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Features

Tongva Times

April 30, 2015

CELEBRATING THE VOLUNTEER CLUBS OF GABRIELINO

RED CROSS SELFLESSLY GIVING
By Amanda Tzoc
Staff Writer

According to club advisor, Thomas Velekei, Gabrielino High Schools Red Cross Club was created four
years ago as the brain child of a core group of students, who spent a year figuring out how to get a new
club approved by the school administration and how
to set it up.
Red Crosss first official year started in the fall of
2012. Soon after the club had a good vision, and had
turned in all the right paperwork, Velekei was asked to
be the advisor.
It made a lot of sense to have an advisor in sciences
for a club like that and I knew all of the students, stated Velekei. They had a really solid plan and a solid
vison of the club which I really liked so that made me
want to be involved.
Joanna Chang, senior, is the current president of
Red Cross and has been involved in the club for three
years.
She states that, the whole club isnt about doing it
for yourself, but everything you do in this club is for
other people.
Changs hopes for Red Cross in the future are to
find more creative ways of raising awareness as well
as fundraising or doing services and for the members
to understand that its not just for service hours but
for others.

The club has done local services such as AIDS Walk

Los Angeles and a service where members installed
fire alarms in Pasadena. They have also conducted
CPR trainings on campus on certain Saturdays during
which Red Cross officials come in and train students
with CPR and first aid.
These trainings have instructed well over 100
students in CPR and first aid at this school, smiled
Velekei.
Gabrielino Red Cross is also one of the first five
clubs in California to reach Gold Status. This is
awarded based on the clubs achievements in fundrasing money, training members for CPR certification,
membership, and participation in school blood drives.
When asked what Red Cross means to her, junior
Natalie Keffer stated that Red Cross means preparation, preparation for that natural disaster thats going
to come unfortunately and how we could be best prepared for it.

INTERACT-ING WITH US

By Cynthia Sor
Features Editor

themes include Health, Water Usage, Gender Equality, and Children. To support these themes, Interact
members participated in water bottle donations, book
With their motto of placing Service Above Self,
drives, toy drives, among many other events.
the Interact service club strives to be the most selfless
Circle leader Tammy Liang described the clubs
service club as well as one of the most active and inChristmas toy drive as one of Interacts biggest sucvolved clubs on Gabrielinos campus.
cesses, with over 300 toys donated through the club to
Boasting over 200 active members, Interacts greatorganizations like orphanages and local shelters.
ness lies in its open-ended motto, according to PresiHuynh expressed an appreciation for the opportudent Tiffany Huynh. While it means something differnity to work closely with these outside projects. Its
ent for each person, she stated that to her, it signified
good to actually see direct impact, she said. We get
putting others before yourself in order to better the
to see thankfulness because were so hands-on. [By
community.
volunteering] you actually feel like youre making a
New to the club this year was the implementation of
difference.
a monthly project. In years past, Interact has always
Contributing to Interacts impact on Gabrielino is
selected a global issue of imits passion for building leadership
portance to center the years
and initiative in its members. Gavolunteer services around.
brielinos chapter falls under the
Under the new system, each
wing of local Rotarians from the
circle has a subtopic which
San Gabriel Rotary Club.
becomes the whole clubs
Part of being under Rotarys
focus for a certain month.
guidance and mentorship is the
With each new theme comes
opportunity to participate in renew services, fundraisers,
gional gatherings such as the
and educational opportuniRotary Youth Leadership Awards
ties for members to learn
Taylor Thames|Tongva Times (RYLA), a leadership camp for
more about the cause they
Interact juniors, and a District
are working for.
5300 Symposium.
Some examples of project

INTERACT: COOLIDGE CARNIVAL

UNLOCKING KEY TO SPIRIT

By Taylor Thames
Staff Writer

Unlocking spirit, teamwork, and the will to help others, Key Club is the worlds oldest and largest service
club, with over 250,000 members. Key Club has managed to spread its helping hand to campuses across the
nation, including Gabrielino High School.
Gabrielino welcomed Key Club into its nest in 2009,
As a new organization, Key Club aimed to introduce
students to the idea of giving back to their community,
while also encouraging its members to take pride in
their school--including pushing them to come up with
new ways to display spirit.
Our spirit at events where we rally up, paired with
our enthusiasm to service not only in our community,
but throughout the Southern California region is amazing, stated Ivy Bai, treasurer. What makes Key Club
so great [is that] were not limited to our schools campus when it comes to serving and at the same time we
push to make sure we maintain great spirit.
Unlike other clubs on Gabrielinos campus, Key Club
does not provide a mandatory amount of hours its
members must serve, which Bai sees as a demonstratoin of Key Clubbers true passion.
Everything we do is based on the will of our members and how committed they are to serving their community, stated Bai.
When asked about the participation of students and

Cynthia Sor|Tongva Times

SERVING WITH A SMILE

Living up to its name, the Gabrielino Optimist Club

brings positivity and joy to the youth of the San Gabriel community.
Consisting of fifteen active members, the club has
been at Gabrielino since the early 2000s and works
together with the local adult Optimist Club as part of
the Junior Optimist Octagon International organization. The small group provides many service opportunities to its members, such as working closely with
facilities within the community to help children who
are underprivileged.
They usually work alongside groups such as Kidspace Childrens Museum where they host events and
bond with the youth through fun and educational activities.
They also volunteer at Junior Blind of America
where they make crafts with the kids and attend the
Junior Blind Olympics at the end of the year, serving
as escorts during activities such as rock climbing, archery, and a fifty-meter dash.
A group they collaborate with frequently is Hillsides,
a provider in Pasadena that is devoted to improving
the overall well-being of youth and their families. At
Hillsides, the Optimists host activities in accordance

to themes and holidays of the month.

A relationship has been built between the staff
members at Hillsides and the Optimists, as well as the
kids, shared president and junior Gabriela Pacheco.
I think thats one of our greatest achievements; that
we built a relationship and the kids look forward to
seeing us. I think its something thats really special.
Pacheco stated that what makes the club different
from other service clubs in Gabrielino is the drive for
joining and volunteering. She revealed that she had
joined the club in order to help those in need out of
the goodness of her heart, not only because she needed the hours or because it would make her college
applications look good.
We dont do hours, thats not the purpose of the
club, she said. Its more about doing it on your own
accord and your own beliefs and what you want to
do.
Velekei agreed with this sentiment, stating that an
additional focus is placed on doing the best for disadvantaged youth. The members are also expected to
take away feelings of accomplishment and benevolence from the events.
That is probably the highlight of the club, Velekei
admitted. Having the ability to go and do that and
coming back saying, Wow! This was a great thing,
this really helped me; changed me.

Photo courtesy of Airin Wu

KEY: MCKINLEY MOVIE NIGHT

RED CROSS CLUB: AIDS WALK

By Philip Castillo
Staff Writer

the overall involvement of members in the club, Airin

Wu, president, responded, Overall its great, the difference is that these kids want to volunteer, theyre not
being forced or pushed to reach a certain amount of
hours.
Key Club prides itself in not only serving communities and giving back, but creating memories and relations between multiple schools in many areas.
One of the best memories I take from Key Club is
the Fall Rally, seeing the sea of heads and the different colors of schools was incredible, stated Christy
Pham, vice president. It didnt matter that we didnt
know each other we were all like a family, we were all
part of the same club, Key Club.

H.E.L.P.-ING HEAVY HEARTS

By Caitlyn Cook
Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Sharon Lu

Photo courtesy of Gabriela Pacheco

OPTIMIST CLUB: KIDSPACE

H.E.L.P. CLUB: MEMBERS AND ADVISOR

A few years ago, four determined juniors at Gabrielino decided to do something about the overwhelming
number of people in need of assistance. They aimed
to create a charity-based club that would focus on volunteering to help the homeless and orphans within the
San Gabriel community.
With the support of advisor and woodshop teacher,
Matthew Gilmour, this idea transformed into what is
now known as the H.E.L.P. club. Its altrustic name is
an acronym for the mission of Hope Engaging Limitless Philanthropy.
On the third Sunday of most months, the H.E.L.P.
club sets up tables at parks to serve the homeless. This
year on Superbowl Sunday, the club provided food for
about 200 homeless people who gathered at the Lake
Ave. church in Pasadena.
Member Ivy Chan, junior, recalled her experience
serving the people on Superbowl Sunday and how it
opened her eyes.
People there were really open and they would just
talk to you about anything, Chan stated. At first I
thought homeless people were scary but after the service I really liked [...] getting to know them.
Last year, the club not only served food but helped

rebuild a house for a homeless family to live in. This

was a unique project amidst the food services that the
club frequently organized.
One thing that makes the H.E.L.P club unique is that
the club is predominantly student-run.
Gilmour explained that he aims to lead but guide
as the rudder of the ship as opposed to the captain.
This strengthens the decision making and teamwork
of the students involved in order to make services successful.
Sharon Lu, junior and president of the club, shed
light on the subject of becoming acquainted with the
homeless and their stories.
Lu remarked that even though the H.E.L.P. club puts
an emphasis on those without a home, their crowd is
rather diverse.
After two years in the club and counting, Lu remarked that being an active member of the club means
learning the reality of homelessness and getting an
opportunity to contribute to change.
With more services to be determined in the future,
the H.E.L.P.s Facebook page and Twitter are pending
updates for events to keep an eye out for.
Gilmour expressed his pride in the club by saying,
Its a healthy thing to realize how fortunate we are
[...] Theres a lot of good that comes from it for them
and us.