Key Club is a service program for high school students that allows them to become more involved with the community.

McClintock’s Key Club is a student-led program that teaches students to be leaders through service for others.

Key Club students are members of the  larger group known as Kiwanis International family and they build theirselves  as they help their community.

“Key Club is an organization for the kids; they are the ones that develop it,” club sponsor and science teacher Jane Winkle said. “It is made up of the same kids that love to do community service.”

Key Club is made up of dozens of students who love to give themselves to their community and other communities in need.

“I volunteer for the aid of others, but more importantly, to better myself as a person and a citizen,” senior Jordan Erhardt said.

Each year, new volunteer events are brought to the Key Club’s members in order to broaden the types of service projects they attend.

Some of the newest events this year are Beautifying Hudson Park, Project Cure, etc.

“[My favorite event to attend so far was] the Hudson Park cleanup because it was a nice event to help clean up a community park that I visit,” senior Jiwon Byun said.

Although members have begun participating in some new activities, there are also some classic volunteer events that Key Club has been attending for several years now: Feed My Starving Children, Oktoberfest, Hot Chocolate Run, among others.

“What motivates me to be a part of Key Club is my desire to help others,” senior Cristina Sanchez said. “I love volunteer work, so the club was definitely a good fit for me.”

The first Key Club was formed back in 1925 in Sacramento, California by two Sacromento Kiwanis club members who were also high school administrators. As of now, Key Club is a well-known club that many school have and even at McClintock, Key Club has been a part of the school for several decades now. However, there have been many changes to the details of the club, but the main goal of community service is still ever present.

“It used to be an all-boys club; there used to be no girls allowed,” Winkle said. “They even wore sports jackets with ‘Key Club’ written on them.”

As the President for the 2014-2015 Key Club year, senior Trinny Tat has some new ideas in order to encourage students to volunteer even more than they already do.

“I want to have at least four projects per month, and I was planning to give some incentive to the students who participate in the majority of the projects at the end of the year,” Tat said.

It is only the 2nd quarter and Key Club members have already been attending events since the first week of school back in August.

With this head start on volunteering, they will be able to meet their goal of having more service hours total than last year.