OCTOBER 2015

The Key Ring

The official publication of the Georgia Districtof KEY CLUB INTERNATIONAL

GLTC ● Divisional News ● Key Club Week ● Committee Updates

I n th i s Issue...

Divisional News

GLTC

Key Club Week

Committee Updates

The Youth Opportunities Fund (YOF) is an endowed fund for Key Club International held within the Kiwanis International Foundation.

This fund uses earned interest to help Key Clubs and Key Club mem-bers serve the world by providing grants for service opportunities. The Youth Opportunities Fund is established through gifts to the G. Harold Martin Fellowships.

Clubs may request funding as-sistance ranging anywhere from US$100 to US$2,000. The com-mittee typically funds those clubs who are asking for a portion of the total cost of the project, and clubs who are working with other orga-nizations to fund and complete the project.

For more information visit http://keyclub.org/service/fund/yof.aspx

YouthOpportunities Fund

Greetings Georgia District Key Clubbers,

It has been a pleasure serving as our District Governor for another great month. There are so many exciting things coming up for the district in the next few months. With Halloween in a few weeks, it is important to remember Trick or Treat for UNICEF is approaching and that schools can still order boxes for fundrais-ing from the Kiwanis International website. Be sure to be fundraising for both the Eliminate Project and the Georgia Sheriff Youth Homes as the Key Club year progresses. Another important date to begin to think about and fundraise for is District Convention which will be held in Peachtree Cor-ners, Georgia (outside of Atlanta) from March 18-20, 2016. The cost to at-tend is $245, which can be offset by selling ads for the convention program with $0.50 of every dollar sold going towards your registration expenses for district convention or international convention. Also, for the first time in over a decade, we have been selected to host International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, so be sure to get prepared to be making plans to attend. Also, the submission of officer information and dues needs to take place as soon as possible. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or con-cerns, please feel free to contact either me or District Administrator Brad Malone. Thank you for giving me the opportune to serve the Georgia Dis-trict for another month.

Yours in Service, Tyler L. Jones

Governor’s Address

Greetings Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful kick-off to your school’s Key Club year! We had a wonderful turnout at Georgia Leadership Training Conference this year! I hope ev-eryone that came learned something new to take back to their clubs! I also hope all of this year’s officers that attended learned

many things about their particular roles and will be able to use their newly learned tools throughout the entire year in office. I have attend-ed that last four years of Georgia Leadership Training Conference and I can say that this past year’s conference has truly been my favorite and I feel the most successful!

I would like to thank all of the clubs that have turned in officer information for the 2015-2016 year. If your club hasn’t submitted in officer information yet, it can be submitted online at http://www.gakeyclub.org/resources/officerinfo/. Officer information is very im-portant because it helps ensure communication between the district level of Key Club with the club level! If you have any questions regard-ing officer information feel free to email me at secretary@gakeyclub.com, or you can contact your assigned division’s lieutenant governor. I would love to answer any questions you have! Thank you all and I hope you all have a wonderful year of service!

Yours in service, Annalise Barron, District Secretary

As we wind down from this year’s very successful Georgia Leadership Training Conference, the District Events Committee has begun focusing our attention solely on the District Conven-tion. If you did not attend GLTC this year, you will be happy to know that the theme has been revealed! The theme for the 2016 District Convention, March 18th-20th in Norcross, Georgia

Individuals may also ask their local Kiwanis Club for financial assistance, or sell convention program ads. For more information and for updates, you can go to the Georgia Key Club Website, www.gakeyclub.org/events or follow GA Key Club on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And as always, you can email me (events@gakeyclub.org) or District Administrator Brad Malone (brad.malone@gakeyclub.org) if you have any questions!

Georgia Leadeship Training Conference

is....“Ag e nt s o f S e r v i ce”!

- Andrew McGraw

I hope to see you all at District Convention this year!

Keeping this secret-service inspired theme in mind, the Committee is working hard to create the biggest and greatest convention the Georgia District has ever seen! Because of all of the amazing things each convention holds, the cost for this year’s convention will be $245. I would suggest that each club begin thinking about ways to fundraise to send as many delegates as possible to the convention (Attending a DCON is a life-changing experience).

Individuals may also ask their local Kiwanis Club for financial assistance, or sell convention program ads. For more information and for updates, you can go to the Georgia Key Club Website, www.gakeyclub.org/events or follow GA Key Club on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And as always, you can email me (events@gakeyclub.org) or District Administrator Brad Malone (brad.malone@gakeyclub.org) if you have any questions!

Georgia Leadeship Training Conference

Nickelodeon joined the Kiwan-is family as a 2013 Vision Part-ner of Kiwanis International with a focus on its Big Help ini-tiative, which addresses issues in service, education, the en-vironment and health. Learn more about Nickelodeon’s Big Help efforts at pro-social.nick.com or nick.com/thebighelp.

In 1997, Key Club made Children’s Miracle Network Hos-pitals a preferred charity for its members to support.

The mission of the March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

Since 1994, Key Club has been Trick-or-Treating for UNICEF and over the years has raised nearly US$5 million for iodine deficiency programs worldwide and

This year during our first district board training, the Major Emphasis commit-tee agreed that the district goal for the Eliminate Project would be $20,000,

which, although $2,000 more than we had achieved last year, is completely fea-sible. Over the course of five years, Key Club International has been promoting the Eliminate Project to eradicate maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) from undeserved countries. So far, under all Kiwanis-Family branches, we have raised over $76.8 million of our $110 million goal. This money goes into the remain-ing 24 countries where MNT has not been eradicated, and only $1.80 can save a mother and her babies from contracting the disease. The Georgia district has been working productively to raise awareness and funds for these efficient vaccinations.

The Key Club of Landmark Christian School in Fairburn has found a unique solution to a pressing problem at the school. Pinning down someone to be Lu-CaS (a play on the school’s initials), the school’s mascot, has been a challenge, un-til the school’s Key Club decided to work together with the school. Select members who showed enthusiasm were chosen to train with the cheerleaders. At football games, Key Clubbers rotate in and out of the suit every quarter, bringing fresh vari-ety and energy to the game. However, the club has chosen to expand the mascot’s appearances beyond just games, covering everything from open house to basket-ball. As member Carson Hebblethwaite describes, “Well, I like doing open houses better than the actual games because I get to hug the little kids and take pictures as well as walk around. More fun when you’re face to face!” Everyone from Zack Carter, the club’s VP, to an enthusiastic alum took on LuCaS’s persona at the Homecoming game, where President Mason Mahaffey was able to capture the club in action.

- Paige Overmyer

1DIVISION

Southwest Georgia Homeschool Asso-ciation Key Club, my home club, got together in Septmber to work together

on a project for Georgia Sheriff’s Youth Homes (GSYH). Our officers brought scrapbook paper, glue guns, scissors, and printed GSYH logos, while the members each brought their own mason jar. Every member collected some paper they liked and cut out one of the logos, then the president and I helped them glue the pieces onto their jars. It was a lot of a fun, and a great way to get our members excited about GSYH! Now we each have jars and a con-crete representation of the District Project to motivate us to raise money for GSYH. We’re going to go above and beyond our club goal this year!

Making Fundraising Jars for GA Sheriffs’ Youth Homes

My Favorite Part of GLTC

The best part of GLTC, to me, was revealing the DCON theme with an exciting skit. It was so much fun to role-

play as a secret agent, and surprise everyone attending with my sudden, intense yelling of, “Firefox is in the

room. I repeat, Firefox is in the room.” Not only did it make the GLTC session a little more fun, it also got every-

one in the room (including me) pumped about DCON this spring!

- Haley Davidson

3DIVISION

Recently my Key Club at Northgate High hosted a teacher tailgate before

Friday night’s football game. We made the food and served it to them buffet style. The teachers work so hard all week, like stay-ing after school to help us with our work. So I think that it was so much fun to give back. Even if it was just as simple as serving them food. Our teachers deserve to be

treated for all of their hard work and I think that they aren’t always appreciated for what they do for us. The teachers at Northgate are “committed to student success” and I think that it really is reflect-ed in student attitude and grades. So being able to show our appre-ciation for everything they do for us is very important to me.

- Sarah Neal

Teacher Tailgate4DIVISION

d

11DIVISION

Harrison High School’s Key Club Fundraiser for

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF

- Morgan Patterson

Every year on Halloween, teachers all across Harrison High School dress up as witches, goblins, and the occasional Miley Cyrus in order to raise money and awareness for Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. This has been a very successful fundrais-ing tradition at our school and we’ve decided to share it with our fellow Key Clubs. For the week leading up to Hal-loween, we mention the event on the morning announce-ments every day, making sure to ex-plain what UNICEF does and why people should donate. On Hal-loween, the teachers come in with their cos-tumes on and receive a couple of orange Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF boxes to carry around

for the day. (Each teacher’s boxes are labeled with their name in order to keep track of who raised what.) Students are instructed to “vote” for their favorite costume by putting as many donations in as many teachers’ boxes as

they like. At the end of the day, the box-es are collected and our Key Club gets to work on counting up the money and keep-ing track of the top 3 teachers who raise the most. The next day, we count down the top 3 list and the teacher who raised the most money gets

a $10 gift card. This fundraiser has been ex-tremely successful and we raise at least $1,000 almost every year. It really is a great way to quickly raise money for this great cause.

SNAPS FOR

SERVICEFor our first community service activity, Richmond Hill High School’s Key

Club traveled to our local recreational department to go have some fun and help contribute to a greater cause. We partnered with our lo-cal Special Needs Activity Program (SNAP) to join some very bright

special needs children and get active. The goal of the Special Needs Activity Program is to create an environment where individuals with disabilities are able to participate in physical activities adapted for them and to engage in social interactions. In the hour we spent with them, we hula hooped, jump roped, danced, and laughed the afternoon away. It was a won-derful opportunity to meet some great kids with exceptional personalities. The children were thrilled to have “cool” teenagers helping lead the activities and the parents were thankful for our participation. We attend SNAP every other Wednesday, and it is something that we al-ways look forward to participating in.

- Emmie Landford

13DIVISION

Remember the big pic-ture for our district project, we are raising

$120,000 dollars by 2020 in order to build a new Educa-tion Center on the Georgia Sheriffs’ Youth Homes Moun-tainview campus. We need your help, Georgia Key Club-bers. All it takes is $3.75 per member, and we will meet our district project goal of $27,000. With that being said, how will you raise your $3.75? It’s time for us to take charge, and start fundraising for the #foundation4education cen-ter. I look forward to soaring past our district project goal of $27,000 this year, so get out there and fundraise! Serve on, Georgia Key Clubbers!

Go to http://www.keyclub.org/service/kcw.aspx/ to learn more

20152-6

- Amanda Lang

For the Eliminate Project, Kiwanis just passed the $100 mil-lion mark, so we have less than $10 million to go! If we keep this progress up, we could reach our goal very soon.

Kiwanis Family and MajorEmphasis

The past month has seen great prog-ress! At GLTC, the Box, the mas-cot for Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF,

explained to all the conference goers about this year’s Eliminate Project goals. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is the Eliminate Proj-

ect’s major fundraiser, so it is import-ant that we have as much enthusiastic participation as possible. Lieutenant governors have sent some infor-mation on how to order boxes, where to send the money, and how to get the most donations.

Remember, when raising money for the Eliminate Proj-ect, every penny counts! Maybe 2015 will be the year ma-ternal and neonatal tetanus is eradicat-ed from the whole world!

It has been over 2 months now since school has begun. How has your Key Club year been? The beginning of the

year can be very hectic, with coming up with service projects, trying to increase member-ship and finding fundraiser ideas. But soon, all your hard work will pay off, especially be-cause you could be awarded for your work at District Convention!

This year, the District Board created a new award called “Strive for Twenty-Five Award” to award clubs that increase membership by 25% from the previous year! 25% may seem like a lot, but it can be done! Advertise Key Club at your school’s Club Fair, create posters to attach around the school, and let people know about meetings through your school’s announcements! Share specifically how you raised money on your award application, and you and your club will be recognized for the hard work.

If you are an officer and have a hard time staying in the loop of the Key Club year, check out the Annual Achievement Award application. In the

criteria for the awards, all the deadline and events are listed, and you simply have to follow along. By Dis-trict Convention, if you had already been following along, your club should have no problem winning the award.

Remember that all the awards applications must be sent by February 1, 2016. Now, start planning for an amazing year!

- Mina Jeong

Policy and Contest