Key Club Monthly | Uplift Summit Key Club | December 2023 | Volume 6, Issue 8

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone has had a restful Christmas and New Years. I am so excited for a new year of Key Club! The last event of 2023 was the Winter Social and it was a success! I hope to keep on the good streak we had in 2023. Something I am very excited about is that our shirt design was finalized so shirt orders will be coming in soon! Additionally, I hope to get feedback from officers and students on what activities we should begin this year. I look forward to a new year with Key Club.

2023-2024 Treasurer/Webmaster Alexis Nguyen

One of the best ways I have found that I am able to contribute to a cause or provide for someone is simply by spending time to help or serve.

Spending your time in these ways is incredibly rewarding, and it comforts me knowing that I have been able to use my time in a way that is valuable and that aligns with Key Club’s value. During one of our club’s most recent events, members and officers were able to help out at the DC Wonder Woman Run. Initially, before I spent time with the people there, I had assumed we would just be working to cheer on the runners and spend the morning doing simple tasks. Although we did do such small tasks, it felt much more rewarding than I had expected. I had helped people who were dedicated and excited about running, and the energy of the runners was infectious.

As I was helping run the booths at the start of the race and cheering on the runners during the race, many of the runners asked questions and thanked me, which made me feel as if I was able to truly help them, even in the smallest of tasks.

Afterwards, the lead volunteers were incredibly kind and continued to inspire me to serve my community. Interacting with both the other volunteers and the runners themselves was a great experience and definitely worth the time I spent helping them.

After having spent my morning with the volunteers and runners, I felt as if I was able to impact the organization and execution of the run, even if it was through simple tasks. I was able to help make the other volunteers’ workload slightly smaller, and was rewarded with genuine gratitude and a motivation to spend my time in similar ways in the future.

2023-2024 Secretary Aisha Nureini

I’m grateful for all of the things I have done in keyclub this far. I’ve made so many new experiences and met new people. Keyclub is one of the biggest clubs at Summit and I’m grateful for being everyone’s secretary.

It’s been really fun so far. One of my favorite things we’ve done is the affirmation project. I think it’s sweet that we decided to put it up in the primary building. All of the notecards everyone made were nice! I’d say keyclub has had a pretty big influence on me.

When I go out and see something that has to do with volunteering I’ll think about whether or not it’d be a fun activity to do as a club. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have supported various community service projects through Key Club, as it allowed me to contribute positively to society and make a meaningful impact in my community. Working with others to bring about change and help those in need has been incredibly rewarding.

2023-2024 Co-Editor Maryam Barket

In the few months that I have been in key club, as an officer, I have enjoyed every meeting I have attended and also learning about the different events that were planned for us. Key Club has truly helped me get out of my comfort zone ever since I joined. During meetings, I am usually responsible for taking photos for articles and for engaging and communicating with the other members there. An example of this is when we had our winter social, and everyone got into groups to make the best gingerbread house for the competition.

In order for us to find the best gingerbread house, we had to work together as a team. Getting out of my comfort zone includes me talking to other people that i have not met and becoming more connected with them through key club. It has also helped me become more extroverted and include myself, by volunteering and going to events, in the community to help others. Getting out of your comfort zone is a good thing to work towards because not only does it make you more included in your community, but it also helps you find more hobbies that you are interested in.

2023-2024 Vice President Esosa Eguakun

During times of stress and pressure, incorporation holiday spirit can boost the spirits of the club immensely. The holiday season is synonymous with joy, family, togetherness, and break from routine. This makes it a great opportunity to bring some sense of cheer to the club environment. A way that festivity was brought to the club would be hosting holiday themed meetings. This can create a light hearted atmosphere that can help to reduce the stress felt by everyone from the countless amount of homework we receive at school. By hosting holiday themed meetings, members are able to dress in festive attire such as themed pajamas and santa hats; things that are typically out of dress code.

By being able to dress how they choose, the spirits of the members are boosted already. However, that was not all. We also incorporated a team building activity with a holiday twist which was decorating gingerbread houses. Members were able to get together with their friends and race against time in order to win the title of “Best gingerbread house!” By allowing the club members to do something so special with their friends, all the stress and worry of the school day they had prior quickly melted away as they giggled building the gingerbread houses. Along with that, I also plan on organizing a holiday themed potluck so that people with different cultures and traditions can share with others the amazing food they had the pleasure of eating this holiday season. It will not only encourage festive feelings, but it will also make them even more festive because they are bringing their treasured traditions to school to share with their friends.

2023-2024 President Isabella Liniger

For the 2024 year, I plan to accomplish much in the school wide community. Something that I heavily prioritize is community in general and something I more specifically hold close to me is my school community. The school that I attend is a rather small school so many of the students and teachers know each other well. Despite this, I feel as though there is a disconnect with many of the students and teachers relationships as well as students and students relationships. So, to aid in this I decided that I wanted Key Club this year to be focused on school wide activity engagement. This has been something that I have done a rather good job on with doing a menstrual drive, a winter social, letters to teachers and the positivity board that was set up in the primary school.

I hope to continue accomplishing projects like these because they help make sure that everyone in our community is engaged with each other.

Additionally, projects like these that are primarily hosted by myself show other students how they can become a leader themselves. These projects that are being held inspire students inside of the entire school. I have ideas for around the school activities that will be occurring this upcoming semester and I am so very excited for them to happen!

2023-2024 Historian Julian Chaparro

My Key Club experience has always been a very positive and welcoming one with multiple activities and events that invite the members of Key Club to interact with one another and do good in their community. I have always learned more about members of Key Club whether it's because we worked together or from listening to their introduction, there is always a new person that I meet from the school because of Key Club which is why it is so welcoming. The inclusiveness also helps a lot in building that environment as the officers always invite members to participate in socials or volunteering activities and it really helps in not letting people feel left out or not in the know about new announcements and opportunities.

Key Club was something that I wanted to see grow in my school and I think that it has the potential to become much more well known with all the students because it is so available to anyone who wants to join and has so many activities that other students hear about and want to be involved in. To me Key Club is an opportunity for students to better themselves whether is by gaining social skills, taking a break from school stress, learning more about the community, and a way to feel good while volunteering and potentially spark a interest in helping others that a member could take with them for the rest of their lives.

New Year's Day

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

5th General Meeting

*Date could be changed, look on our remind for updates or confirmation on our general meeting*

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