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District Leadership Conference

New Club Chartered!

A new Key Club has been sponsored and chartered at Calvary Lutheran High School by the Jefferson City Kiwanis Club.  Students are very excited about being Key Clubbers and are making plans to attend the Key Club District Convention  March 19—21.

 Their Kiwanis Advisor is Derina Shelton, who is a former Key Clubber from Centralia, MO and served as Lt Governor in her division when she was in high school.
 

Duchesne Key Club Gets Sold to Help Environment

Every year the Duchesne Key Club is auctioned off to do work for the highest bidder.   This past year, the club was purchased by Dave West.   

Mr. West owns a large part of the woods behind his house.    He learned of an invasive plant called the Asian Honeysuckle, or the Japanese Honeysuckle that was growing in the woods behind his business in Creve Coeur.  He identified that this same bush was infesting his woods as well.

West had attempted to eradicate the bush by himself, but it quickly grew back.  He said, “I finally had a good plan when the Key Club arrived”.

 The Key Club members worked for over four hours in order to rid the woods of this suffocating plant.  Mr. West described, “They split into teams, with some being cutters, some being haulers, some handling the concentrated Roundup (they used a paintbrush to put the Roundup on the cut trunks of the cut bushes), and some handling the fire duty (to burn the cut bushes). 

Honeysuckle can grow so densely it shades out everything on the forest floor...this means a great reduction in food and cover available for birds and other animals.  Thanks to the efforts of the Duchesne Key Club, the woods have been clear of honeysuckle for over four months and new plant life is beginning to form.
 

Hannibal Key Club Cleans Up Highway

Years ago, the Hannibal High School Key Club and Hannibal High School Humane Society co-adopted a stretch of Highway 61. Since then, both clubs have taken responsibility for keeping our highway clean. Hannibal Key Clubbers get together around 3 times a year for this clean-up, splitting up to tackle the littering problem. They strap on their florescent orange vests, grab a few trash bags, and in no time have the stretch cleaned up. The project is extremely effective in making our community look nicer. Although the job is not glamorous it is still one of the largest projects of the Hannibal Key Club.

Fall Rally Helps to
Feed the Homeless

The Division 17 Fall Rally, lead by Lt. Governor Robby Chaney, was a great success with over 123 Key Clubbers, advisors, and guest speakers in attendance.  Past Mo-Ark Key Club Governor Gary Smith (1970) spoke of his years as a Key Clubbber and how those years have influenced his life in a positive way.  Mr. Smith has served on numerous boards, been a guest at the Clinton White House and served as the contractor who placed the glass in the windows of the Clinton Presidential Library.

Sandra Wilson of the Homeless coalition spoke about the need for assistance for the homeless.  Ms. Wilson has worked with the homeless for over 15 years.  She stated that because of the economic times, she is seeing more homeless children from babies to teens.  She praised the Key Clubs that have become involved with the homeless issues and asked for more help from Key Club.  She requested that all Division 17 Key Clubs hold a sock drive for the homeless or just make peanut butter sandwiches at their club meetings to give to the homeless.

At the end of the rally, Key Clubbers gathered together to accomplish several service projects.  Key Clubbers from Hall, CAC, West, East, Jacksonville and Cabot came together and made peanut butter sandwiches for the homeless, bundled books for homeless children and each club was given a box of books to distribute for the "Read & Lead" program.  Books were provided by the NLR East Campus Key Club.

NLR EAST & West does
Halloween on the Hill

Key Clubbers from NLR East & West Campuses worked together with their Kiwanis sponsor to make Halloween just a little safer by sponsoring a booth for their community Halloween festival. 

The East & West Key Clubbers passed out over 1200 pieces of candy and played bean bag toss with hundreds of children. The event was a perfect opportunity for the Key Clubbers to work with their Kiwanis sponsor, be visible in the community and provide a much needed service for the community--besides have a lot of fun with some little ghouls and goblins!!

Cabot Plants seeds of Service

Way to go Cabot Key Club! Cabot planted 4,600 flowers in 3 hours outside Arkansas Children s Hospital as a fall service project.

CHS Key Club had a lot of help from the ACH staff and did a great job on completing the task. After they completed this project they received lots of thanks from the grounds keepers, nurses, and visitors.

They planted flowers all around the entrance of ACH and in the pots near the entrance. They also got plenty of flowers around the parking area and some around other facilities of ACH.

Governor Patrick sets goal for District Project

The Mo-Ark District of Key Club International will once again be endorsing Make-A-Wish as its District Project for the 2009-2010 year. After last year s successful campaign for Make-A-Wish, we have decided to continue our work with this worthy cause. The money raised will help many children fulfill a wish.

Each club is encouraged to raise at least $150 for the District Project so we may reach our goal of $20,000. I hope will have 100% of clubs participate and I know we will have clubs that will go above and beyond the call of duty and raise more that the club goal of $150. Let's truly blow our goal out of the water this year!
 

Int'l Trustee Lance Wilson
Elected Int'l Vice President

Past Missouri-Arkansas District Governor and International Trustee Lance Wilson has been elected by his fellow KCI board members as the new Key Club International Vice President.

Lance's Trustee position is being filled by Shari-Ann Baker, Past Governor of the Jamaica District! She will be serving the Jamaica, Caribbean-Atlantic and Florida Districts as Trustee.

Governor Patrick Announces Governor's District Project