Most students do not participate in community service, but those who do have a special space for community service join Key Club. The Key Club is a student-led community service club; they meet every other Thursday in the main gym after school. Dusty Dennis is the advisor of the club.

The Key Club has been at Stillwater for about six years and has around 90 members this school year. Students at Key Club meet every other week to discuss upcoming community service projects that they can participate in. Key Club does anything from the volunteering at the DaVinci fest to helping people with disabilities at “The Hub”.

“We started at SAHS about six years ago, and this year we have roughly 90 members,” Dennis said.

Key Club is a sector of Kiwanis, an international community service club founded in 1915. Key Club was founded in 1925 and is the largest community service organization for high school students. Key Club is  in 38 countries and has thousands of participating schools.

“Kiwanis International is an international service club founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan,” Kiwanis.org states.

Key club.org states, “Key Club is an international, student-led organization that provides its members with opportunities to provide service, build character and develop leadership with 1000s of clubs in more than 38 countries.”

“They do everything under the sun, from supporting people with down syndrome and working at ‘The Hub’ to helping out at the DaVinci Fest,” Dennis added.

Students in Key Club can earn a letter at the end of the year for their hard work and dedication to community service. To earn the letter they have to do 25 key club activities or 25 of your own personal hours throughout the school year. Most members either have a consistent volunteer schedule or a long term volunteering position. Students can also earn a ‘President’s volunteer service award’ by participating in 100 hours of community service.

“The rule to letter is to participate in 25 Key Club sponsored activities throughout the school year, but you can also do 25 of your own personal hours. We have kids that volunteer at their church or do eagle scouts and use those activities for their 25 hours,” Dennis said.

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Photo by Elli Swanson

Key Club captains Sydney Wallace, Anna Weirtz, and Abby Banks. All three are seniors this year.

The Key Club has three Co-Presidents, Sydney Wallace, Anna Weirtz, and Abby Banks, all of whom are seniors. The Co-Presidents take on a strong leadership role that most students don’t want to do. As a Co-President, the students meet with Kiwanis members and organize Key Club events around the community, such as childcare and helping out at the local food shelf.

Weirtz commented, “As a Co-President, we do a lot of organizing for sponsored events, such as childcare elementary school events, we also do lots of organizing with all of the school carnivals.”

To become a Co-President students must be elected, but this year three people were in the running so Dennis and the members decided to have three Co-Presidents instead of one President. Co-Presidents also tend to have a higher number of volunteer hours with their history in the club.

“I was the Junior Officer during my junior year and by default, I had to run for President, but this year we had two other people who were running so we decided to have three Co-Presidents,” Weirtz said.

Weirtz commented on service hours, “I would say I have about 200 from this year as a Co-President and that does not include sophomore and junior year.”

There are many different positions in Key Club that students can run for. One position is the Secretary, this year the secretary is senior Sydney Nelson. Secretaries do a lot of the planning and coordinating of the various events that the Key Club sponsors.

“As the Secretary, I write up logistics and reports for the Key Club. I also help plan the club meetings and plan the events that the Key Club sponsors,” Nelson said.

The Key Club is striving to make our community a better place through all of their hard work and dedication. From elementary school events to helping adults with disabilities they make a positive impact any way they can. Even with 90+ members, they can always use more help, please visit the Key Club website for more information.