August 2019 Newsletter

August 2019 | Vol 19, Issue 4

THE LAST SUNSETS OF SUMMER

Key Club International | CNH District | Region 3 Division 30 South | Oxford Academy Key Club

TABLE TABLE OF OF CONTENTS CONTENTS

KIWANIS PANCAKE BREAKFAST 7-8 EDITOR’S NOTE 4 PRESIDENT’S CORNER 3

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SOCIALS AND SUNSHINE 5-6

AUG. CALENDAR CONTACT INFO OXFORD

21-22

REGISTRATION 15-16 BAKING IN

BEACH BOOMBA

THE SUN

17-20

9-10 THE BROAD 13-14 THE END OF SUMMER 11 VEGAN FAIRE 12

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PRESIDENT’S CORNER How Did I Join Key Club?

When you enter your freshman year, everyone has a list of clubs they are determined to join, and some that they join after something catches their interest at club rush. I knew about Key Club even before I entered Oxford since my sister went out every Saturday to go volunteer or bond. I never thought much of it and joined when she told me to. Originally, I joined for the volunteer hour requirement, but I stayed because of the community that the club provides. You can’t avoid becoming close to someone after completing a twelve hour shift together.

I think my Key Club moment was the first DCM I attended, Beach Boomba the July before my freshman year.

I went without knowing anyone and still felt included in all of the activities that took place. For new Key Clubbers, I recommend going out to events, even if you do not have any friends that are coming with you. I guarantee that you’ll be able to make friends and don’t be afraid to talk to any of the upperclassmen!

For the month of July, OAKC has continued to have high service hours and there has been active participation in socials and division events. We received first shining club of the month and most funds raised at the DCM! Even though school is starting, I hope we still stay strong!

Tobi Yao OAKC President

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EDITOR’S NOTE Back to School...

August, the highly dreaded month for all AUHSD students alike. The month we trade shorts for khakis and sunbathing for a tub full of assignments. It’s back to school time.

The 2019-2020 school year is approaching at full speed ahead, and I’m trying my best to savor every last bit of summer. I’ve been going out with friends, baking, spending time with my family, trying to relax, but it’s all very hard to do when the thought of school is constantly hanging in the back of my mind. I mean, yeah, you could say I’m a little scared.

Senior year means applying to college and preparing to live in a world where I’m now an adult. It means saying goodbye to old friends and adapting to new environments.

But senior year also means graduation, senior activities, and long lasting memories. So for many reasons, I’m also excited for what this year has in store.

Every new school year is a chance to do something great. So I challenge you all to head into this school year with a positive mindset. Don’t think of it as a bore, rather think of it as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Natalie Melendez OAKC Bulletin Editor

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OXFORD X WESTERN SOCIAL — Grace Nguyen | 11 | Treasurer On July 1st, we joined with Western Key Club for a Beach Social and clean up.

Leann and I didn’t have a ride to the social so went beyond and asked WKC for help. Big thanks to Edison for providing me and Leann a ride. Although it was awkward at first, we were able to strike up a conversation with the other Western Key Clubbers in the car.

At the social, we played ice breakers and walked to the peer to clean up the area. When the social ended, everyone packed up and headed to a fire pit for the bonfire later that night. After settling

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down, Tobi, Jennifer, Timmy, and I had a bucket of water thrown at us as a reward for how many hours our club served. Biggest regret of my life.

When the sun finally set, we had our mini bonding around the bonfire. We ate hot dogs and smores, and the freshman had fun setting a math textbook on fire.

Overall, the social x bonfire with Western was fun and relaxing. The people at Western are seriously so nice and adorable. I can’t wait for our next social!

SOCIALS AND SUNSHINE

DIV. ROLLERSKATING FUNDRAISER — Jennifer Vo | 11 | VP Hi Key Club!! It’s Jennifer! July was a really busy month for Key Club and I had so much fun attending as any events as I could before school starts. My favorite event this month was the Division Roller Skating Fundraiser at the Fullerton Skating Center!! At first I was really intimidated because it was my first time skating and I was afraid I was going to be bad at it—and guess what— I was! I was terrible and I’m never going skating again. But

getting to see everyone from the division come out and have fun. I was able to catch up with a lot of familiar faces and meet some new people too. I’m so proud of our division fundraising coordinators for arranging such a successful event and I’m really glad that everyone came out to support our division. Next time, I hope to see more Key Club members attend! ;)

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KIWANIS PANCAKE BREAKFAST July 4 + 27, 2019

Timmy Bui | 11 | Secretary This month, we had two Kiwanis Pancake Breakfasts.

The first Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast was on Independence Day. There weren’t as many spots for Oxford volunteers as usual, but it was still enjoyable to serve drinks to people who had just completed their Fourth of July run. I also got to talk to more of the Kiwanis volunteers, who are quite the conversation makers!

The second one took place much nearer to the end of the month, during the annual Cypress Festival. Again, we served to runners who just completed their 10K or to any other Cypress residents who came out to enjoy the Festival. This time, I got to serve pancakes, which is, in my opinion, the most fun part about the event. It was pretty hot, so we took turns with people from other schools. Overall, this one was fun because there were also more people to talk to, new and old.

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Lydia Lee | 10 | Historian Waking up early is always a hard task, especially during summer! However, it is always exciting to volunteer, despite the early hours. Such was the case when I attended Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast on the 27th of July.

Kiwanis Pancake Breakfasts are always pretty fun, the volunteers are usually fed and everyone enjoys serving the customers. This time around, I worked at the sausage station with my partner, Leann!

Together, we each dropped 2 sausages and so did the Kiwanis member cooking them. A Key Clubber from another school helped us in carrying the lid during sausage transportation from the grill to the thing that kept them warm.

The sausages were commonly referred to as “slippery wieners� and all the volunteers laughed constantly. The pancakes were also made in many ways, coming raw and overcooked as well as in different sizes, ranging from plate-sized to some the size of a fist.

Despite many oil splatters and hot lids, we still managed to live through it all and had fun at the same time. The highlight of the day was the hand washing station where we tried our best to trick the other volunteers into washing their hands with the hot water. See you at the next Pancake Breakfast! <3

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BAKING IN THE SUN

James Nguyen | 11 | Historian This month we had another bake sale to bake for so we decided to crash Tobiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house and make some cookies. Our board members came over to use her kitchen to bake their goods. Besides nearly burning down her kitchen we also used this time to do some bonding between the board members. Our bake sales usually make over $100 each time and it is an effective way for us to raise funds for PTP. The board decided to go to LA this month to take some photos for introductions as well.

Though getting rides set up was a bit difficult we managed to get everyone to the Broad for some sick pics!

Though I missed Beach Boomba I heard from many that it was a great time and was fun seeing Ali getting pied in the face. The beach seems like a great place for Keyclubbers to get together and bond or hold DCMs. July was a fun filled month but summer is nearly over and the school year is about to start; hopefully even more people join and show up to events.

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Jacquelyn Nguyen | 10 | Publicist For the month of July, Oxford Academy Key Club hosted a bake sale on Sunday, July 14 th.

Although I didn’t attend the actual volunteering event, our Treasurer, Bulletin Editor, and two of our freshmen members worked hard to sell baked goods in order to make profit for PTP (Pediatric Trauma Program). Thanks to everybody’s combined efforts, from the volunteers to the bakers who supplied the baked goods in the first place, the bake sale brought in over $250!

I was one of the donating bakers and let me just say; I wouldn’t be surprised if my cookies didn’t sell well. I’m still a rookie baker, so my chocolate chunk cookie recipe wasn’t all that great; but that might be because I messed up the recipe again (I completely melted the butter instead of having softened butter, and I used a whisk instead of an electric mixer). My fellow board members didn’t hesitate to criticize the baked treats when they ate them, but I honestly don’t blame them.

If I’m to be blunt, I think the recipe that I got from a quick Google search isn’t a good cookie recipe. After evaluating the ingredients, the recipe doesn’t have white sugar in it; just brown sugar. Again, I’m not a baking expert but that seems a bit odd to me. Then there’s the fact that the recipe calls for corn syrup. After using the recipe for the first time, eating through disastrous results, and conducting some research, most cookie recipes don’t have corn syrup. Now, I only use the recipe because I don’t want to waste the corn syrup that I already bought. However, once I use up that ingredient, I will definitely use a better cookie recipe!

I believe there should be another bake sale on Sunday, August 4 th, if the grocery store agreed to our Treasurer’s date. With that date in mind, I’ll need to up my baking game in order to help with the success of our bake sales!

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Helen Tran | 11 | Project Chair This summer has been filled with so many fun events and I genuinely had such a fun summer thanks to all the positivity and energy from the people who attended these events.

It’s been amazing seeing Key Club members stay active and take time out of their busy summers in order to continue volunteering. The underclassmen have been making it out to various events and it makes me so happy to see them so passionate and dedicated about Key Club. It warms my heart to know that they genuinely care about their community. It’s also so nice to see how excited Key Club members are to get to meet new people.

I wish I could have volunteered more this summer, but I did genuinely enjoy myself at the events that I was able to make it out to. I bonded with my own fellow Oxford Academy Key Club members and got to network with other individuals coming from other schools.

Overall, this summer has been filled with plenty of fun events and as the school year approaches, I hope that members still continue to come out despite their busy schedules.

I’m excited to be working with Kenny to find new and fun events to kick off the school year on a positive note. I’m also very excited for general meetings to start again because I love to see new faces in the crowd and I hope that participation in our events continues to grow this school year.

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This past July 27th, I got the chance to volunteer at the 6th annual Vegan Faire! I’ve attended the faire the last 2 years, but this was my first attending as a volunteer! I was incredibly excited to be part of an event that is so special to me and that I look forward to every single year.

Though we were severely understaffed, my shift started out pretty slow. I got there at 11am and helped check in vendors at one of the 3 gated entrances. Though the task wasn’t too difficult, the blazing heat made the job unbearable. Nonetheless, I ended up finding a nice spot of shade to stand under, and the rest was a breeze.

long day in the hot sun, I was ready to try out the vendors’ culinary masterpieces. I bought myself a small bucket of vegan fried chicken, and to be honest, it could have fooled me for the real thing! Even as a 2year vegan, I find myself amazed at all of the realistic plant based foods.

And not gonna lie, it kinda scares me sometimes haha. The look and taste mess with my head and I feel like I’m eating the real thing! But at the end of the day, I’m happy to be eating something so delicious and 100% cruelty free. I also bought a heavenly chocolate donut for dessert! I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s the best donut I’ve ever had.

Even thinking about it makes my mouth water!

Before I get any hungrier, I just want to say that helping out at this event really did mean a lot to me. It was the first vegan event I attended 2 years ago after recently going vegan, and seeing how much the event and the vegan To any fellow vegans out there, I 10/10 recommend attending this event next year!

And to those who want to learn more about this lifestyle or are simply looking to indulge in some delicious vegan food, there’s always room for more!

VEGAN FAIRE

A few hours after my first job, I got called to help set up tables and a drumming circle in the middle of the street. There was a lot of carrying and strength involved, but luckily, we were able to finish quickly with the help of OAKC volunteers.

Soon afterwards it was 4pm, which meant the faire had started! I was stationed at the information booth where I helped pass out pins and maps to event guests. I loved getting the chance to talk to so many people, many of them vegan, many of them not. Regardless of dietary preferences, everyone was filled with spirit and was eager to try out all of the amazing food.

Speaking of, my favorite part of the day was definitely the eating! After a

Thanks for the great memories and great food, Vegan Faire 2019. Until next year!

Natalie Melendez | 12 | Bulletin Editor

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THE THE THE THE THE

BROAD BROAD BROAD BROAD BROAD

Giang Nguyen | 11 | Historian

Key Club board was the first ever club board I became a part of. It was exciting to be able to s as an officer in a club I truly cared about. Of course, I always wondered what it would be like t in such a position. How would I communicate with my fellow officers? Who do I talk to? And wha earth am I supposed to do? Luckily, there were plenty of familiar faces in this year’s board, so I little to worry about.

But when it came to team dynamic, I wondered just how well we would work together. Wh thought of a board, I’ve always had a mental image in my mind of a group of professionals goin their tasks, no questions asked. It’s just business. But hey, this is Key Club. It’s where the fun happ Don’t get me wrong though, we’re actually very efficient at our jobs. Trust me, we’re professiona

Anyway, our Vice President (and Division EA, of course) Jennifer Vo had the brilliant idea to tak board pictures at an art museum in LA this summer. Imagine that, the whole board going on an -long drive to LA just to take pictures! But oh, it was happening. We even coordinated our dre and outfits so that we would all be matching white tops with black bottoms. That’s right, we’re fessionals. When we arrived at the Broad, we started by taking pictures and posing in front of d ent art displays. After exploring paintings and gallery art galore, our squad took a small field tr Little Tokyo while exploring the streets of LA. At some points we may have gotten lost, but we eventually make it to our destination where we had ramen, sushi, and boba together. It was lik own little family. And at this point, what I thought would be an average club trip began to feel m like a day of hanging out with my friends.

The only part I was sad about was that Helen, Natalie, and Tiffany had to miss out. But becau this trip, I felt like I was able to bond with every one of my fellow officers in Key Club board. It truly a unique experience, one that I’m sure all the other Key Club boards would be jealou They’d wish to be half as professional as us! But in the end, our trip to the Broad perfectly enca lated what I value about Key Club: the ability to work as a team while having fun with your friend

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serve to be at on I had

Tobi Yao | 11 | President When Jennifer first suggested that we take our board photos in LA, I needed to confirm if she was serious or not. It seemed like such a crazy place to go just for board photos, but I’m glad we did it. We got to take our photos in front of some amazing artwork, and everyone was able to grow closer as a board, especially since we waited in the walk-in line for an hour.

After I was elected, one of the first goals I made was to have a closer board than last year. During board meetings last term, I feel like we all sat at our usual tables and during DCMs, we stayed with the few people that we were comfortable with. There were some people I barely talked to the whole term. With bonding events such as these and a more relaxed environment in our group chat, I’m hoping we’ll be able to make this the best term!

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O Kenny Le | 11 | Project Chair Oxford’s Registration started off as a mess. The chair of the event did not sign-up on time, many people did not see the black line representing the end of the needed volunteers, and most importantly my club cancelled their meeting after I already gave up one of my spots to another volunteer. Eventually everything worked out though.

Registration itself was awkward for me. I was a door lead for the Seniors on the first day and even though there was a big red line in front of them they had no idea where they were going so I had to intermittently stop people and I honestly did not know the names of half of them so I was just stuck with saying sorry you’re going the wrong way 50 times. Also, for the juniors Mr. Alcala told me that students could not go through the entrance to exit which kind of made no sense to me since there were 0 people entering. I had to tell people in my grade to turn around which I could tell visibly annoyed a lot of people.

It was pretty weird seeing all of my future classmates again after not talking to so many of them for more than 2 months. There was one person who completely changed their look so when they said, “Hi Kenny” I did not respond to them for a good second because I was trying to process who they were. After volunteering so much over the summer I kind

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R E G I S T R A T I O N

of was getting detached from the whole Oxford experience. All of these people who are lame and are not in Key Club or people that I have not been interacting with I suddenly get to meet and a whole lot of memories kick in when I see them from 7th â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 10th grade which is pretty weird. Sometimes I just forget that some people exist and when I saw them during registration I was taken aback.

Honestly, I cannot believe that I am a junior already. I still have so many vivid memories of freshman year, more so than sophomore year honestly. When I think back to sophomore year the highlights and lowlights of the year were pulling all-nighters because of SPICE notes, remembering how a self-proclaimed genius left my team in the dust, and of course getting a call from Grace right after I took my nap that I because project chair for Key Club.

Now that I think of it a lot happened in sophomore year, mostly bad. Junior year is the year that since 7th grade all the teachers have been saying would be the hardest and most important at Oxford. I am real hopeful that Junior year is going to be a good year, but also really scared because I know that a lot of bad things could happen. However, with the knowledge that I will not have to take PE ever again in my lifetime and the fact that I am almost done with Oxford, I am verrrryyyyy happy.

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BEACH BOOMBA July 20, 2019

Tiffany Ong | 10 | Historian The first Beach Boomba that I attended was on July 20th this year. It is an annual region event, so it was exciting to meet a bunch of people from different divisions and have fun together.

We were able to play many games at Beach Boomba, including one where we split into huge teams and competed against each other to see who could bury a team member under the sand the quickest. There was also a big tug of war competition, and it became really competitive. Many of the attendees of Beach Boomba were watching and cheering the teams on as they tried their best. Another activity was the watermelon eating competition, which I loved because they gave out free watermelon pieces to some people who did not participate in the game. It tasted really sweet and it was very enjoyable, especially on the hot and sunny day.

After all the games, we were allowed to pie LTGs in the face with shaving cream and throw water balloons at them. It was really funny to see their reactions! Although I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t pie anybody, it was so much fun to watch all the chaos and laughter going on.

All in all, Beach Boomba was a very fun event filled with entertaining games and activities. I would definitely recommend for everyone to attend next year not only to participate in the fun, but also to meet people from different divisions and make new friends!

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Claire Lee | 10 | Publicist Beach Boomba: An event where Division 30 South basically tells everyone we are the biggest division in Region 3.

It was a lot of people’s second or third time attending, but for me, 2019’s Beach Boomba was the first Beach Boomba I’ve ever attended. I did not know what to wear or what to expect. Personally, I went to the beach (specifically Huntington Beach) way too many times this summer so I wasn’t really looking forward to the event as much as I should have been. But it was by-far literally the best beach event I attended.

Because of personal transportation miscommunication, I had no choice but to miss the DCM portion of Beach Boomba (because I was that late) and that is probably the part that I regret the most the entire day.

My first reaction arriving at the beach was typical: Why are there so many people wearing yellow??? I had no idea how big Division 30 South was until I glanced over at towers 2&3 only to see some purple, some turquoise, but mostly yellow. When I was able to remember most of our division member’s names during the pin/instagram exchange activity (when division members were asking other division members who their laundry pin person was), I once again realized how connected we are as a division, and that is something I remember the most aside from pieing our LTG, Ali :)

Through events such as the laundry pins & Instagram exchanges, unfreezing the t-shirts, and tug-of-war, Region 3 was able to bond together as a region instead a division, and it helped me realize how big of a club Key Club really is, and that I should appreciate the fact that I am able to serve this club for the rest of my high school career.

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Victoria Truong | 10 | Tech Chair Summer vacation is soon coming to a saddening end, but that doesn’t mean that the fun is over yet for Key Club! Although our brief weeks of relaxation away from school may be coming to a close, D30S had still worked hard to coordinate one last summer Division event that was a first for some and the last for others. The second of the biggest Division events of the year was taking place from 10AM-3PM on the 20th of July: Region 3 Beach Boomba 2019! This was my first time attending the huge gathering of all 7 Divisions at Huntington State Beach and after that hot and crazy day, I’m certain it won’t be my last either.

Before all the fun really started, of course all Key Clubbers had to go through registration where all the rainbow-colored tents were located with their corresponding DLT members and colors. The agenda for this month’s DCM was as goes: registration, DCM, the clothespin activity (icebreakers), a filling lunch of pizza, some more games and activities, and lastly, 30 minutes of beach cleanup.

After the registration and our usual runthrough of the DCM with old and new business, everyone from all the Divisions were given a clothespin with the name, Division, and Instagram username that was filled out during registration. The point of the activity was to find the owner of that clothespin and return it to them, and I found it to be an interesting activity because I had never heard of it before. The sand was scorching hot, so looking around searching for the rightful owner of the clothespins was a painful experience, but I enjoyed seeing all the different colors and shirts of the other Divisions.

Once the brief activity ended, it was time to satisfy my empty, growling stomach with some delicious pizza, which I wolfed down in minutes the second I took a seat on the sand.

Amongst the options of games provided to the Key Clubbers, I can recall that there was a watermelon-eating contest, a tug-of-war contest, and an unfreeze-the-shirts game where you had to bury a person in your group in the sand, then proceed to sprint to the center of the circle of groups to the shirts. I didn’t really remember or understand how the last game worked, but it was funny watching our group frantically dump and scoop the sand all over one of our fellow OA Key-Clubbers, who happened to be a freshman. There was also one other activity, which was pie-ing and throwing water balloons at the LTGs, which definitely sounded like an amusing event to watch. By the end of the pie-ing and the water balloon event, our D30S LTG Ali Al-Saleem was covered in white cream and was soaking wet.

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Soon enough, we had arrived in the last half hour of Beach Boomba and it was time to partner up to participate in the beach cleanup. My partner and I grabbed our gloves and started picking up whatever trash we could find, then dropped it into the nearest trash bag. I remember walking to the area where the LTG incident occurred and noticed all the chunks of whipping cream covered in sand that I had a bit of trouble cleaning up. It didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help that the sweat was collecting under my hat as it got hotter under the summer sun, but at least I was able to almost get rid of my sock tan entirely.

Eventually, the conclusion of Region 3 Beach Boomba came to an end and the KeyClubbers began clearing out and packing up, including me. It had been a unique experience for me, and I actually learned something new that day as well...underneath the shore, just after the water is pulled back into the ocean, there are a bunch of little bumps/dents, which are where the crabs crawl! I was able to catch a few in my hands by scooping up the sand, and it was a ticklish feeling on my palms, but that was definitely one of the most memorable things that I gained from Beach Boomba. This Division event mightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been a sweaty one, but I enjoyed my first Beach Boomba and I look forward to the next ones to come!

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HOPE FOOD

FIRST DAY OF

BEAUTY&THE BEAST

SCHOOL

COTG

4 BAKESALE

10 EACH ONE TEACH

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ONE FEED LA

AUGUST DCM

COTG

KIDCON ANAHEIM

ART CRAWL

16 KIDCON ANAHEIM

SOON

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EVENTS

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C O N T A C T

PRESIDENT | Tobi Yao tcyao2003@gmail.com VICE PRESIDENT | Jennifer Vo vojenniferv@gmail.com TREASURER | Grace Nguyen 12GNguyen22@gmail.com SECRETARY | Timmy Bui bu1timmybu1@gmail.com BULLETIN EDITOR | Natalie Melendez natalie.melendez@outlook.com TECH CHAIR | Victoria Truong victoriantruong@gmail.com PROJECT CHAIR | Kenny Le Kennl_l@outlook.com PROJECT CHAIR | Helen Tran helentran952@gmail.com HISTORIAN | Lydia Lee LHLee017@gmail.com HISTORIAN | Giang Nguyen giangadonrawr@gmail.com HISTORIAN | James Nguyen verll123@hotmail.com

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@oakeyclub

HISTORIAN | Tiffany Ong ongtiffy@gmail.com

Oxford Academy Key Club

PUBLICIST | Claire Lee 0128jil@gmail.com PUBLICIST | Jacquelyn Nguyen bwama123@gmail.com

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SEE YOU NEXT TIME...