Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, December 7, 2023. Reprinted with permission and gratitude.
By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy
The Key to being a good community member is being involved in volunteering.
A good singing voice is a plus, but not required.
“We did a car wash at Sunshine Foods which was very successful. We had a blood drive at the school that wasn’t as successful because they had just had another blood drive, so people who wanted to donate couldn’t because they hadn’t gotten up to the right number of days after they donated. We did ditch cleanup in October; we helped with Kiwanis rose sales, helped with Halloween games at the Kiwanis Halloween party. We’re doing Christmas in Fillmore County – where you buy presents for kids who are less fortunate, and each one of us is assigned a kid to shop for. We’re helping with the KSP carnival, and we will help with Salvation Army bell ringing,” stated a board member of the Kingsland Key Club, speaking to the Spring Valley Kiwanis Club during the lunch hour meeting held at the Spring Valley Community Center last Wednesday, Nov. 22, outlining for their mentors what has kept the chapter of high school volunteers busy throughout the beginning of the school year.
Kingsland’s Key Club board members were the guest speakers of the day, outlining what they have learned about volunteerism through actual efforts to improve their community and the world around them after having enjoyed good food and the “song of the day” alongside the Kiwanians. They are, according to the Key Club website, part of a century-old history that began with high school boys being given a chance to lend a hand wherever needed. “The first Key Club formed in 1925 in Sacramento, California, with 11 charter members. Key Club was the idea of two Sacramento Kiwanis Club members, Albert C. Olney and Frank C. Vincent, who were also high school administrators. They approached their Kiwanis club with the idea of starting a junior service club in the high school. It would resemble Kiwanis, have its own classifications based on school interests, and hold luncheon meetings. The club was comprised of the key boys in the school, willing to serve the school in any way possible and to create better school spirit. Thus, the club was dubbed ‘Key Club.’ Soon, the club that started out as a vocational guidance program expanded to become a complete service organization for the whole school. It also offered a social aspect to balance its service activities. Today, Key Club is the oldest and largest service program for high school students in the world.”
The site elaborated, “We provide our members with opportunities to serve, build character, and develop leadership. Key Club members around the world are learning how to lead and stand for what’s right through service and volunteerism. In partnership with their local Kiwanis club, high school student are making a positive impact as they serve others in their schools and communities…high school student members of Key Club perform acts of service in their communities, such as cleaning up parks, collecting clothing and organizing food drives. They also learn leadership skills by running meetings, planning projects and holding elected leadership positions at the club, district and international levels. [The club’s] core values are leadership…character-building, and caring…compassion for others is a cornerstone of the Key Club experience, inspiring action and service to one’s community. Inclusiveness…we welcome people of all backgrounds and ethnicities to join in serving and making a positive difference in our world.”
The objectives of Key Club International were included, as “Key Club aims to cooperate with school principals and teachers to provide high school students with invaluable experience in living and working together and to prepare them for useful citizenship. Our members develop initiative and leadership skills by serving their schools and communities. In doing so, we hope to promote and accept the following ideals: To give primacy to the human and spiritual, rather than to the material values of life; to encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships; to promote the adoption and application of higher standards in scholarship, sportsmanship and social contacts; to develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive and serviceable citizens to provide a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render unselfish service and to build better communities; to cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which makes possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism and goodwill.”
The club’s current membership includes Kayla Lund, Kaleb Rainey, Mylah Montgomery, Jill Moore, Chole Drury-Deboer, Brooke Lawson, Gretchen Hubka, Malorey Fay, Kaelynn Howard, Jacie Berken, Hailee Warren, Caisa Kolling, Macy Runck, Jaelee Hagstrom, Lydia Redman, Kaylie Betts, Haleigh Hyde, Paisley Robinson, Alexis Klomps, Macie Rasmussen, Vaira Merkel, Chantle Reiland, Marek Boysen, Olivia Kappers, Kaylin Mensink, Ashlyn Harwood, Morgan Phillips, Dylan Schultz and Connor Tangen. Kingsland teacher Aaron Thauwald is the school Key Club advisor.
Kiwanian and co-advisor Pam Phillips lent her perspective on the Kingsland Key Club’s work as a collective of people who wish to make a difference for others, citing that the very-busy students – who are also individual participants in other activities such as basketball, golf, National Honor Society, band, choir, volleyball, football management, robotics, and hold jobs after school – are generous and willing to work together for betterment of the local and global good. Kiwanian and former Key Club co-advisor Jeff Thauwald had a question for the students: “What’s happening in 2024 for the remainder of the school year?”
The students responded, “More ditch cleanup, blood drives, the student service auction, Read Around the World,” and their school Key Club advisor, Aaron Thauwald, added that they plan to be part of the Kingsland penny wars as a fundraiser for a chosen cause, and that they may “hold a community dinner for peace in the Middle East.”
He concluded by suggesting that anyone who would like to follow the Key Club’s activities ought to “keep looking at our calendar” and support the club’s endeavors whenever possible. The elder Thauwald then asked the members what their favorite part of being in Key Club might be, to which they answered, “Getting out there and experiencing helping people.”
Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325
