Rocky Mountain District of Key Club News MagazineThe RocKey

Page OneThat is this page

Page TwoDistrict Editor’s IntroductionKey Club International President’s Message

Page Three ELIMINATE!

Page FourGovernors Project - Segenat FoundationThe Women’s Bean Project

Page FiveMajor Emphasis ProjectKey Fundraising Ideas

Page SixInspiration From Your International TrusteeLetter to Rocky (the Jackalope)

Page SevenLoveland Key Club Highlight

Page Eight Spotlight on Palmer Ridge Key Club

Page NineKeys to a Service Project

Page TenDistrict Convention 2013!Free Trip Drawing Winner...Into to ICON 2013!

ONE

Happy New Year! I hope that you are geared up for a fantastic twelve months of Key Club service (or seven, if you’re a senior). As the ball drops on 2013, many of you will be making resolutions to leave yourself a smarter, healthier, and happier person than you were in 2012. I hope that among these resolutions, you will have room for an additional one: that you might make the world a better place through caring for your home, school, and community this year.

“I will leave my mark so that everyone will know: I was here.” -Beyoncé

Join me in considering your impact on the world as you make your resolutions this January. Again, Happy New Year!

Rebecca RileyKey Club International President

Welcome to second semester, Key Clubbers! I’d like to take this time to introduce the new district paper -- or magazine. This is the first time the Rocky Mountain District has printed something like this so it’s definitely a trial and we would appreciate your feedback!

The reason for change came suddenly upon me when I considered the idea of taking what you love, and using it to serve others. I personally love graphic design and felt limited by the use of a standard news paper. I’m do-ing what I love, even if it is only a temporary print for the district, and as always I encourage you to find your passion and use it in service.

In addition to the changes to the RocKey, our district website has experienced some glitches and the PR com-mittee would like to inform you that our domain name is fully functional at RMDKEYCLUB.ORG, not any of the previous ones you may have used.

Read on, Key Clubbers. May we end this year strong in service!

TWO

As of October 31st, MNT has been officially announced to be ELIMINATED in China. That leaves 31 countries left to go!

Eliminate is a partner with UNICEF and Kiwanis. They have set a goal of 110 million dollars to eliminate Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) from the face of the earth by 2015. Key Club also plays an integral part in this relationship and our own Rocky Mountain District Key Club has set a goal to raise $18,009 by District Convention: April 5th-7th, 2013. This number represents the $1.80 it takes to buy a series of three vaccines. This immunization will save the lives of a mother and her future babies. The nine represents each nine minutes that pass where a newborn will die of

MNT. When our district obtains this goal we will save the lives of approximately 10,005 babies!

Eliminate Day, “Life’s Valentine”, will serve as a district wide day to ad-vertise and fundraise for Eliminate. This day will take place on Valentine’s Day: February 14th, 2013. During Eliminate Day, your club will have un-limited opportunities to spread the word about Eliminate. After Eliminate Day your club can send in forms about what they did for Eliminate Day and receive recognition and prizes and DCON! The clubs who send in a minimum of $250 to the Eliminate Project before December 31st will get a patch for their Key Club banner. Please stay attuned for future updates and if you have any questions feel free to contact me at: acdevore@ymail.com.

ELI I A E

District Goal$18,009

Amount Raised$8,707

(As of 9/30/12)

THREE

During the 2011-2012 school year, the Rocky Mountain District Key Club Board of Trustees officially approved the Women’s Bean Project as a fundraising partner of our district, Not only is the Bean Project a great fundraiser, but it is also an opportunity to help out women in the Denver area. This organization was created in 1989 and their mission is to help women escape from poverty and unemployment. The orga-nization teaches life and job readiness skills through manufacturing and selling food (such as bean soup and salsa, cookie, brownie, and tea mixes) and handmade jewelry. Your Key Club can help these women and raise money for your own club by selling the products made by the Women’s Bean Proj-ect. I personally went down to the factory, met some of the women, and tried their food and I’ve never been so inspired and moved by the women and my stomach has never been so de-lighted after eating that food! All your club has to do is register on-line to start fundraising and you will get 35% of the profits from your sales. By using the Bean Project as a fundraiser, Key Clubs all around our district can make money for their own clubs as well as make a huge different in many women’s lives in the Denver area. Register online by going to http://www.womensbeanproject.com/fupa.html and clicking on the registration form under the title Key Club: Rocky Mountain District.

GOVERNORS PROJECT Segenat foundation is a service that builds libraries to satisfy the Educational and recreational needs of underprivileged kids in Ethiopia, specifically in places such as the Tigray region.

Ethiopia is found in the horn of Africa and it is a country struck by great pov-erty. Not all children there get the benefit of going to school so they walk miles just to get in to the warm environment of the library and jump in to a great book where they can be distracted and ignore life’s difficulties. They open themselves up to a new word of possibilities and ideas. The books we take for granted here, many Ethiopian children cherish, love and are willing to read it repeatedly. We as key club members in the Rocky Mountain District have joined together to make a difference. Every division has chosen their own projects. These projects are: Portable wooden library with 200-300 books costing $500, Portable cloth library with 100-200 books costing $200, or sponsoring a book to be published and distributed costing $1000-$5000. As members we join together and take this project on as THE GOVERNORS PROJECT, and we open a world of imagination and possibilities, we give them what we can so easily get here, we shine a light in a very dark room. Contact your LTG to learn how your club can participate in the divisional goal for the Segenat Foundation.

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FOUR

Stuck on how to fundraise for your favorite charity? Here’s a few of my ideas to give you some inspiration on how to make these fundraisers work in your school or community!

Host a Pageant: Is your school full of outgoing and social people? Host a pag-eant! Charge a registration fee, hold it in your school gym or cafeteria on a Friday or Saturday night, and get a teacher sponsor! Be creative with the contest; host talent, questioning, silliest costume, etc.

Pie in the face: Get a willing participant, like the class president, the tough football coach, or the principal! Just buy lots of whipped cream, paper plates, and charge $1-3 depending on the willingness of those to participate. Hold it during lunch, a school pep rally, or before a football game and you’ll be sure to get lots of participa-tion!

Homecoming Dance: Can you ask your student council if they’d be willing to give a portion of the ticket sales to your Key Club? For example, if tickets are $15, ask if Key Club can keep $2 and student council keeps $13. Be sure to be willing to help set up or clean up, sell tickets, or hang flyers to help them out as well!

These ideas are all simple, don’t require much effort, and can amazing turnout when used in the right setting with the right people! Most importantly, when presenting these ideas to your club, or another leader in your school, make sure you are enthusiastic about what you want to accomplish through these fundraisers. Getting others excited about what you are doing is an easy way to get support for your cause!”

When I think of Key Club, I think of all of the amazing youth brought together through count-

less acts of service that benefit numerous com-munities and organizations worldwide. With

so much disparity between the projects we do and the many opportunities to make a

difference in our world, it’s hard to think about the many other factors that

unite us internationally. That’s where Major Emphasis comes in. Major Emphasis takes our organization’s

focus of service one step further to a more specific concentration with the

theme, “Children: Their Future, Our Fo-cus”. With this theme, we are all united with the realization that the future of our world depends on the youth and that their well-being should be a priority. All service proj-ects reflective of this ideal fall under Major Emphasis, which is different than in the past when it was called the Major Empha-sis Program and was a changing service initiative rather than just an emphasis. Currently, the fundraising element of the Major Emphasis takes place with Key Club’s three partner organizations: March of Dimes, Children’s Miracle Network, and UNICEF. The current service initiative element of the Major Emphasis is The Eliminate Project.

This year, keep Major Emphasis in mind as we work together

to make a difference in the lives of children.

MAJOR EMPHASISBy Juliana Rodriguez

CREATIVE FUN-DRASING IDEAS

FOR EVERYONEBy Jamie Falvo

FIVE

I’m Calvin Leung and words cannot describe how blessed I am to serve as your Inter-national Trustee! A proud Key Clubber for the past three years, my job is to be your liaison between the Rocky Mountains and Key Club International. As trustee, I will be developing new resources, advocating International events, and bridging the gap between our membership. However, I aim to reach higher. I want to become your friend– a person you can talk to about your division, school, or even just about your day! For many people, Key Club is life-changing. But for me, Key Club is life-defining. In our lives, we have all met people who have been amazing at every single thing that they do. But like many of you, I’m just a human being. I make mistakes, I have my regrets, and I often feel insig-nificant. In fact, the day I was supposed to be inducted Lieutenant Governor at District Convention two years ago, I was told backstage during our closing session rehearsal that there was one club that didn’t trust me. They sought a re-election. Beating previously two vice-presidents as a member, I went through a mental roller coaster for the next two hours. From feeling guilty to almost retiring, I had never felt so alone amongst 1,600 fanatic Key Clubbers.

However, what transpired next still today circulates inside my head and heart. Hours before the clos-ing session, my entire division came together and re-elected me. The opponents I ran against as well forfeited so I could run “unopposed.” Their trust- their selflessness- I am unashamed to say, roused many tears and sleep-less nights. Because what I learned that day was that trust is the strongest motivator any person can have. Because several of my peers sacrificed because they had confidence in me, I realize now who we have in this organization. We have leaders, not teenagers. Philanthropists, not volunteers. And as I mentioned before, life-definers, not life changers.

Remember that we all have the ability to mold the very characteristics of our peers. We can, one person at a time, better the world through our little, but influential acts of kindness. So the next time you walk the door, I challenge you to find something worthwhile to say to someone else. After all; we’re Key Clubbers. Now go unlock some hearts!

Dear Rocky,

My club is very interested in EliMiNaTe but we can never seem to come

up with a good enough fundraising idea. I’d like to do something bigger,

but obstacles keep coming up. What should we do?

Anonymous Key Clubber

INTER-NATIONAL

TRUSTEE INSPIRES LETTER TO ROCKY

What’s up Anonymous!

I hear your problem, and from my experience I’d take the

situation into my own paws! Try to set up a fundraiser on

your own- I would tell your advisor, club officers, and

school administration, but you will b

e in charge of this

project. This could be a good opportunity to step up to

the plate to show you would be ready for a higher of-

fice. I know that my good friend, Bai Yun the Panda

of Panda Express loves to support fundraisers all

the time!

Utilize your community- Ask your School Stu-

dent Government/Council/Body to help sup-

port your fundraiser, and promote aware-

ness for Eliminate.

One of the most important aspects you

must understand before you start is

TETANUS DOES NOT WAIT. It

won’t wait for you to catch up, and

start a fundraiser in 6 months.

Start now!

Love Rocky XOXO

Calvin Leung

SIX

LOVIN’LOVELANDKEYCLUBBy Emily Sharp

Some Key Clubs are good. Some Key Clubs are great. But some clubs go above and be-yond to be the absolute best organizations that they can be. One of these clubs that serves their

home, school, and community in exemplary ways is that of Loveland High School. Loveland’s success begins undoubtedly with their club officers. Five shining seniors, Cristin, Erin,

Allison, Lauren, and Greta, give their all to make their meetings and projects fun and efficient. In fact, these girls organized a project in October for their club, creating and decorating cards for children with

illnesses supported by the Children’s Miracle Network. It was a huge success that spread awareness for CMN and brought the club together!

The next essential part of this club is their keytastic faculty advisor, Ms. Loretta Martens. Loretta has been an advisor for seven years, and she has abso-

lutely been the driving force that has made this club so prosperous. This woman has a heart of gold, a beautiful smile, and knows how to get members pumped up and excited

about events!

Finally, and by far most importantly, are the Loveland Key Club members. These re-markable people give up their Saturdays, evenings, mornings, and lunches to serve their

school and community. This semester, they have done things like hosting a kick-off party, helping to paint and fix up houses in their city, holding a traditional

Thanksgiving feast for foreign exchange students, and selling coffee during finals week to save babies from MNT through Project Eliminate! Their ideas and hard

work have paid off to benefit their community, to make Division 16 shine, and to build Key Club International up to be the caring, compassionate organiza-

tion that it is today.

These are the people who have made and will make a huge difference in our world. Whether they accomplish that by making someone’s day with a card or saving a mother a world away from a terrible disease, everything that Loveland does is to be admired. Be sure to check out their projects and others from all around our district at the service fair at DCON 2013!

SEVEN

The Key Club at Palmer Ridge High School in Monument, Colorado is flourishing and serving their community in many ways; this is especially exciting because PRHS is a very new high school- it opened in 2008! Students from all four grades, and all different backgrounds (from cheerleaders to runners to science Olympiads and band members) make up this remarkable Key Club that cur-rently has 120 members—and it’s still growing!

They built a trail outside their school. They tutor students in the library twice a week. They serve food at the Monument Hill Kiwanis annual Empty Bowl dinner. These Key Clubbers served at a local event called Wine and Roses. They package food for the needy. They even clean up their district’s football stadium after every home game so the custodians can go home! What don’t they do!?

On November 7th, 2012, students from PRHS attended a Candle Light Vigil for NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness.) Not only were they informed on the challenges that these people face, but they got to interact with very unique people, serve food and coffee, and hold candles in memory of those that have died from mental health problems. These Key Clubbers were honored to be there, and proud to represent Key

Club International.

With their large membership and active role in the Tri-Lakes area, PR Key Clubbers encour-age you to reach out to all corners of your local area, volunteer at events where you can earn

money or tips and donate it to EliMiNaTe, and gain more members by following the core values of Caring, Leadership, Character Building, and most importantly IN-

CLUSIVENESS! Stay classy, Key Clubbers!

By Julia Zellers

EIGHT

Organize it

Passion is KEY

Hands-On

Footprint

You’re halfway through the Key Club year! By now you have experienced successful projects and projects that could’ve been improved. A few things to keep in mind when planning your service are highlighted below. If you follow these guidelines, you will surely walk away with a special feeling of Key Club warmth.

The first step in a successful project is of course, the planning. You need to use your

mind to select a good time frame and iron out the details before you begin.

Selecting a project that your club is pas-sionate about will make all the difference!

Make sure the members participating know about the organization. When

there is passion, success will follow.

While fundraising for an organization is won-derful, there’s something special about get-

ting hands-on! Make sure your club has a balance between fundraising and hands-

on projects to keep things interesting.

Most importantly, you need to make sure that whatever you invest your time in, it

will be worth it. Leave a Key club foot-print wherever you go.

NINE

CONGRATULATIONSLOGAN SMITHWINNER of the drawing for a FREE TRIP to DCON ‘13

The 61st Annual Rocky Mountain District Key Club District Convention will be like nothing you’ve been to before. The theme is DCONfidential so your club’s mission should you choose to accept it is:

Join the Rocky Mountain District of Key Club in their largest event of the year. Infiltrate the Sheraton Denver West Hotel in Lakewood, CO and investigate what it takes to be a great Key Clubber.

Attend interesting forums that will set your club up for success and provide crucial leadership resources for the rest of the year. Get project ideas at the service fair, dance the night away while raising money for the ELIMINATE project, and participate in contests like the talent show or the oratory contest! There are many awards your club can win such as the Single Service Award or the Poster Contest. To find out about all the awards available, look for more information at www.rmdkeyclub.org/convention2. Be awed by our charismatic keynote speaker and talented guest performer. You also will have the chance to elect your new district executive board and receive updates on our district project (ELIMINATE), governor’s project (Se-genat Foundation), and the progress of the Rocky Mountain District. Finally, make lasting friendships and experience a weekend that you will never forget!

Stay tuned for further briefing and feel free to contact your convention chair or lieutenant governor with further inquiries. Your presence is greatly requested. Start saving now!

D FIDENTIAL 2013

TEN

INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

JUNE 30 - JULY 1APPROX PRICE : $1,200

(INCLUDES AIRFARE, HOTEL, GROUND TRANSPORTATION, CON-VENTION COSTS, SIGHTSEEING, AND

SOME MEALS)

DO THE 1/3 PLAN!Key Club, Kiwanis Club, and student each pay 1/3 of costs

MARK YOUR CALENDAR AND START SAVING NOW!

For questions,contact Barb Fullerbarbaranfuller@aol.com

Those attending DCON will have the opportunity to enter a drawing for a free trip to ICON 2013!

By Noha Kikhia

April 5-7!

Contact informationfor the District Boardrmdkeyclub.org/contact

WE ARE KEY CLUB

SCA

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