WARD MELVILLE HIGH SCHOOL EDITION

"

I pledge, on my honor, to uphold the

objects of Key Club International;
to build my home, school and
community; to serve my nation and
God; and to combat all forces which
tend to undermine these institutions

DECEMBER PART 1 2014

"
"

IN THIS NEWSLETTER!
"

+ Polar Plunge"
+ Book Drive"
+ Kiwanis Coat Drive"
+ Turkey Teacher Comp"
+ Show your Selfie!"
+ Save the Rain Letters"
+ Senior Home Visit"
+ Member of the Month

COMING" SOON:"
2015 Elections"
DKC Apps."
Annual LTC"

Jan. Divisional"

YOUR KEY CLUB

BOARD 2014/2015!

""
Lieutenant Governor:!
"
Christine Shen!
"
President:!
"
Kyra Durko!
"
Vice Presidents:!
"
Ashley Earl!
"
Kristina Chu!
"
Erin Mc Sweeney!
"
Secretary:!
"
Shannon Dalton!
"
Treasurer:!
"
Donna Yu!
"
Editor:!
"
Nicole DOnofrio!
"
Webmaster:!
"
Connor Meehan

POLAR PLUNGE EVENT @ CEDAR BEACH

On November 22, 2014, the Ward Melville Key
Club participated in the annual Polar Plunge.
Students joined volunteers at Cedar Beach in
freezing weather to "plunge" into the chilly water.
Though thrilling and fun, this event is raising
money for a good cause-hence the slogan
"freezin' for a reason.". If $100 is pledged, a
volunteer will be able to plunge. However, many
people can also either donate or purchase
merchandise, rather than plunging to raise
money. All money goes to theSpecial Olympics.
This event has been held annually since 1993,
raising about $10 million for the organization. It's
a fun and unique way to raise money, spread
awareness, and bring together a community. Key
Club is more than happy to participate each year!!
- Jolee Sullivan

"
"
"
"
Book
" with Stony Brook University
" Drive
Long Island, there are many families who live in poverty and
" areOntherefore
unable to purchase books for their kids. Books promote
" literacy and education
a young age. Without access to picture books,
" classics, and chapter booksat that
develop a childs comprehension skills, interest
" in education is decreased. Graduation
rates from high school and percentage of
"
"those who continue on to college is extremely low in areas without access to
"
educational
Many of us in Ward Melville were lucky enough to have had
"collections of materials.
great books to grow up with. These books fostered our education and led us
on" the right path to continue on with learning. Unfortunately after we completed the last
" of a book, it was never picked up again. The book still held the same stories that
chapter
" be told many more times to another child. So, in combination with the Stony Brook
could
"
University Scholars Program and other high schools throughout the Suffolk County area,
" hosted a book drive in Ward Melville for local school districts in need. Key Clubbers,
we
"teachers, parents, and students brought in a variety of great books they had at home
" to donate. We collected all genres, reading levels, and conditions because anything
" can make the difference in someones life. The book drive was conducted for a
"
month
in Ward Melville, but is continuing
"on through
the Stony Brook University
"
"
Scholars
Program. The project is
" in the early stages, but so
still
f"a r w e h a v e t o g e t h e r
"collected around 1,713
"books.
"

"

"

"

Coat Drive with Kiwanis

This holiday season, we participated in Kiwanis annual coat drive.

Each year during December we work with Kiwanis to collect as
many coats as possible to donate to local families. Students and
teachers brought in jackets for small children, teens, and adults. The
collection took place during early December and in only a few weeks
we collected more than 30 coats. The holidays are a great time to
remind us how fortunate we are to have the basic necessities. Key
Club hosts many drives during this season because we often do not
realize
how many of our own fellow Long Islanders struggle to make ends meet
and celebrate the holidays the way we are able to. All around Ward Melville, students are
reminded and given the opportunity to make a difference in a number of different ways. We enjoy
participating in these types of events with Kiwanis and look forward to partnering with Kiwanis again
next year!

"

TURKEY TEACHER COMPETITION

During the holiday season, Ward Melville High School Key Club conducted one of our
schools favorite annual events: Turkey Teacher Competition! In the spirit of the Thanksgiving
holiday, Ward Melville Key Clubbers paired with a local soup kitchen to hold a school-wide
competition for collecting canned goods and nonperishable food items to donate to families in
need. Most of the food we collected throughout the school went to the soup kitchen at St.
James RC Church in Setauket or is turned into large baskets to be given out to families. The
basis of the competition is that teachers volunteer to have a box put out with their name on it
in front of the library, where they would then encourage students to donate food items in the
box with their name on it. Why? Because the teacher whos students and peers donate the
least amount of cans has to wear a really embarrassing turkey hat the week before
Thanksgiving break! A huge number of teachers love participating and putting out a box with
their name on it, but they certainly dread the possibility of having to wear this infamous hat. In
order to avoid the humiliation of this hat, teachers strongly promote the cause and tell all
everyone to donate. Announcements are made all throughout the month of November and it
is an event that all of our Key Clubbers participate in!"

The loser of the competition this year was Mr. Muscarella, one of our gym teachers!
Reluctantly, against the will of his students, he was forced to wear the Thanksgiving turkey
hat all day before break because his students raised the least amount of cans and
nonperishable food items for him. As a whole though, the outcome of the collection was
spectacular and we were all proud to be able to have helped local families in our community
enjoy their holiday season with yummy food. We put together a number of huge baskets of
dinners and desserts for a few families to take home, and donated a total of over 4,000 food
items to the soup kitchen: a total of 2,000 pounds of food! Each year the competition is a
huge hit and the amount of food we raised this year clearly demonstrated great effort and
motivation by our Key Clubbers, teachers, and administrators.

TOTALS . . . !

"
"

4,000 FOOD ITEMS!

2,000 POUNDS

SHOW YOUR SELFIE!

Continuing with this years advocacy project for positivity, we participated in
#showyourselfie! This activity is a portion of a petition in which students virtually
advocate for a cause they feel strongly about around the world. At our weekly Key Club
meeting we introduced the project to members so that they could speak out too.
Everyone took fun selfies and then captioned or held up a sign that stated the cause
they wanted to advocate for. This project demonstrates the types of issues that our youth
is most concerned with, so with the information, higher up leaders can make a change.
#Showyourselfie is sponsored by the UNFPA (United Nations Population
Fund): the head UN agency responsible for ensuring the health and
fulfillment of each persons life around the world. Issues that our Key
Clubbers brought attention to include mental health awareness, positivity,
anti-bullying, and equality. Over 200 of our members are now a part of
the fight for establishing a better world through advocating for those who
cannot!

ADVOCATING FOR "

BIPOLAR DISORDER

ADVOCATING FOR EATING

DISORDERS "

ADVOCATING FOR ADHD

"

"
"
"
"
"
1 in 9
people do not
have access to clean
drinking water

People in
Africa walk 4
miles each day for clean
water

"
"
"
"

Lack of
clean water causes
80% of all disease
worldwide

"

SAVE THE RAIN LETTERS!

The Ward Melville Key Club has partnered with the Save the
Rain foundation for a number of projects over the last two
years. This foundation is responsible for producing water
capture systems that give clean, filtered water to countries
who do not have access to drinking water. Workers use the
money raised by Key Clubbers to construct the systems,
and then they go into countries such as Africa to install
them for villages to use. Because we have worked with the
foundation previously, we decided to send letters to the
villagers, as well. We were sent pictures of village children,
from the Save the Rain foundation, and our Key Clubbers
were able to write letters to them and talk about the clean
water they would soon have access to.

"

Senior Home Holiday Visit

"

"

Key Club visited theSunrise Assisted Living Home on

December 7th, 2014 to celebrate the holidays.A group
of students dedicated a few hours of their time
completing crafts such as making picture frames, with
the senior citizens. Key Clubbers said that it was fun
to spend time with the residents in the home, and that
the the residents seemed to enjoy the experience as
well. It was very rewarding for members to be able to
complete hands-on projects and brighten the day for
many people. A few times during the service yearKey
Club makes a senior home trip. Also every year we
hold an annual Senior Citizens Prom at Ward Melville
High school, in March. Key Clubbers really enjoy
spending time getting to know the residents of our
local senior homes and participating in events that
enhance their lives. The senior citizens appreciate this
a lot, and these are just a few of the ways that Key
Club gives back to our community!"
"

"

"

"

"

- Jolee Sullivan

Member of the Month Award!

"

Congratulations to Josie Wiltse on receiving this

months Member of the Month Award! Josie has
shown awesome dedication this year, stepping
up to take leadership roles and attending many
of our events. In particular, this month, Josie
was responsible for counting and sorting out
TTC food items and working with the KC board
to ensure everything went smoothly in the
process of the event. Awesome job Josie- your
hard work is appreciated.

DO YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN WRITING

ARTICLES FOR EITHER THE WARD MELVILLE
KEY CLUB NEWSLETTER OR THE DIVISION 3
NEWSLETTER?"

"

CONTACT EITHER NDONOFRIO10@YAHOO.COM

OR CHRISTINESHEN.LTG@NYDKC.ORG FOR
MORE INFORMATION AND ASSIGNMENTS

"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"

"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"