Key Club, a school club and international organization, continues to serve countries around the world and the community while connecting with new members and growing as a whole.

“I think that is why being an editor is so much fun,” Senior Anh-Thu Pham said. “You have so much space for creativity to do things. I [am] excited to go beyond my written duties, [to] make blogs, [and] to [raise] our numbers up.”

Pham said that while one of their main goals this year is to grow as a community and get to know to know each other better, they hope to gain more members as well.

“Social media is a really good tool for us to spread and to advertise Key Club,” Pham said. “It is a [good way to share] and is very efficient. [Social media] has worked well so far.”

Junior and vice president of the Key Club Jeanne Bandelaria said it was her sister who inspired her to become a member of Key Club.

“[My sister] would always come home and tell me about Angel League,” Bandelaria said. “She’d tell me, ‘Oh I helped out this boy today, and I helped him learn baseball, and taught him how to catch. [When I joined] I learned more about Key Club, its structure and how to become a better leader and a better person myself. This is why I wanted to become a part of the board, too, because I wanted to help out and learn more.”

Angel League, a baseball team meant to help disabled children interact with others and have fun, is one among many of the organizations that Bandelaria said Key Club is impacting our community through.

“We want to grow,” Bandelaria said. “Grow in service. Grow as a club.”

Other members also agree that that Angel League has been an important part of Key Club.

“Every year we support Angel League and other organizations that need support along the way,” junior Shahreen Malik said. “[Angel League] is adorable because you get to participate in teams and watch [the children] play.”

Along with more local organizations like Angel League, Key Club reached out earlier this year to Honduras on World Food Day, and packed about 29,454 meals in three hours. Each meal had the ability to feed six small children.

“It gives you joy to see how much your helping hands touch another person,” Pham said. “The bad misconception is that before we are adults, and we are just high schoolers, [one thinks] they can only do so much, but through Key Club I think I have learned that just us, [as] students, we can accomplish so much together. We have accomplished such amazing feats like World Food Day.”

Pham explained a concept her sixth grade science teacher taught her class in regards to teamwork. Her teacher laid on top of a table and told everyone in the class to gather around the table, then he told all of them to lift the table up together, each of them only using one pinkie finger. The whole class was able to lift him up, and Pham said she has applied this lesson to Key Club.

“ Even the smallest contribution counts,” Pham said.

Pham explained how Key Club differs from National Honor Society.

“ I think the big difference between us and NHS is that we don’t have certain requirements for them to join us,” Pham said. “As long as everybody pays their dues, and turns in their forms, they are a part of our family.”

Bandelaria explains the beauty of Key Club and what Key Club means.

“[Key Club] opens doors to service,” Bandelaria said. “Someone actually asked us the question, ‘do you make keys?’”

Malik shared how she came to join Key Club in her early high school years.

“Back in ninth grade, a friend of mine was serving in Key Club and she told me to join,” Malik said. “ So I said, ‘Why not’, I love service. So I decided to join in 10th grade, and it was a lot of fun. When I think of community service, I think of just helping out your neighborhood in your local program and building, but when I found out that Key Club was more than that and stretches out globally, I got really into Key Club at that point.”

Malik describes what it takes to join Key Club based on her experience in the club.

“It takes a lot of dedication to be in Key Club,” Malik said. “You have to be active, you have to help out, you have to raise a certain amount of money to even join the organization. It also requires a lot of hard work for making cards for the kids at the hospital [Saint Jude’s], and [for] veterans. That’s fun.”

According to its members and leaders, Key Club honors teamwork and values service.

“[The members] are there because they want to be there,” Pham said.