Millburn High School Key Club

Key Club Talent Show 2016

By Jahnavi Bansal

The Key Club Talent Show was an extreme success!

Thanks to the hard work put in by our incredible club and performers, we were able to raise $1500! Half the proceeds will go to the NJ Community Food Bank, and the other half will go to the Thirst Project. A pat on the back to all of those who volunteered and made this year's Talent Show a success.

Are you ready to be a secret spy of service? This year’s DCON (District Convention) will be Mission Impossible themed, so gear up! 

NJ DCON is an annual weekend event at Ocean Place Resort and Spa in Long Branch, New Jersey where key clubbers from around the state come together to celebrate their year of service. It is an event-filled, fun weekend full of old and new friends, memories, and service. 

This year’s DCON will take place from April 1-3. Early registration is $280, due Feb. 12th. Regular registration is $285, due March 3rd. Transportation costs are included.

For more information on DCON and registration, click here. 

The Thanksgiving Food Drive is now underway! There are boxes located in each homeroom to be filled with nonperishable food items like pasta, soups, beans, etc. The homeroom with the most food will win donuts and points for their grade in Battle of the Classes! Most importantly, the less fortunate will be able to enjoy a nice meal on Thanksgiving, something that may be foreign to them. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get these boxes filled!

Ready to get into the fall spirit? The History and Harvest Celebration, held by Greenwood Gardens, is an event hosting activities such as the “Great Apple Hunt,” Caramel Apple Making, and Pumpkin Decorating. 

This year, Greenwood Gardens needs our help in making this event as successful as possible. You can sign up to volunteer during the next few upcoming meetings or through Facebook by messaging any of the officers. A flyer with complete details of the event is posted below, or you can click here to get a PDF version. Hope to see you there!

The next RTC (Regional Training Conference) will be held on September 19th in our very own Millburn High School! RTCs are a great way to learn more about Key Club while sharpening your community service skills. You can attend workshops ranging from district events to public speaking and get some free food while you’re at it! Not only that, but it is an incredible opportunity to make new friends who have similar interests in community service. RTCs take place from 9am to 1pm with no prior registration required. Hope to see you all there!

Deluxe Brownie Baking

Main Street Philanthropy Graduation

by Nikita Verma

by Emily Silver

Over the course of ten weeks, I participated in a program called Main Street Philanthropy every Tuesday. This program was designed to teach adolescents like myself how to handle money and also give us the opportunity to explore donating to charities. The first week, the class participated in an activity called “Make a Difference,” which helped each student narrow down what issues they were most concerned about. I chose people mental and physical disabilities, help with children and youth services, and hunger as the most prominent issues I wanted to address. Based on what everyone else chose, Yale Levey, the philanthropist who ran the program, created groups that put people who had similar concerns together. Everyone in my group primarily aimed to focus on providing leadership for disadvantaged children. Once each group identified their main interest, the discovery of charities and analysis began.

Our goal was to find a nonprofit charity organization that played a role in the causes that we researched. In order to find a suitable charity, the class partook in both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Qualitative analysis focuses on what goes on behind the scenes at the charity; quantitative analysis is the using IRS Form to determine if the charity is financially wise, meaning that they use their money in the best way possible. After identifying charities, the members of the groups made “cold calls” to each charity, where they would speak to a charity representative about the Main Street Philanthropy program and discuss the possibility of the students raising money to donate to the organization. Next, students asked if the representative would be interested in coming in for the panel class so they could learn about the charity in depth. There were two panel classes, both of which were very successful. We had representatives visit from the Emmanuel Cancer Foundation, Bridge of Books, the Valerie Fund, and the Mental Health Association.

During the weeks of the panel classes, the team members began their fundraising projects. The fundraisers varied from bake sales to selling candy canes to collecting books. All of them went very well and we managed to raise over $1,000. I went into this class not really sure what to expect, but the overall outcome was beyond any picture I had in my mind of what it was going it be like. I am so glad I joined this class - because not only did I learn a lot about life and fundraising, I absolutely loved the program knowing that every dollar I helped raise would help a suffering child.

by Nikita Verma

Deanne Ferro demonstrated her commitment to the club this month through various actions. First, she proposed a new service idea - a drive to collect useful items for those less fortunate, over the holiday season. She thoughtfully planned this project and reached out to many members of the club to help gain support, taking great initiative. Keep up the good work Deanne!

Aliza Silverman has shown great dedication as a committee head for bake sales. Bake sales are high responsibility events that happen quite often, and they are an underrated source of fundraising for Key Club. Thanks for being such an excellent leader, Aliza!

by Tori Sonza

The First Annual Key Club Interdivisional Volleyball game, established and hosted by the Millburn High School Key Club, was held on Friday, December 12, 2014, in the school's main gym. A small fee of $5 allowed attendees to participate in the games or watch and support those who were playing.

The event helped to raise money for ELIMINATE, an organization created by Key Club International and UNICEF to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus. Aside from raising money, the participants were able to meet some members from other divisions of New Jersey Key Club, and they bonded as well.

Despite it being in its first year, the event was a great success. Aside from the games, raffle tickets, pizza, and baked goods were for sale. Several students from Summit High School came and took part in the volleyball games. Overall, the Interdivisional Volleyball games were a lot of fun and are absolutely in the running for next year’s round of Key Club events.

by Ashley Linehan

One out of every 12 children and teenagers has a mental or physical disability in the United States. That totals to around 5.2 million kids our age, struggling to carry out the simplest of daily tasks, just because of the diseases and illnesses that were forced upon them.

Children’s Specialized Hospital (CSH) is a provider of pediatric rehabilitation services in New Jersey, and it treats 20,000 of these children, affected by brain injury, spinal chord dysfunction and injury, premature birth, autism, developmental delays, and life-changing illnesses, each year. It provides skilled doctors and therapists who work to make a true difference in the lives of children with special needs. Such an organization, functioning solely to help children in our communities reach their full potential, definitely deserves our support.

We can help to promote the efforts by this organization, as well as the children in its facilities, by making monetary donations that can be used to provide desperately needed therapy services, art and educational tools, and beyond. We can also help by giving them more personal gifts, like the holiday cards that many Key Club members were involved in making last month, or even volunteering to go help the workers and interact with these children. I hope to see you all make an effort, however small, this service year, to support the Children’s Specialized Hospital and the children it cares for.

Millburn High School Key Club Newsletter by Editor Nikita Verma

Deluxe Brownies for ELIMINATE! by Shannon Peng

Throughout the month of January, we'll be baking and selling 'deluxe' brownies - all that Oreo and chocolate chip glory - to raise money for the ELIMINATE Project. We encourage all club members to help in any way they can. There are numerous ways to contribute - including, but not limited to, selling brownies, buying and donating ingredients (baking soda, vanilla extract, chocolate chips, etc.), or baking the brownies.

Thanksgiving Food Drive 2014

by Nikita Verma

Abby Ow (left) and Kathleen Gao (right) have both been incredibly helpful and dedicated members this month. They were both Committee Heads for the Thanksgiving Food Drive, and they both committed to their positions to yield the best results. Abby and Kathleen showed great dedication and persistence in their calling grocery stores to ask for available slots for the drive, as well as reaching out to other Key Club members and Millburn High School students. Abby also volunteered to write a publication about the drive in the November edition of The Millburn Key (you can find her article here). A large aspect of leadership in Key Club is working with others to accomplish great things - both Abby and Kathleen have demonstrated this, and with their support we were able to collect hundreds of cans of food for the New Jersey Community Food Bank this month.