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KEY CLUB Trustee Times LaMissTenn, Montana, Utah-Idaho Key Club International Trustee Newsletter

Trustee Times 1.4

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The Fourth Issue of the Trustee Times

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Page 1: Trustee Times 1.4

KEY CLUB

Trustee Times LaMissTenn, Montana, Utah-Idaho Key Club International Trustee Newsletter

Page 2: Trustee Times 1.4

Table of Contents 2

Trustee Letter 3

November Board Meeting 4

YOF Judging 5

Christmas Project Ideas 6

Inside this issue:

Page 3: Trustee Times 1.4

Hey everyone! November has been full of excitement! I got to be reunited with my

fellow Iboard members, and for some twice at the YOF judging

meeting in my home state, I took my final SAT, celebrated Thanks-

giving with my family, and I sent in my first round of college appli-

cations! Again, like I keep saying in my newsletters, good luck to all

of those seniors applying!

First off, the International November Board Meeting was

a success! All of the board members were further educated on the

eliminate Project and the new Key Club Co-Sponsor: Hershey’s

Track and Field! Read more in this newsletter to find out more on

our board meeting!

YOF judging went better than I expected! We successfully

graded all of the applications submitted and worked to propel the

application and grading process into the 21st century! Hopefully

within the next year, you will be able to see a new application that

is much easier to complete, read, and send in!

I want to wish everyone a happy and safe Holidays! I know

its hard waiting in school for winter break to come, but I know you

can all do it! Good luck to you seniors applying for colleges in the

next month! If you have any free time, please tell me where you all

are applying! I am so curious!

For now, have a great rest of you month, and have fun

reading the 4th issue of the Trustee Times for LaMissTenn, Mon-

tana, and Utah-Idaho!

In Service,

Betty Stearns

Page 4: Trustee Times 1.4

November Meetings

November Board November was an exciting month for all International Board members. After wait-

ing for four months of waiting, the entire iboard was able to finally reunite for the Novem-

ber Board meeting.

An amazing video was made by the fabulous International Trustee Colten Meisner,

which can be found on the sister district facebook group. Check the video out to see an in-

side scoop to what the international board does board meetings.

This weekend the board completed a plethora of things. The board committees,

executive, communication, reach, and resource committee, went over their completed direc-

tives, and received new directives to be completed by the February board meeting. The board

was given a presentation from the Hershey’s Track and Field Games. They unveiled the Her-

shey’s Great 8 and gave us a sweet Hershey’s chocolate treat!

In the spirit of Thanks giving, the Kiwanis office invited us to their Thanksgiving

potluck. Honestly, I had never seen so much food in my life. It must have been a 30ft table of

food plus three additional tables of deserts. I was in heaven. Combating the massive food

coma, the board returned to the board meeting room to continue to work on committee

work.

Saturday, the board was given a presentation from Kiwanis staff on project elimi-

nate. We worked on promoting the Key Club goal of how much money to raise per year per

member, and learning about new fundraising incentives such as medals and patches for

reaching certain fundraising achievements for project eliminate.

Overall, the weekend was filled with hard work, fun, and many pictures. Please, I

highly recommend you all view Colten’s amazing video which recapped the whole weekend

board meeting. If any of you have any questions concerning committee work, or other I

board happenings, please ask me!

Page 5: Trustee Times 1.4

5 members of the International board met up on De-

cember first in Anaheim, CA to grade all of the YOF applica-

tions. It was a long but interesting day for all of the committee

members. This year committee worked hard on not only grading

all of the Youth Opportunities Fund applications, but also had a

great conversation on how to bring the application process and

grading process of this grant into the 21st century. Hopefully

next year, you all will be able to see these improvements!

A long day of grading applications allows for a night of

fun. Staying at the 2014 ICON convention hotel across the

street from downtown Disney, board members along with the

Key Club staff members took a fun outing to downtown disney.

We experienced some Cajun food at the Jazz Kitchen (However

it wasn’t even close to the amazing food I had in New Orleans

when the amazing Rachel Benoit and Reagan Sandoz took me).

And had beignet’s to top off the night.

Overall, the weekend was super productive in grading the appli-

cations and working to further improve Key Club as a whole to

utilize these grants to the best of our abilities! If anyone has any

questions or concerns regarding the grants, please contact me,

for I will work towards maybe solving that problem for you for

future years of YOF judging to come!

Page 6: Trustee Times 1.4

December

Project

Idea

Guide

Page 7: Trustee Times 1.4

1. Salvation Army Bell Ringing

December wouldn’t be complete without it’s accompanying iconic

“silver bells.” Help the salvation Army help the elderly, homeless,

and needy by taking a shift ringing with a friend this month. For

me, this was a great way to bond with my local Kiwanis club. They

hold this event annually in our town, so see what your Kiwanis is

up to and either help them or get them to help you! You can find

more information about volunteer opportunities at: http://

www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf/vw-text-dynamic-

arrays/89941F85D7A2ECAC802573250030C4F0?

openDocument

2) Serve at a local soup kitchen or other holi-

day meal provider. Soup kitchens and food banks see an increase in traffic around the holidays. Volunteer to spread a little of your good fortune and holiday cheer by signing up to serve or cook at a soup kitchen or food bank this year. www.FeedingAmerica.org is a great place to start in finding your local food banks. 2b) Organize a food drive in your school or community. Not only do soup kitchens and food banks need servers, they also need food, too! Take advantage of holiday generosity and organize a food drive for the needy.

3) Play Santa Claus for a day. Many charities that collect toys and gifts for needy children require volunteer assistance in wrapping and delivering presents to their recipients before Christmas Day. Key Clubbers make ideal package-wrappers and delivery men and women. Ask fellow Key Club members if they know any local charities that sponsor similar pro-jects that could use your help. What I have done in the past, is gone to my local rescue mission and wrapped presents for the holi-days. It was a great bonding experience with my club members! 3b) Sponsor a family in need. If you have the means, help your Key Club to choose an entire family to sponsor. Raise and collect money for the family, then take the whole club shopping for gifts, meals, and supplies. Wrap up your family's Christmas and deliver it together! Local churches and United Way branches often have good contact points for fami-ly sponsorship projects.

4) Volunteer for Angel Tree. Angel Tree is a holiday project organized and supported by the Prison Fellowship, a ministry dedicated to helping those in prison get back on their feet and avoid additional prison time as repeat offenders. Angel Tree connects the children of incarcerated par-ents to sponsors in the community; these sponsors "choose" a child for Christmas and then provide for the items on that child's wish-

list. Angel Tree needs help locally both in manning stations where interested patrons can select a child and in organizing and distrib-uting gifts closer to the 25th. Visit http://www.prisonfellowship.org/get-involved/angel-tree/ for more infor-mation about volunteering.

5) Give back to our senior citizens. Anyone can tell you that there's nothing more cheerful than a grandmotherly face and some warm cookies during the holiday season. However, some of our elderly patrons will have a hard time being cheery this winter as they struggle to complete day-to-day activities that once were easy. Spend an afternoon raking leavings, cleaning gutters, shoveling snow, or helping out around the the house for an elderly citizen this December. They'll appreciate the gesture, and you'll benefit from their friendly company!

6) Wish someone a "happy holidays!" by car-

oling. Who doesn't love some jolly Christmas carolers? Get together a group of your more musically-inclined friends for a night full of caroling and holiday cheer. Variations on traditional caroling could include singing in a retirement home or asking for dona-tions for The Eliminate Project door-to-door (Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF Christmas carol-style!). What I have done with my club, is go to a local retirement home and sing Holiday songs to the residents. They love any interaction with younger students, so regardless of your singing talent, I guar-antee you, you will be welcomed.

7) Help the homeless. As mentioned above, volunteering at local soup kitchens and food banks are always great ways to help, but for those that prefer a more direct approach, try making "winter warmers" this year. Stock up on warm socks and/or gloves, handwarmers, granola bars, and bottles of water at a nearby discount store, then prepare "winter warmer" packages by stuffing the socks with the handwarmers, granola bars, and water. Drop these little packages off at a local homeless shelter; volunteers and staff there will be happy to pass along your gift of warmth to the homeless that they encounter throughout the winter. Variations for warmer climates could in-clude using chimney stockings instead of heavy socks or packing snacks in an inexpensive tote instead.

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8) Support our soldiers. While many efforts exist to support our servicemen and women, one of the most well-known are the Wounded Warrior Project, which supports severely injured military personnel as they work towards re-covery. The Wounded Warrior Project welcomes volunteer time and energy, particularly in assisting recovering veterans in day-to-day activi-ties like yardwork or household chores. More information about how to participate can be found on their website. 8b) Collect teddies for Toys for Tots. Toys for Tots is a charity run by the Marine Corps to distribute toys to less fortunate children during the holidays. One unique element to Toys for Tots is that toys collected stay local; what you collect within your community is redistributed to less fortunate children in your same area. Toys for Tots can use volunteers for toy collection, drop-off, and organization at local warehouses. Visit http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/give-back/volunteer.aspx to discover volunteer opportunities in your area. 8c) Write a soldier to say "thank you." Approximately 200,000 soldiers will spend the holidays deployed overseas this year. A simple letter can go a long way in making our veterans feel loved, appreciated, and valued. The Red Cross leads ef-forts every year to distribute tens of thousands of letters to military men and women across the globe. For more information about the parameters for letters, please visit http://www.redcross.org//ca/los-angeles/ways-to-donate/holiday-mail-for-heroes. It is important to note that letters should be mailed to Holiday Mail for Heroes, P.O. Box 5456, Capitol Heights, MD 20791 prior to December 7th. Wanted to be more involved this holiday season but things just got too busy? Keep these two ideas in mind for next year!

9) Pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas

Child. Operation Christmas Child is an organization run through Samari-tan's Purse that is dedicated to providing Christmas to underprivi-leged children in the form of packaged shoeboxes. Since its origin in 1993, OCC has provided more than ninety-four million shoeboxes to children in 130 countries around the world. Helping is as simple as buying items to fill a standard-sized shoebox and dropping it off at your local Operation Christmas Child collection point. Volunteers are also needed in Operation Christmas Child warehouses to help organize and ship shoebox donations. More information about Oper-ation Christmas Child, how to put together a shoebox, and where to volunteer can be found at http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/index/. Collection time for shoeboxes is the second full week in November, so start planning early for next year!

10) Send a tree to a solder through the Christ-

mas Spirit Foundation. The Christmas Spirit Foundation is an organization dedicated to "delivering the spirit of Christmas to military families--one Christmas tree at a time." Patrons can buy or donate Christmas trees for military families during the last week of November. Visit http://www.christmasspiritfoundation.org/dnn/default.aspx for more infor-mation.