When I had first joined Key Club, I could not even begin to fathom the amount of doors and possibilities it would open to me. As I began my journey with the club, I realized there’s so much more to it than just volunteering. Key Club has helped me build the foundations I need to be successful and better connect to people from my own school to across the country. Joining this organization comes with a lot more than you would assume. When hearing about this club, you assume, “It’s an organization through which I get to volunteer. This sounds easy.” Yet, as I became more involved within Key Club, it has taught me valuable skills that I will take along with me forever. Such as time management, prioritizing, and communication skills. As Key Club is not my only commitment, I learned how to balance many things at once and continue to achieve my goals with 110%. These skills have helped create a positive impact within my life and will continue to in the future. For that, I am thankful to Key Club. Along with time management skills, my communication skills have improved drastically. Being part of such a big organization, requires you to constantly talk to your fellow club members, officers, teachers, adults organizing the events, etc.. Therefore, lacking the ability to establish what you want to say and the ability to comprehend what others want is not an option. These people skills will not solely benefit me only within Key Club, but like time management, throughout my whole life. I’m truly grateful for this strong, positive impact within my life. Key Club connects together so many people to create a network of people as small as one classroom to thousands of high schools across the nation. Through meetings, events, and DCON, I have been able to meet amazing, brilliant people that I would have never had the pleasure of meeting, had it not been due to Key Club. It has been as small as reconnecting with an old friend at an event to meeting someone from a different city/state. Yet, these people mean so much to me already and I see as lifelong friends. Key Club is not just an organization through which to do volunteer events, but rather a foundation bringing millions of people together to assist their community, creating bonds that will never break, and teaches valuable skills to students across the nation. To Key Club, I am thankful for the greatest, positive effect in my life since entering high school. As the school year slowly leads to more and more events, there is a myriad of choices for you to decide what event you’d like to volunteer at. From cheering on runners at marathons to visiting the elderly, there are many ways for Key Clubbers to interact with their community. However, if I had to decide which event was my favorite, I would most definitely pick the time I volunteered at Kirk Elementary. While the event’s description only said we would be babysitting the kids while their parents were in a meeting, we ended up having a lot more fun than that. Walking in, there were only a couple kids at first, and they were clustered in chairs at the front of the classroom watching Word Girl on the large TV. As more kids began arriving, we started to gather around tables, asking if any of them would like to draw or color. Soon, every seat was taken up by not only the kids, but Key Clubbers as well – you’re never too old to color! I sat next to one girl, who was shy at first, but we quickly found we had many things in common to talk about, from our love of Grease to what we liked to draw. We were having such a great time that she even asked if her best friend could come over to join us as well. They proceeded to show me their best friend handshake which I found adorable! I made both of them little cards that had their names plus an inspirational quote that they chose. My heart melted when I gave the cards to them as I saw that they had drawn a picture for me in return. As I looked around the room, I could see how much everyone was enjoying themselves, and as I watched the kids show off their creativity and talents, I realized that it didn’t matter that I had to wake up early on a Saturday or that the room was obnoxiously loud. Being able to say I was a part of the reason why these kids smiled made the complaints dwindle away. As I started to head out, I was stopped by the two girls who gave sad groans when I explained that I had to leave. They asked me when would be the next time Key Club would come back to help, and I said “soon,” wishing with all my heart that that was true. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the kids, as I had the chance to interact and socialize with them, and their precious smiles are evidence that volunteering really does make a difference. High school, most people are in different clubs, extracurricular activity like orchestra, band and more. With school starting, many will be trying to find time into their busy life schedules and try hard to fit everything in. Being in extracurricular activities, going above and beyond means that it requires work and commitment. It is important to fulfill these commitments, but it’s not always easy to balance everything. To fit everything into your time, it is important to stay organized, know when things are due, and stay on top of things. An easy way to keep track of everything is to have a planner. Writing down when things are due helps not to forget the work that needs to be done by a certain time. It also encourages to finish things every time the planner is looked at. Also, do not develop bad habits like procrastinating. It will only add onto the stress and might even interfere with the quality of work. Make sure to complete work on time, and if there is anything that you are unsure about, don’t be afraid to ask others. Make sure to not accidentally sign up for too many things that are too hard to handle. At the beginning, it might be easy to think that joining a lot of extra activities are a good idea, and that you can handle it, but in the end, all the pressure might too hard on a person. Only do things that you can handle. Like many would agree, naps are truly amazing. Naps are so tempting after school, to just relax and give those tired eyelids what they deserve. Although naps are great, it is best not to take them after school. Try to do homework or work that needs to be done right after school, so that you can just go to sleep early. Try not to go on your bed after school in general until work is finished and you’re ready to go to bed. Time efficiency is everything. Why spend 2 hours on something when you can only spend 30 minutes on it? If you can multitask and kill two birds with one stone, do it! Free time in class? Catch up on work that needs to be done! Most importantly, make sure all the extracurricular activities that are done are enjoyable. What is the point of doing extracurricular activities and struggle to balance work when it’s terrible and miserable for you? Try to have fun and loosen up a little bit! I think the greatest way to encourage the members is to show them the impact volunteering has on others. Many volunteers fail to realize the difference they make in people. One way we will encourage our members to volunteer is to list to them the benefits they would obtain from it. Not only would they feel a sense of accomplishment to be able to have an impact on the society as a whole but they would develop life skills needed later in life. We will show how volunteering is a great way to grow out of your comfort zone and to become more comfortable around large groups for those who may be timid and shy. We will also inform them how helping others also helps open their eyes to the reality of the world. Not only would do they become socially aware of what occurs in the world but they also become aware of the power they have in their actions and their words. We will also try to emphasize with them more and tell them that we are aware that during the school year and may be hard to volunteer. We will emphasize how volunteering during the summer help give them a head start before school. Many members are involved in school so having a head start will help them keep up with the hour requirements. It is always better to finish early then to finish late. One thing as a club we try to do is allow my them a choice to pick the volunteer work they would like. I feel like it gives them a free choice to choose what they desire to do. I also believe that it is important to volunteer by example. As a leader we are also responsible to attend the summer events ourselves so that the members are motivated to come out to volunteer. If they see the passion we put forth into helping it will encourage them to do the same. What we are trying to do as a club is to have events that provide both the opportunity to have fun while making an impact on the community. Some events we try to incorporate into our summer events are things that people love to do like the Blacklight Run and a puppy marathon that will serve as an incentive for people to come and help. Key Club should strive forward to persuade members to volunteer during the summer to be able to help out others. Socials are events throughout the year that our members and officers always look forward to. They are a way of bringing our members together to enjoy a day of playing games, talking, listening to music, and spending more time getting to know one another. In our club, we try to promote our socials as much as possible by using social media to communicate directly to all of our members. Our officers attempt to promote socials by creating posts on our Facebook page. Our Facebook page makes it easier for officers to inform our members of upcoming events and new information that they should know, such as socials. We also post messages when the social is nearing in order to remind members about the details of the social and in case they forgot about the event. Our public relations officer will use several social media platforms to send out reminders like through Remind-101, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter posts. This helps ensure that our members can hear about the social through multiple places in case they are not aware or forget about the event. Another way that our club tries to advertise our socials is by discussing about them during general meetings and constantly talking to members individually. Our officers share previous memories and experiences because we want our members to feel like socials are enjoyable and entertaining. Socials benefit our club as a whole because they help bring members together and give members the chance to bond more. Members are able to form new friendships or strengthen current relationships because they all have the same desire to help their community and people through service. Socials help our club because members are able to learn more about one another, allowing our club to grow more as a whole. Our members can share laughs, jokes, and memories that they will remember for the rest of the year. They will be able to enjoy future events and service projects more because they have more friends to volunteer with them. In conclusion, our officers try to promote club socials by communicating to our members through social media and directly talking to them. We try to discuss our experiences at prior socials and how much we have enjoyed them. We want our members to feel like socials are just a fun day of hanging out with others and playing games. Socials are very beneficial for our club because they unite our members and officers together and our club becomes stronger. |
Essay SubmissionsThis is a page dedicated to article submissions by the members of Cypress Ridge Key Club! Please send in your essay/picture submissions to [email protected], and title your email as [Name, Submission]. You will be contacted if your submission is uploaded onto the website. Archives
October 2021
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