by Janine Alven
As the end of the school year is approaching, things are wrapping up for students and staff of Minarets High School. Earlier this month, on May 4, Key Club held their annual installation night to install the new board members and say goodbye to the senior members of the club.
Senior and former Key Club President Madison Wuensch spoke about how this year went, “Personally Key Club was fairly slow compared to last year, obviously this was because the pandemic limited what we were able to do as a club. However, I feel like this year showed how despite the challenges, we were able to persevere and make the most out of the circumstances.
With these challenges, Key Club made it work. With numerous virtual, at-home service opportunities as well as the launch of their website, Key Club thrived during the pandemic. They held 4 fundraisers, Key Club Kares (used to give donations of school supplies to those students in need), Boo Grams (raised money for Unicef's Eliminate program), Valentine Grams (raised money for the Ronald McDonald House), and Kids Day (raised money for Valley Children’s Hospital). They also started one of the biggest projects the Minarets Key Club has ever done: Tutor Time, a virtual service that offered free tutoring to all the students in the Chawanakee Unified School District. Several students were recognized at Installation Night for their hard work at these events. Sophomore Katelynn Mangan and freshman Acacia Edeluchel won awards for the highest number of hours served this year. Former president of the club, senior Madison Wuensch, received a personalized gavel while former secretary, junior Hazel Taintor, was the recipient of a pen.
For junior Laura Rohrbaugh, the new Key Club president, these challenges have helped to further organize the club. She explained, "In spite of these challenges, however, I think it has almost forced us to become more organized when it comes to in-person service opportunities, more creative in order to create ways to help the community online, and improved our communication as a club overall.”
Rohrbaugh also spoke about her plans for the club in the coming year and what she hopes to accomplish during her presidency, “My plans as president for this next term are to support and lead the board to the best of my abilities and introduce the club to incoming freshmen in hopes of increasing the number of members we have. I hope the board members are able to individually come up with their own service opportunities and organize events that will hopefully allow our club to reach more people in our community and school, I think the new Key Club board will be able to get more students involved with our club, introduce new service projects to the community, as well as strengthen existing projects, like our Tutor Time project.”
With the new board officially installed and the hope that we return to school full-time next school year, the Minarets Key Club is excited to be properly back into action, and the school is excited to witness what the club has planned.
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