Stuyvesant High School Key Club

Stuyvesant High School Key Club

The Locksmith Caring—Our Way of Life

Volume 3, Issue 4 February/March 2008

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: A Word From Your President

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A Word From Your Vice President

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A Word From Your Treasurer

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A Word From Your Secretary

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A Word From Your Editor

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NYRR Colon Cancer Challenge

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Lunar New Year Chinatown Parade

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Chinatown Flower Market

8

District Convention

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Coogan’s 5K

11

Word Search

12

Picture of the Month!

The old and new cabs at District Convention… in style.

Important Key Club Information!

The Cabinet Richard Huang (President) Sue Yee Chen (Vice President) Anthony Choi (Secretary) Olivia Hu (Treasurer) Ashley Cheng (Editor) Official Stuy Key Club E-mail stuykc@yahoo.com

The Board Jane Yang & Shadia Kim (Advocacy) Cissy Lin & Connie Liu (Art) Anne Tsay & Irene Kho (Fundraising)

Joanna Chen & Pei Xiong Liu (Locksmith) Rachel Dekhterman & Judith Chow (New Projects) Jing W. Xiao & Snigdha Das (Public Relations) Gavin Huang & Victor Ma (Web)

Send articles and pictures to locksmith@stuykc.org Visit our website www.stuykc.org

Gavin Huang, President I woke up Friday morning as a student. I went home as the new president of Key Club.

During my trip home in the pouring rain, I thought about what I had just done, and I feared I had doubts, and I still fear I have doubts. I still doubt my ability to lead and represent the club efficiently. Now that I’ve reached this far, what am I going to do? Should I continue to set this high standard on myself or take the hits and continue walking?

I decided that becoming president is just another brick in my wall of life experiences, that all of my doubts were just part of the transition phase.

After all, a president is just another member of Key Club. The president may lead the club, but the members are what make it up. I can’t go through with this job and continue without your reassurance. I can’t hold successful meetings if dedicated Key Clubbers don’t continue to attend. I hope everybody will continue to go to events, and that all of you will continue to dedicate a part of your time and all of your heart to Key Club. I can find new events, I can try to liven up meetings, but I can only go as far as you guys are willing to go.

So back to the question I have asked myself. Should I continue to set these high standards on myself or take the hits and continue walking? I’ve decided I will continue to push myself over the edge because this is what I feel will help us move further than last year’s cab: the will to pursue high aspirations and to push ourselves beyond our own limits and capabilities. Next year, we will recruit more members, we will find more events, we will start more projects, we will publish more Locksmiths, and we will make it a better year.

Thanks for the good times everyone. I know that you will all help us make this year a phenomenal one. And yes, we will keep the website running.

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VOLU ME 3, ISSU E 4

Victoria Tsang, Vice President

BOOMBA! Hey Key Clubbers (who are just so freakin‟ awesome :D)! As you all know I am your future vice president of Key Club for next year.

I really want to thank the cabinet for doing a good job this year and I hope to continue it with the new cabinet and make Key Club an even better experience for future Key Clubbers. I hope that I will be able to become closer with members and I‟ll definitely try to hear what you all have to say (I say try because there are a whole lot of members in Key Club and not all of you guys go to the meetings so it is hard >.<). I hope to meet all the members and remember your names (but you will have to tell me your name

Adeline Yeo, Treasurer

First off, I owe a gigantic thanks all of you Key Clubbers for electing me as Treasurer and you can be assured that I will not let you down. And of course, we should be so grateful to the current cab for doing such a tremendous job in keeping Key Club up and running. As a future member of ’08-’09 cab, I will continue the amazing job our current treasurer, Olivia Hu, has done and as I had promised, I will also include a few new ideas. I will want to hear a lot more input from the Key Club members, as I’m sure you have a lot to say. I’ll definitely want to start off the new school year with a vote deciding which candies/snacks are the most popular and easiest to sell, so those of you who sell candy can be more secure in earning back all your money. I will also make sure that there is always a box available to anyone wanting to sell. And of course, bake sales, who doesn’t love bake sales? As of now, we have been having a steady rate of one bake sale per month, and

first). I have many goals that I hope to accom-

this will most likely continue for next year, unless based on a vote, you guys would like to have more bake sales—for

plish for next year and I‟ll need all the help I

those of you who have an easier time volunteering help to

can get to make my goals a reality. One goal

Key Club during school. I am hoping that through collabo-

would be to try to have events in all the bor-

ration with the special events coordinator, we can achieve

don‟t actually live in Manhattan. I believe I‟m

a benefit concert as one of our greater fundraisers. In addition to in-school fundraisers, the ’08-’09 Cab has plenty of exciting events in store for you guys outside of school.

But most importantly, if you have any ideas at all, I will

supposed to keep this short, so…PEACE OUT!

jump at the chance to hear it.

oughs and not just one in each and the rest in Manhattan, because I know that many of you

Kenny Yu, Secretary Thanks for voting for me (or rather not objecting against me) for secretary! Thanks also to the old cabinet for making this year of Key Club as fulfilling and fun as possible!

As your new secretary, I will do my best to make sure that you guys have another awesome year of Key Club Boomba-ness where paperwork will not be a worry! But paperwork is never a worry, so I will do my best to make sure that you guys have as much fun as possible while participating in exciting events to provide service to your community!

In addition to fulfilling mundane secretary duties, I also want to improve our club with suggestions from our very own members, you! That’s right, I want to hear from you! How can Key Club be improved?

What events do you like going to or would like to go to? Tutoring kids in libraries, cleaning up parks, or marching in walks?

What fundraising ideas do you have? Would you like more out-of-school events like Bowl-a-rama? Or maybe we can make a new annual Ice-skating-rama (Come on, if Brooklyn Tech can do it, then we can SOOOO do it and do it MUCH better too!)?

If you have any ideas on how to improve our club or if you have any suggestions about events or organization that require our club’s help, send an email or give me a shout if you see me in the halls.

You are the most important part of the club after all!

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VOLU ME 3, ISSU E 4

Victor Ma, Editor ¡ Boomba! Hey Key Clubberrs. Greetings from your new editor, Victor Ma. Yup, that’s me in that (unapproved) photo Pei snapped when I wasn’t looking at the camera.

So… what am I supposed to write here again?

New plans? Well, here’s what I plan to do. I plan on printing the Locksmith again. (Yay!) This is mainly to increase readership and besides, who doesn’t want to see their own article or a photo of them in the newsletter? Instead of printing a hundred copies (what were you thinking? I’m not crazy), I’ll run off, let’s say, one to two dozen copies of each new issue.

Anyone who wants a print issue of the Locksmith should subscribe to it. This is to give us an approximation of how many issues to print. Go to stuykc.org/subscribe/ and fill out the really short form. If you can’t get to the issue online, then you might want to subscribe to it too.

Issues will be distributed during the meetings so if you want a copy, come! If there are any issues left over, the rest of you can grab it (so that nothing is wasted). How’s that?

I know that a lot of you guys are environmentally conscious and that’s a VERY GOOD thing. The issues will be printed on 100% post-consumer (recycled) paper. :] Make sure you do your part as well by recycling them if you decide to throw them away. (Remember STUYSPACE and forget the misspelling of Stuvyesant on the back of the t-shirts.)

Speaking of reminders, remember to go, go, go to events; bring, bring, bring a camera; write, write, write something up (preferably an article); and get points! Articles go to locksmith@stuykc.org and photos and videos of events go to web@stuykc.org. Umm… keep in mind that word searches and crosswords are there just in case you get bored during the meeting (tell Gavin I’m not insulting him ;) or on the way home.

Also, committee head applications will be coming soon! Hope everything is going well— just a few more weeks until spring break, so hang in there! Enjoy the rest of the issue. :)

Ridiculous Weather O.K. So I went to the NYRR Colon Cancer Challenge. Even though I wasn’t running, I faced many challenges. First of all, I was standing by myself at an intersection and almost none of the pedestrians listened to me when I told them to wait. They just ran right through the runners. If they love to run so much why aren’t they running? Luckily no runner was distracted by these annoying flies on the road.

Second challenge: the weather. It was RIDICULOUSLY cold! You have no clue.

Standing at a windy spot, wearing a light coat, no hat, and Poland Spring Water gloves provided by the NYRR, I was shivering to death. I also had a bottle of cold water which didn’t help me whenever I was thirsty. To make things worse, the run didn’t end at the time KC said it would. It went on for another hour. (I know its not your fault, CAB) So I just stood there shivering and yelling, “You’re doing great! Stay to your left”, whenever a group of runners came. I was so happy when I bought that bag of hot peanuts. Never did something feel so warm. Then I started walking the mile back to the Band shell.

The NYRR was kind enough to give volunteers a long sleeved, but VERY THIN, shirt.

That’s ok, better than nothing. And I stayed for another 10 min in the weather to wait for any of the KC members who had not signed in. Finally, after being frozen, ignored by pedestrians, and having waited a long time, I started for the subway.

I advise you all to dress very warmly for these events. I know it is spring but you should still dress warmly. The e-mails KC send aren’t joking whenever it says, “Dress warmly! Its cold tomorrow” Believe me, if you don’t listen, you’re going to regret it.

~Jensen Cheong Page 6

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VOLU ME 3, ISSU E 4

LUNAR NEW YEAR CHINATOWN PARADE “When I say „Boomba!‟ you say „Hey!‟” “Boomba!” “Hey!” “Boomba!” “Hey!” “Woooo Key Club!”

Nope, this wasn‟t a super enthusiastic Key Club meeting; this was the annual Lunar New Year Chinatown Parade. Ever since I was a little girl, I would go to Chinatown every year to see the Lunar New Year parade. Thanks to Key Club, I could finally be a part of the parade.

The Lunar New Year Chinatown Parade officially started at 1PM. Most Key Clubbers, however, arrived earlier, from 11AM to 12PM. When all had arrived, we were led to our position between a group of Xiao Lin monks and the Daily News marching band. In our Key Club caps and non-matching clothing, we looked unorganized next to these professional performers. While we waited for the parade to start, we found other ways to amuse ourselves. From waving to little kids in the buildings around us to getting the monks to perform for us to attempting to lift members into the air, we had a good time while we waited for the parade to start.

When the parade finally started, we were very excited. In columns of five, we marched down the streets of Chinatown proudly. We soon realized, however, that marching was not as easy as it seemed. It was very difficult to keep the Key Club banner leveled, especially with the wind blowing against us, pressing it against our parties. Keeping our strides even was another problem we had to overcome. Just when we got the hang of it though, we had to stop; each float had to be announced as they passed Mulberry Street. While we waited for our turn, we decided that we would switch every few streets, so that everyone had a chance to hold the banner up front.

And so, we marched through the streets of Chinatown, screaming “Boomba!” and “Hey!”, which amused and confused spectators. As we neared the end of the parade, there were less and less people on the sidelines and we got more and more tired. Although we had fun, we were all relieved when we could rest our feet at a nearby restaurant, Jin Fong, where the Key Club officials were kindly treating us to food. But to our amazement, there seemed to be no food left in the restaurant! Members took turns running around the restaurant looking for food and bringing it back to the table. We were eventually provided for and ate our fill. The officials then came around and gave us all red envelopes for good luck, refusing to take them back because it was a tradition.

We finally left at around 4PM. By then, snow was gently falling, dancing in the air as the wind blew them this way and that. It was the perfect ending of an exciting event. ~ Donna Koo

A Blooming Flower Market February 1st may have been like any other Saturday. I could‟ve easily just wasted my time at home procrastinating; however this was not the case. As I walked to Columbus Park, my heart began to beat faster in anticipation of the fun day ahead.

Behind plastic vinyl doors was a flower market bustling with people. It was so full, the tent seemed ready to burst.

When I set foot into in the tent, I was overwhelmed by the sights and sounds around me.

I decided to take a quick walk around the area. I began to see many familiar faces from Key Club, and a smile crept up on my face. It felt so wonderful to see

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so many people willing to help and give up their time on behalf of a great event.

of peoples and animals made entirely out of rice and paint. I looked admiringly at them and even got to see them being made.

I began by helping at the It was great to see the art and Moca bookstore table. There was culture of another country. In everything from books on Chinese fact, the whole day was filled Cuisine to colorfully decorated with cultural experiences. I heard chopsticks with animals on them. music in an entirely different lanAfter helping for about half and guage and style even if they were hour a staff member asked me to simply translated American songs retrieve some books from Moca, such as “Oh, Susanna.” specifically The Year of the Pig and The Year of the Dog. Walking However, the masses of down the street I saw people go- people began to thin out when the ing toward the giant tent, waiting sun began to set. I signed out to find out what was inside. And knowing this wasn‟t an event in I saw others walking out with gi- which I only helped people, but ant peach blossom branches. one where I also took away an experience.

One particular table intrigued me. There were figurines ~ Helen Song

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VOLU ME 3, ISSU E 4

Lunar New Year Flower Market Growing up, Lunar New Year has always been quite ingenious, most people seemed less than enthua special holiday that I look forward to. This year, siastic about the flower market. Some even gave me however, I got a different taste of the holiday as I vol- awkward glances. I tried to return each of them with unteered at the Chinese Flower a warm smile, but quickly gave up Market at Columbus Park in Chiwhen I realized how tiring smiling natown. can be when you have to do it every ten seconds.

When I arrived at the Flower Market at eleven o’clock My efforts finally paid off with my friend, I could already one hour later, when a young tell that we had a busy day lady approached me and asked, ahead of us. Inside the huge “What is this Chinese Flower white tent, there were tons of Market?” I explained to her people filling every corner. After about the upcoming Lunar New I pushed through five people to Year and how the flowers serve sign in at the volunteer table, I as crucial decorations for this imcouldn’t help but to take a walk portant holiday. Never had I felt around. Having spent ten years so triumphant as the moment in Taiwan, a country with deep when she told me that she would roots in Chinese traditions, I was give the flower market a visit. able to name most of the exotic My next two hours were plants being sold: orchids, spent standing in the brutal cold, money tree plants, Chinese lanwith nobody paying much attentern plants, peach blossoms, tion to me and my sign. Disappointed, I made my way narcissus, mini orange plants, azaleas, and – my favorback to the marketplace where a Chinese opera was ite – lucky bamboo (which my not-so-Chinese friend being performed on the stage. Just as my stomach thought were some useless stems). There were also was starting to complain to me, the pizzas came. It stands selling cute little Chinese key chains, astonishwas the best pizza I had eaten in a long time. ing works of Chinese calligraphy, beautiful Chinese Because there was a surplus of volunteers, I paintings, and even delicious boxes of Chinese paswas able to spend the rest of my day strolling around tries. the flower market, occasionally helping out with tiny After wandering around for ten minutes, it tasks. Although you could say that my attempt to was time to get to work. Along with five other fellow draw people to the Chinese Flower Market was Key Clubbers, I grabbed a poster from the table where mostly a failure, the day still ended on a happy note.

I signed in and walked six blocks to Little Italy. I held After all, what could be a better way to greet the Luthe gigantic poster as high as my hands would allow nar New Year than to spend a day with those pretty me to. The posters had a drawing of an adorable Chinese flowers? brown rat hiding inside a pot of colorful flowers. Al- Zoe Wu though I thought the overall design of the poster was

Stuy Key Club

How Do I Feel?

District Convention Right off the bus, we were greeted with “Hey Stuyvesant Key Club, how do you feel?” At lunch time, “Hey Stuyvesant Key Club, how do you feel?” At dinnertime, “Hey Stuyvesant Key Club, how do you feel?” While changing, “Hey Stuyvesant Key Club, how do you feel?” And every time, we answered with a superficial “We feel good, oh we feel so good, oh.” Everyone did it, from the old Kiwanis advisors to the governor to the lieutenant governors all the way down to the member, they all did it. And me? I did it too. I stood up with everyone else with a smile on my face, jubilantly screaming how good we felt.

But I didn’t always feel good. Sometimes I felt noxious.

Sometimes I felt uncertain. Sometimes I felt nervous. I never always felt completely good. Inside, I had doubts about the future. At District Convention, I realized that our club was just a speck in a large mass of Key Clubs. Suddenly, it wasn’t about the caring or the fun I had at route marshalling events or gardening events. Suddenly, Key Club was this giant network of random groups competing with each other, not in sports or with grades, but with community service hours.

I wasn’t just a member anymore. I wasn’t just going to events and having fun with friends. Everything that attracted me to Key Club, the innocence and the family feel, was gone. Everything was about business. Everyone was dressed in business professional wear, slacks, shoes, and suit. Positions I had never knew existed in Key Club were being uttered throughout the halls as people stopped and pointed. “There’s the governor.” “He’s a lieutenant Page 10

governor.” “She’s the district secretary.” This isn’t Key Club, I thought. It can’t be. But this was what Key Club had become when I went to District Convention. This was what Key club had become when I became president.

All the workshops we went to, all the paperwork we had to do, all the elections we had to attend, all the award ceremonies we had to sit through. This wasn’t Key Club. I didn’t want to think about it. All the duties I had even during Convention—I didn’t want to think about them. I wanted to just relax and have fun like everyone else seemed to be, but I was still worried about work.

My mind was still on everything I had to do then and in the future.

But then, on the Friday after we came back, when we held our first meeting, it wasn’t about all that stuff anymore. I forgot about the boring workshops, the sub-par hotel, and the unnecessarily long elections. It wasn’t about the paperwork or the billion awards we could apply for; it was just us, the members. All of that talk about who will be elected district governor or which club won this award, that wasn’t the point.

That wasn’t really what Key Club was. Key Club is the meetings in the cafeteria. Key Club is the hours of cheering we do every Sunday morning. Key Club is the dirty hands from park cleaning. That was Key Club.

I had a good time at District Convention, and I saw so much of Key Club that I had never seen before, but after a weekend of wearing a suit and tie, I was glad to just be back with Key Club— our Key Club. I felt good. ~ Gavin Huang

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Coogan's Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5K and Kids Races The Coogan’s 5K on March 4, 2008 was a race in Washington Heights on a very hilly course with some salsa and blues music playing along the way.

In the kids’ races, kids ran a certain distance between half a block to ten blocks. About 10 Stuy Key Clubbers showed up. It was unfortunate though, that Teensgiving (on the same day) was cancelled since a LOT of members signed up to go.

It was another one of those super-early-in-the-morning NYRR events. All the people who went had to wake up early. And of course, I did too, because of the very untimely and unfriendly LIRR weekend schedules. So as I set out, the moon was shining brightly in the clear sky.

I realized something while walking through the streets that day—how we really don’t appreciate the mornings enough. I (and any other Stuy student) would’ve gladly slept until noon, but I chose not to. After I spent the morning there, I thought, wow, it’s only 11 am. If you’ve ever wished there were more than 24 hours in a day, then you’d be amazed at how much time was left in the day for other things to do.

It was bitterly cold in the morning, but the weather got much better as the day went on and the sun rose. We helped out by route marshalling, cheering—you know, the usual stuff that’s done at these events. We said things like “GO RUNNERS! (Walkers!) Good job! Keep it up!” and the standard “STAY TO YOUR RIGHT!” Each one of use received a bullhorn to borrow and it was fun using them. Besides yelling into them, we discovered that they’re pretty effective speakers when you set your MP3 player to maximum volume, place the earbuds on the microphone, and use them to blast the music. =) I love these events in the morning. Well, doing homework on the way there is surprisingly and amazingly effective. These events also (kind of) encourage you to go to sleep early Friday or Saturday, not an easy feat to achieve. The frigidness of the morning really wakes you up. And when you get home, it’s about the same time as if you didn’t go to the event and slept until noon, awake but blurry and discombobulated.

Oh right; you can also brag about how you took the 5:57 am train to do (what else?) community service! As the weather gets warmer, you can definitely attend more of these NYRRs. Hmm… here’s a tip for weekend subway takers: The MTA hates you. They’re out to get you. Well okay fine, at least you have to admit that they don’t care about you. Make fewer transfers—as few as possible. It’s usually faster to take the local it if comes than to wait for the express (if it’s even running).

So after I arrived home, I took a nap and continued on the trainload of homework that somehow teachers never forget to assign. ~ Victor Ma

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LUNAR NEW YEAR FLOWER MARKET ELECTIONS

NEW CAB! (THAT IS A THING TO FIND)

CHINATOWN PARADE

GAVIN HUANG

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