the international aspect of Key Club, I would recommend you talk to your Lieutenant Governor or reach out to Governor Abby. The key to having a successful Key Club with motivated members is to show them how awesome Key Club International is; and how huge a difference Key Club International makes on the world. Feedback—Finally, I made the goal of restructuring our methods of feedback for the district. Our past Statistical Secretary, Peter Ju, did a great job of redoing the Club Monthly Report Form to make it much easier to complete and more helpful to the district. The feedback from that form was compiled into graphs and charts that allowed us to see how I-I’s Key Clubs had been doing. Thank you to those clubs that have been consistently reporting; your reports helped us help you! If you have any questions about anything above, please reach out to me or Governor Abby! The District Board would love to hear any suggestions for improvement or how we can work together to move forward and make Key Club even more awesome. Thanks for the 77,000+ service hours you have all collectively contributed in the last year. It was an honor to serve as your Governor and I hope you all enjoy the rest of the school year :) Yours in Service and Friendship, Kristin John The U.S. Army: One of Key Club International’s vision partners is The U.S. Army! The U.S. Army partnership is based on a foundation of shared values including leadership, service and education. Engaging in local opportunities, U.S. Army personnel are able to connect with Kiwanis Family members and provide access to local battalion support and resources. You can invite the Army to speak to your club or have service projects for army men overseas (write them letters, send them toiletries, etc.). The Army also provides scholarships for those wanting to join in college (Reserve Officer Training Corps). March2Success, a SAT/ACT tutoring service provided by the Army, is completely free. Sophomores and Juniors, you should check that out! For more information about the U.S. Army, check out their website at www.goarmy.com.
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Statistical Secretary Update Hello, I-I Key Clubs! District Convention & Leadership Conference is coming up real soon, so I hope many of you are pumped for a great weekend! I just want to thank everyone for doing an amazing job and I enjoyed serving as your district statistical secretary this past year. At this time of the year, you should have your Club Monthly Report Forms from April 2015 to January 2016 submitted. If you haven’t submitted any of them yet, please do so as soon as possible! You can always go back and fill out missing report forms. Remember that the next Club Monthly Report Form is due on March 10th, which should cover your club’s events from February. Your monthly reports are important for the district board, as it allows us to assist you and improve our district as a whole. You can fill out the form at this link: tinyurl.com/KCReportForm. Please note that missing 2 or more consecutive monthly report forms will put your club in a position of “not in good-standing” with the district. This will keep your club out of the House of Delegates at District Convention, which means you will not be able to vote on amendments and your next district leaders. Our goal for the district is to get around 60% of monthly report form submissions. To reach this goal, please submit any missing report forms and the upcoming one. Let’s finish out the year strong and continue to improve as a district with these report forms! If you ever need help with anything, feel free to contact me at statsec.iikc@gmail.com. Yours in service, Peter Ju
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Treasurer Update Hello Mighty I-I Key Clubbers! The fresh new calendar brings us countless opportunities to start off the year fresh and open to new opportunities and beginnings. For our district, it is the beginning of an important season: transition. Elections are beginning to sprout around; I highly encourage anyone and everyone to take a risk to serve others. Running for office is such an eye-opening experience. I felt more confident in my public speaking after reciting my speech for my division’s elections in 2011. Whether you win or lose, it’s not about the result; it’s about the work you did to get there! In the end, we are all Key Club leaders, and it is important to remind others that a leadership title does not necessarily signify higher importance, just additional responsibilities that they want to uphold. Individual members make the difference: that is why each Key Clubber is a leader. I highly encourage clubs to hold their club elections as soon as possible to promote convention attendance. Club Officers can receive insightful training from convention workshops, and it is important that newly-elected officers have enough time to plan out a way to attend convention. Along with convention planning, the earlier the election, the longer each officer has to transition! Training elected officers give them an opportunity to ease into their duties and responsibilities, rather than rush into it. Remember that District Convention is not just for elected officers: promotion should be happening now! Get members informed about what convention is through our district’s Call to DCON video, Facebook Overlays, and even district publications like this one! Start fundraising to reduce costs for attendance as an incentive for members to attend. In order for me to see each smiling face at convention this year, it’s important to act now. If any club is on the list on the next page, it means that they still have not submitted dues for the 2015-2016 year. Please make sure you get them in as soon as possible! If you have any questions about submitting dues, please don’t hesitate to contact me!
Together in service, Jennifer Zhuo
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Unpaid Clubs As of 2/03/16
Division 1: Lake View, Lincoln Park, Whitney Young Division 5/6: East Leyden Division 7: Deerfield, Zion-Benton Division 8: Resurrection Division 9: Glenbard West, York Community Division 10: Larkin Division 11: Richmond-Spring Grove Division 12: Freeport, Rockford Guilford Division 13: Oregon Division 14: Belvidere North Division 16: Davenport Central Division 17: Rock Island, Wethersfield Division 20W: Elmwood Division 21: Bolingbrook, Yorkville Division 23: Bloom, Bloom Trail, Joliet Catholic, Rich Central, Rich Township East Division 24: La Salle-Peru Division 25/27: Danville Division 28/29: Beardstown, Jacksonville Division 30: North Mac, Taylorville Division 33: Frankfort
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Secretary Update Dear I-I District Key Club, I hope that you are having a great second semester so far! Though the weather is cold the Key Club spirit of service and caring is always warm and once again I would like to thank all of you for what you do for this organization. First off, are you ready to “Travel the World of Service” for District Conventional Leadership Conference 2016? I can’t wait to see all of you in Springfield. Other than participating in all the fun activities for a whole weekend, as well as making many new friends, all incoming club secretaries also have the opportunity to attend the Club Secretary training forum and learn how to make the best of a year-long term. Second, our district now has 50% of rosters turned in! Thanks to all of your effort. Let’s raise those numbers! Please fill out rosters here: https://goo.gl/ic5XAY Finally, if you haven’t yet, please join the 2015-2016 I-I District Key Club Officers Facebook page, where District Board members and other officers post updates and information. Please contact me with any questions at secretary@iikeyclub.org or secretary.iikc@gmail.com. I look forward to seeing you many of you at District Convention and seeing more rosters turned in! Yours in service, Jennifer Kuo
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A Word from the Editor Hi I-I Key Clubbers! It looks like this Key Club year is just about finished. It’s strange really how fast the year went by. I can still remember going through caucuses constantly reading speeches at DCLC last year. This has really been an amazing year making all these fun newsletters for you all! I never thought I was meant for this position, but grew into it and developed skills I never knew I was capable of doing. I want you all to know that Key Club shaped me and every single one of you performing service for your clubs. You all are truly amazing, and it has been an honor to make these newsletters for the I-I District. As Editor, I’ve had my fair share of sleepless nights trying to edit and make sure the newsletters are the best they can be! I had the privilege of creating the Iolian since it is for you and that is totally worth it! Thanks for an amazing year and remember to keep serving proudly! Yours in service, Mary Wegescheide
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This is an event you do not want to miss! 12
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The
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t c e j o r P e t a n i m
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With The Eliminate Project, Kiwanis International and UNICEF have joined forces to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus. This deadly disease steals the lives of nearly 49,000 innocent babies and a significant number of women each year. The effects of the disease are excruciating — tiny newborns suffer repeated, painful convulsions and extreme sensitivity to light and touch. However, with the power of Key Club, we can make a difference and get involved! At ICON, IPP Maria Palazzolo pledged that Key Club would raise 3 million dollars toward the ELIMINATE project. This new pledge will save more than 1.6 million lives. As of July 16, 2015, the Kiwanis family has raised 7,262,695$ for the ELIMINATE project. This vast amount of money has saved over 4 million lives. That is amazing. Keep it up K-Family! Similar to the Ice Bucket Challenge, this challenge serves to raise money by using social media. All you have to do is… 1. Record a video of yourself eating 1/4 of a lemon 2. Pledge to donate to The Eliminate Project (at least $1.80) 3. Explain a little bit about Eliminate 4. Challenge your friends to participate in the challenge 5. Post the video to social media Feel free to participate in the challenge as a club service project, or even with your family and friends. Spread the word!
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International Partners The mission of the March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. Since 1978, Key Clubs have hosted fundraising and awareness programs to support the March of Dimes, raising over $116,000 through fundraisers in 2011 alone! (For more information, click here!)
Spastic Paralysis isn’t an illness, but it is a symptom of various diseases and medical conditions of the central nervous system. It causes spasticity, which is stiff or rigid muscles that interfere with basic motions, speech, or walking. In 1952, the Illinois-Eastern Iowa Kiwanis created the Spastic Paralysis Research Foundation to fund and support medical and scientific researchers dedicated researching Spastic Paralysis and other diseases related to the central nervous system. In 1980, Key Club became involved with fundraising for Spastic Paralysis. Over 4 million dollars have been invested in research grants. It has been our district project for over 30 years! In the last year, the I-I District has raised $21,810! Now that you know what Spastic Paralysis is, now is the time to get started if you haven’t already started fundraising for Spastic Paralysis! For more information, click here!
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is a nonprofit organization that raises money to benefit hospitalized kids while increasing awareness of its member hospitals. Since Children's Miracle Network Hospitals first broadcast in 1983, Kiwanis has donated more than US$36 million to help make miracles happen for local sick and injured kids. (For more information, click here!)
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About 780 million people on our planet don’t have access to safe, clean water. Even worse, 4,400 kids under the age of five will die today from drinking dirty water. Those are disturbing statistics—and we’re doing something about it. Key Club International is teaming up with The Thirst Project, the world's leading youth water-activism organization.
Club Spotlight Marian Central Catholic High School This month, Marian’s Key Club took part in many enriching acts of service. They started off the month with a guest speaker, who taught and redirected students toward the Marian Key Club motto, “In giving back to others, you will find yourself”. It was a great way to rejuvenate and start the new year with humble hearts that are ready to serve both their school and community. Another act of service from the Marian Central Key Club was hosting the annual food truck. The food truck helped to provide food, clothes, and other necessities to people in need. They provided each person with things such as toiletries and hand-made blankets. The Marian Central Key Club was exceedingly grateful for the many donations that they received and the dedication and hard-work that was put in to make this a successful event.
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