I hope all of you were able to sign up for Key Club during Club Rush, submit your forms and pay your dues.
General Meetings are every Wednesday during lunch so I hope that all of you can come out and join us. We’ll be starting off with talking about Key Club 101: everything a Key Club member needs to know about Key Club from recognition to core values to our motto to everyday logistics to exciting events.
Key Club is a great opportunity to make new friends, get involved in the community and truly show your spirit. I hope all of you can take advantage of as many opportunities in the coming term as you can and remember our board is here to support you!
As always, please reach out if you ever have any questions or concerns. Until next time, suns!
Happy September, key uties! I hope you all enjoyed the first few general meetings!
First quarter of school is almost over! Hopefully, you ' re all getting pretty settled in now.
Key Club is such an incredible experience, and I hope you all make the best of it in these upcoming months!
Keep an eye out for future events, and come read about some of the highlights of this past month right here in The Sunspot! Starting next month, I'll be including a "Member Voice" page for any general members who would like to share out about their Key Club experience or moment!
If you ' re interested, please feel free to email me any stories at kkchn56@gmail.com or contact me through instagram: @k chn56!
Hope you had a sunny September, sunnies!
Kaylin Chan
Bulletin Editor 2022-2023
September DCM/Rainbow Rumble (Sept. 24)
D30S September Food Bank (Sept. 3)
Brookhurst Food Pantry (Sept. 10 & 24)
Hope Food Distribution (Sept. 3 & 17)
Kiwanis Camp Landell Pancake Breakfast
In-Person: (Sept. 10)
OA Math Tutoring (Sept. 13 - Sept. 16)
OC Coastal Cleanup Day (Sept. 17)
Cypress Fall Festival Kiwanis Booth (Sept. 30)
Online:
Charity Miles (Ended Sept. 25)
Upcoming:
October DCM (TBD)
My favorite part of Key Club is volunteering and helping the community. I love waking up early for food distributions and coming together to help the community. I also love Fall Rally South.
Fun Fact =3=
A fun fact about me is that I want to live in New York when I’m older.
Hello! My name is Victoria Tran but I go by Viccy for short. I currently have purple streaked hair!! Some of my favorite hobbies are reading, baking, playing minecraft, and hanging out with my friends. I also love listening to music and I’m very into pop, indie bedroom pop, k pop, krnb, and rnb!
(P.S. She's our secretary, too :DD)
Do what makes you happy :)) Surround yourself with people who are there to support you.
It’s been over a month of school when you are reading this, and a few weeks since Club Rush occurred and the official school year for Key Club started! Now, you’ll be considered an official general member if/once you pay your dues, and will receive weekly emails from our secretary with volunteering opportunities for the rest of the year, until summer sign ups come out in 2023! Now that school has started, I’m sure you all have a lot of homework to manage, and hopefully still have that passion to serve the community! As a senior, I’ve been a part of Key Club for over 3 years now, this year being my 4th, so I understand how school work can take up so much time in our days that we might not have enough time to volunteer. However, time management is always a great skill to learn so you have time for your own hobbies, spending time with friends, and volunteering! Serving hundreds of hours despite having a large course work, I made sure to not procrastinate as it’s a huge problem for Oxford students, so try to work all week so that your weekends are open, to volunteer at Hope Food Distribution and Brookhurst Pantry :). Volunteering, in my opinion, is an amazing method of getting my mind off schoolwork as it keeps me busy enough to forget about any stressors in my life and to focus on carrying out a task, but isn’t a burden of a task so I can have fun with other volunteers! You should volunteer for fun, to help others, and to feel satisfied with the work you do. Don’t volunteer out of desperation for volunteer hours, it ruins all the fun! Volunteer and spend a great time interacting or meeting new people, and earn those hours along with it :D. However, don’t force yourself to volunteer every week if you are unable to, make sure to prioritize your health, social life, and your academics, creating a work life balance! Some of y ’all joined Key Club not for the volunteering, but for the special events, and there’s nothing bad about it! Fall Rally South, DCON, Rose Float Decorating, Division Council Meetings. Those are amazing events you all should go to and create long lasting memories, and you can even gain some volunteer hours from them, even if you don’t intend to volunteer! Key Club provides so many different opportunities to learn, have fun, gain volunteer hours, meet new people, and destress your mind, and I’m glad you join. Don’t be shy to go around to any board member and say hi, or ask for any help related to what you could do in our club! Us seniors (Devanshi, me, Lynne, Brandon, and Jonathan) can give you a hand and give you advice for school, volunteering, or even building up your way onto Key Club Board.
On August 20th, Youth Leadership America held a College Readiness Career Fair that brought together non profits to spread awareness about community initiatives that have the potential to change our lives. The YLA Expo also had a scholarship giveaway and various college and career readiness workshops! Devanshi and I not only attended the EXPO, but we also volunteered at various workshops. It was at the Anaheim Convention Center, and there were numerous nonprofits such as Girls Inc , United Way, Lions Club, and Family Justice Center In the beginning, we walked around the EXPO in order to explore the various booths there, before participating in some of the games to win some of the prizes. From the Anaheim Public Library, we got stickers and a Disneyland tote bag. It was a really cool experience getting to talk to so many different community leaders about what inspired them, and how they developed their initiative. In the afternoon, we had our volunteer shift where we passed out scholarship tickets to everyone attending a workshop. By the end, we were able to also get a scholarship ticket to be entered into a $10,000 scholarship All in all, I really enjoyed volunteering here and would recommend everyone attend next year!
Devanshi Kothari | 12 | PresidentOn Saturday, August 20 th, a couple other members from across D30S schools and I volunteered at the Youth Leadership Expo At the expo, we first checked and grouped up with the volunteer leads who instructed us on what we would be doing at the event.
As volunteers, we were in charge of handing out raffle tickets to individuals attending specific workshops which was a simple but fun task in interacting with many people.
During our break, we were able to walk around the expo itself and visit some booths that offered some exciting opportunities for student leaders. We were also able to attend the final session where there was a guest speaker The guest speaker was Carmelita Jeter, a retired American sprinter who was a three-time Olympic medalist. It was a very inspirational and motivational speech.
Afterwards, volunteers helped cleanup the entire expo by picking up trash, throwing away excess materials and organizing resources. We, also, helped coordinate the scholarship raffle. In all, this event was a fun event that involved some service and some interesting opportunities for volunteers to explore. I encourage all of you to come out to more service events and take advantage of the various opportunities since you never know what experience you can gain
August DCM took place on Saturday, August 27 th. For me, this was the first DCM I went to during the summer because I was out of the country for the other two DCMs. Returning to Key Club after a long summer is great! We spent this DCM making dog toys and peanut butter sandwiches, which were both very enjoyable service events We made dog toys out of old t-shirts, and I even bought an old Minion t-shirt for $5 because it was such a good deal! In addition to that, as treasurer, I held a Rice Krispie fundraiser that was Sun and Rhino themed, since our DCM was with the D30N Rhinos! Victoria Tran, secretary of OA Key Club and Katelyn Ngo, one of the publicists of OA Key Club had so much fun selling them to the hardworking Key Clubbers while they were doing the service projects, and in the end, we sold out! This DCM was super fun and a great way to take my mind off school during the weekend
Helen Tran | 11 | Vice PresidentCharging into service, Division 30 North consists of the purple rhinos! For those of you who may not know, D30N is our sister division, and we actually used to be together as Division 30 before splitting into independent North and South divisions! Anyways, this past weekend, we had a joint DCM (Division Council Meeting) with them, themed after Serve-a-thon. We started the event with the actual meeting itself, where a plethora of OAKC officers AND members were recognized for their awesome contributions and commitment to service! Afterwards, we were split into two big groups to take part in mini service stations: card writing, pb&j making, and dog toy making. Albeit a bit messy and chaotic, it was super fun! I especially enjoyed making the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, mainly because we were only given one glove each, and there were such limited supplies that we had about five of us working on one sandwich. As difficult as it was, it was funny, and I really liked bonding with other Key Clubbers while partaking in it. Our awesome treasurer, Megan Tran, and amazing secretary, Victoria Tran, also helped us fundraise with sun and rhino shaped rice krispies throughout the event! They were so cute and absolutely delightful. Most importantly, however, the best part about this event was seeing so many new faces at a division event. Not only did I get to meet some KEY-UTE freshmen, I also saw a couple of new faces from my own grade! It truly reminded me of how it is never too late to start your Key Club journey, something I learned from my awesome predecessor, Joseph Lukas. Anyways, I can’t wait to see what this school year holds for us. See you at club rush!
Katelyn Ngo | 11 | Publicist
Division 30 South’s monthly DCM was held on August 27th at Sage Park in Anaheim. August’s DCM was a joint DCM with our sister division, Division 30 North Rhinos. Many people from both divisions gathered to participate in our rotating service events. One of the stations was assembling peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the ultimate in comfort food. So, it’s fitting that we use them to bring comfort and food to people who need it most.
Another one of the stations was dog toy making like the service event that Region 3 participated in at Beach Boomba. We were told to bring two old t shirts to make this service project possible. Members from both divisions came together and started cutting the old shirts into strips long and wide enough to be braided and knotted together. Some of the key clubbers were able to braid the strips into thick and beautiful patterns that dogs would happily play with. This project was a great way to create quick and easy dog toys to be donated to animal shelters. Millions of dogs are stuck in animal shelters with no one to care for them. This project gives them a new toy, which is something they probably haven’t had in years.
Whitney High School and Oxford Academy had two amazing fundraisers that were selling food items at August DCM. Whitney sold mango and strawberry slushies for four dollars each, while Oxford Academy sold rice krispies treats shaped in fun shapes. Some of them were yellow stars and suns for Division 30 South, and some of them were purple rhinos made for Division 30 North. Both schools were able to sell out and raise tons of money for PTP.
August DCM: Servathon was the title of the join D30 DCM last month. During that DCM we had multiple service stations to wrack up those hours and help our communities, fundraisers and refreshments, and plenty of time to meet new people or see old friends again!
I, personally, wasn’t expecting to see so many of my old friends at this DCM, considering how inactive they usually are. I was more than thrilled to get to chat with them and catch up with them again at this DCM. It was also delightful to be able to experience three totally different service projects all in one afternoon: making PB&J sandwiches, writing thoughtful and kind cards to seniors, and making dog toys out of old T-shirts.
The fundraisers were also pretty cool! Our own Oxford Academy Key Club sold rice crispies in the shape of suns and rhinos (courtesy of our amazing treasurer, Megan), while another school sold strawberry and mango slushies. Both were delicious, and I feel like I emptied out my pockets from that event, alone, sadly.
Overall, this joint DCM was a fun event filled with lots of rhinos and suns serving our communities and world through our servathon DCM!
As school has started, mine schedule has gotten busier and busier, especially because it’s my junior year. However, even with all the built us stress, I’ve been able to enjoy my hobby of jogging while at the same time supporting charities. With the help of charity miles, the app, I can run whenever I want and with my exercise, I can help people. This is one of the best online volunteer opportunities as people who can’t volunteer in person can still help with one of their hobbies and passions. For this month of Key Club, I hope to participate more in the in person events as I see the September Food Bank to be a fun volunteer event I can attend with friends. Looking into the future only motivates me more to volunteer but only time will tell.
Rachel Kim | 11 | PublicistI would be lying if I said one of my favorite service projects wasn’t Charity Miles. Charity Miles is a health/ fitness and service app that converts the miles you ’ ve walked or run and converts them into essentially money that gets donated to a charity or cause of your choice. Not only does it encourage you to run, but we can receive volunteer hours from this through Key Club.
This is such a simple way to receive service hours, yet also is such a good way to help the community as well. You are helping yourself while you also help others! By fundraising all of this money, you are able to support communities that you might have always wanted to help out, yet you had never had the chance to. For example, some of these causes include: ASPCA which supports the prevention of animal cruelty, Malala Fund which fights for international girls’ education, Susan G. Komen which funds breast cancer research, and charity: water which works to end the global water crisis and bring safe drinking water to developing countries. There are over 40 humanitarian or conservation charities you can choose to donate to on this app.
Of course, the best way to connect with and serve the community is through physically going to service events and actually taking time to do an activity. If you can’t through, Charity Miles is such an easy yet supportive way to help out international organizations that can make a difference for you. Just download the app and start moving!
This month, I became so much more active in Key Club. Starting off, I attended my first Kiwanis meeting. I went in place of my president and being able to sit and talk with our Kiwanis advisors was very warm and welcoming. That Friday, I volunteered at the Kiwanis Concert in the Park. We helped our Kiwanis advisors assemble hamburgers, cook the meat, and hand out condiments and chips Not only this, but I was able to talk and get to know the incoming freshmen and enjoy the band that performed.
In addition, I went to food pantries and distributions every Saturday of this month. It felt good waking up early to give back to the community and talk to the members of OAKC. I forgot the passion of volunteering and this month really brought it back
We had a Pieology Fundraiser this month as well and I walked from school to Pieology with my friends. Although it the walk was hot, sitting down to enjoy a custom made pizza along with a cold cup of sprite was all worth it.
August DCM was also a blast Me and Megan walked around selling rhino and sun shaped rice krispies and we ended up selling out! I also bought a slushee and it was great to see our club win Third Shining Month of the club as well as our officer win officer of the month. By far, August has been the best month of the term not only because I got back into volunteering but I was also able to make new connections.
Janice Lee | 10 | Historian
Just recently, I attended the Brookhurst Pantry for the first time. I was blown away by the organization and the level of commitment shown by each of the volunteers. The most impactful part for me was not only bagging and setting up each of the grocery items, but interacting with the people as cars kept driving by. I saw elderly, young children, large families, and even pets throughout the day! Waving and chatting to hundreds of people as they made their way through the line was so exciting and rewarding, and I truly enjoyed every moment. What made me want to go back was the fact that everyone was so kind, regardless of if they were distributing the food or receiving it. In fact, I was also able to make meaningful connections with other volunteers while I was helping out. It was not only a memorable experience, but also insightful and rewarding to be able to give back to my community. Seeing as it was a great, well organized event, I have no doubt that I will definitely return to the weekly food pantries much more often
The world came to a standstill when COVID 19 hit. There were many job losses in the hospitality industry as everyone stayed home. Families are forced to rely on food pantries because their bank accounts aren't receiving money. Therefore, the Brookhurst Pantry started! The Brookhurst Pantry is a pantry that was started two years ago by the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim. Each week, families can get food that lasts the whole seven days. They are treated with milk, a dozen eggs, vegetables, fruits, meat, snacks, etc. Ever since Oxford Academy Key Club connected with Brookhurst Pantry, our club has had the opportunity to volunteer every month. Cars will go through the booths and volunteers will help pack and load the items into the trunks of the cars The process is made to be quick and efficient so the pantry can serve more people At the dairy station, volunteers place jugs of milk into paper bags and place them into shopping carts Other volunteers will push the shopping carts through five more stations At the meat, egg, dairy, produce, and bread stations, volunteers place their station’s items in the paper bags Next, the volunteer pushing the shopping cart will move to one of the five spots near the cars' stops, and another volunteer will assist with loading the items onto the cars' trunks. After loading the food, volunteers pushing the shopping carts will then go to the milk station again and the process goes on and on until there are no cars left waiting for food. The place has made so many people’s lives better and have even cured diseases with the volunteers’ prayers. A praying team asks drivers why they came here, and some will respond that they have a physical or mental condition. The team will then pray for the drivers, and sometimes the drivers' condition will improve instantly. In order to minimize food waste, volunteers take home the leftovers all cars have left. Overall, the Brookhurst Pantry is a semi tiring, but definitely worthwhile and fun event. Oxford Key Club still offers it on Saturdays of some weeks, so check your emails and come by if you are interested!
Yuehanna Yuan | 10 | Historian