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

IN THIS NEWSLETTER!
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Key Club Checklist!
WM Homecoming
Carnival!
Fundraising Alternative!
Throw a Fitz!!
Fall Rally!
Walk For Beauty/ Color
Splash!
Member of the Month!
Key Club Week!
Anti-Bullying Day!
Trick or Treat Street

NOVEMBER 2014

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(Trick or Treat Street: pg. 6)

YOUR KEY CLUB

BOARD 2014/2015!

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

KEY CLUB CHECKLIST!

This checklist should serve as a guide to ensure that your on the way towards
earning a Distinguished Key Clubber award, attaining leadership positions,
building up your resume, or simply getting the most out of your Key Club
experience!!

Chairing an event or committee!

Writing an article for the monthly newsletter !
Attending all the events for one month!
Coming up with a service project idea!
Suggesting a fundraiser you want to sponsor!
Attending a divisional !
Inquiring about leadership opportunities!

For more information, see anyone on the Ward Melville Key Club board!

Ward Melville Homecoming Carnival

Green and gold covered the back lawn of Ward Melville on the day of our annual
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Homecoming. In addition to the exciting win by our football team, community members
and supporters had a blast at the WM Homecoming Carnival that Key Clubbers
volunteered at. This year, the Key Club table we ran had a number of activities kids and
adults could explore. Tons of members showed up to help run activities such as a ring
toss, tattooing, and a flag-making. Prior to the event, members pre-made green and gold
flags for kids to decorate and then wave during the game. On the table, there were also
UNICEF boxes for people to donate their spare change and in return receive Hershey
kisses. Lastly, members worked hard to blow up balloons that would be transformed into a
beautiful arch for the Stony Brook Walk for Beauty fundraiser. We encouraged community
members passing by to help out for a small prize as well. The carnival is a super fun event
that proves to be a good time for students of all Three Village schools. We were so happy
to participate again this year!

Fundraising Alternative: Carl Hart Duathlon

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Every year Key Club has two mandatory fundraising opportunity for
members, usually selling either some sort of cookie dough or candles. This year
though, on October 19th, we gave members a fundraising alternative because
we know some people have difficulty making the sales. The fundraising
alternative we offered was volunteering at a duathlon. It was so much fun
helping cheer on all of the kids and adults, helping them push through the pain
of completing this challenge. We had to get up at around 5 in the morning so we
could get there on time because it was located in East Islip at Heckscher Park. !
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It wasnt only fun to help out the great cause, I think it also ended up
being really inspiring for everyone who was involved. I know I was definitely
inspired. Seeing people from ages 7 to 70 run and bike their hearts out really
put a fire under me and I can only hope that one day I will be able to come
close to what they accomplished that morning. Having had many of the
participants walk up to me afterwards, thanking me for cheering for them,
everything felt so worthwhile and I would do it again in a heartbeat.!

- Connor Meehan

Throw a Fitz!!

At our past two Junior High Key Club meetings, our key clubbers made fitz: adorable
little creatures made out of yarn. These creatures will be donated to hospital patients so
that when they get frustrated or angry, they can throw our fitz instead of throwing an actual
tantrum. The fitz are made out of yarn so they can be thrown against a wall or other
objects without the fear of breaking something. The fitz are made by winding yarn around
your fingers, tying it, and then cutting the ends so that a little pom-pom is formed. Some
club members even made the fitz look like octopi by only cutting one end of the Pom-Pom.
We then put googly eyes on the fitz to make them even cuter! Together our Murphy and
Gelinas Key Clubs made about 100 fitz all to be donated to the hospital! !
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- Ashley Earl!

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Key Club Fall Rally!

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November 2nd, 2014, the Ward Melville Key Club board and a few dedicated members
attended Fall Rally. This event, hosted at William Floyd High School, is designed to bring students from
different Key Club divisions together. Members from schools all over Long Island met for a few hours,
under the leadership of KC lieutenant governors, to get to know each other and learn more about Key
Club. After eating lunch together and playing an icebreaker game, we all attended workshops relating to
a variety of Key Club aspects. There were workshops regarding the Eliminate Project, moving up in the
ranks of Key Club leadership, board member strategies, and many other informative topics. !
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Attendees all agreed though that the best part of Fall Rally was the presentation given by a
representative from The Thirst Project. The Thirst Project works to solve the water crisis in places such
as Latin America, Africa, etc. All of the profits fundraised by representatives and organizations across
the country go towards creating water systems to support clean water for whole villages and
communities. Lack of access to clean water has resulted in an inexplicable amount of problems in
subject countries: disease, lessened time for education, increased subjugation of women, and an overall
poor quality of life. The representative from The Thirst Project started off by telling us about his ordinary
and meaningless life. He moved around from hobby to hobby, place to place, until he stumbled upon a
group of people associated with the Thirst Project. His life was forever changed at this moment and he
now goes around speaking to schools and organizations all over the US. His story inspired Key Club
members and showed how anyone can contribute to the organization and become a figure for change. !
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After this event, Key Clubbers eagerly headed back to their home clubs with new ideas and
information. This was a great opportunity for WM Key Club to bond, as well as to reach out to other
schools.

Walk For Beauty/ Color Splash!!

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On October 26th, 2014, over a hundred Ward Melville Key Clubbers participated in the
Stony Brook Village 10K Hercules Run, Walk for Beauty, and Color Splash! The event was hosted
in honor of breast cancer awareness month (October) and the money from registration, the photo
booth, and merchandise all went towards the cause. Although it was a chilly morning, the turn out
was awesome. There were teams of kids from the Three Village elementary schools, the junior
high schools, sports teams, WM clubs, and local organizations that wanted to take part too! Key
Club members played a huge role in this event though, being that so many of our members
volunteered. We ran registration tables, completed the run/walk, directed participants, threw color
during the color run, blew up balloons for an amazing arch, and sold refreshments afterwards. A lot
of planning and careful thought went into the Color Splash particularly, but the cooperation of
members made everything possible. Members arrived as early as 6:45am to set up tables in the
Stony Brook Village center and begin decorating the trail with pink balloons and signs, even
though the wind was harsh.!
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WM Key Club was broken down into different committees so that everyone had a job: color
throwing, registration, etc. The three different races, all starting at the same time, were directed
through different paths and start/end locations though, so a lot was going on at once; volunteers
had to be alert at all times to help wherever necessary and they did a great job with this!
Additionally, high school Key Clubbers were so excited to get to work with junior high members on
another event. The coordination between Ward Melville High School and our two junior high
schools has led to great success so far and even bigger turnouts at events like this one!

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Member of the Month Award!

Congratulations to Dean Taylor for winning
the Member of the Month award this month!
It is members like Dean that keep up the
Key Club spirit and inspire other members
to do the same. Dean has attended the KC
car wash, Apple Festival, Kiwanis Duck
Race, WMs homecoming, and our
fundraising alternative event. He has shown
great dedication and we all thank him for
his contribution!

--Key Club Week Recap--!

Day One!

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Social Media Day: Members posted pictures or wrote about Key Club on Twitter, !
Facebook, or Instagram.

Day Two !

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Bring a friend to the Key Club/ K-Family Day: Members brought their friends to Key Club
and we welcomed them with our service projects and a K-Family representative.

Day Three !

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Day
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Key Club t-shirt Day: Members wore their new KC 2014 t-shirts during the school day.!

Bake sale for the Eliminate Project: A table was run by members, selling blue/yellow
brownies to raise money for Eliminate.

Anti-Bullying Day!

Anti-bullying Day at Ward Melville is an important day for

Key Club because of the opportunities we give students to
take a stand. We continued our newest traditions,
handprints with paint on the anti-bullying wall and a written
document listing the students who have taken the antibullying pledge. During free periods, members volunteered
to help run a table in the commons and cafeteria to
encourage Ward Melville students to take our anti-bullying
pledge and sign a book that has been accumulating with
signatures. Once students take the pledge and sign the
book, they proceed to the cafeteria to put their handprints
on the anti-bullying wall. The yellow and purple paint
(established anti-bullying colors) remind students each day
about the pledge they took and the value of respecting
others.

Trick Or Treat Street!

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! n October 31st, 2014, Key Club hosted Ward
O
Melvilles annual Trick-or-Treat Street. Key Club
members put in weeks of preparation to do a
number of preparatory work: getting donations,
making decorations, coordinating, and planning
to make this event special. Thanks to our chair
people, Grace Zhao, Natalie ODell, Jenna
Cooper, Amy Huang, Pano Sourlis and Samantha
Pichler, children of all ages were able to enjoy a
fun, safe Halloween. !
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!Clubs decorated different rooms, each with a
unique theme, and the hallways were strung with
Halloween decor. The Ward Melville Players
created a spooky walk-through room called
freak show (voted the best room by the
children who attended), National Art Honor
Society made a Disney themed room, and Key
Club decorated a Frozen room. Other clubs such
as S.A.D.D., National Honors Society, FBLA, and
many more Ward Melville student organizations
also decorated spectacular rooms. In addition to
candy in each room, there were food and
beverage sales and live Halloween music
courtesy of Tri-M. !

Trick-or-treaters arrived from 4:30pm-7:30pm to

walk through the school and admire spooky
decorations, play fun games, and eat free candy!
Rather than an admission fee, Key Club collected
canned food items at the entrance, to donate to
our local soup kitchen. Many former Ward
Melville graduates, who are now parents, loved to
see the tradition being carried on for their
children to experience. !

Even the students of Ward Melville enjoyed being

able to participate in such a huge event. It is one
of our largest all year and the variety of WM club
members, ninth grade Key Clubbers, Melville alumni, and children of the community truly
makes the event so successful. Dillon Buzzanca, member of 9th grade Key Club said, I think
Trick-or-Treat Street is a really fun event where kids can enjoy a variety of activities, while
getting candy in the process. Its great that Ward Melville students put in so much effort to
really make the kids Halloween special.!

- Jolee Sullivan