***This article is written by Chase Palm, a participant in The Kewanee Voice Student Journalism Program, funded by the Harry Anderson Memorial Trust.
Kewanee High School offers a variety of clubs, athletics and organizations to help students find where they fit in. Sports showcase talents, and departments like theater and music, allow students to show off special skills. But there’s one club at KHS that makes sure that every student fits in.
KHS Key Club strives to make everyone feel welcome and involved no matter where they come from. The club promotes itself as a character builder that allows students to create lifelong friendships and learn valuable skills that they can carry with them throughout their life.
“At the beginning of the year we try to promote that everyone is welcome in our club; we have a job; we have a place for each student in the school. If you feel like you’re not involved or you’re like not willing to join a sport or music isn’t your thing, Key Club can be for absolutely everyone,” said Key Club Advisor Amy Miler.
Miler has been the KHS Key Club advisor for three years, and was involved in Key Club during all four years of high school. She can recall the countless memories she made while participating. Now she gets to view the club from a different perspective.
“I most enjoy getting to know the students on a different level than when I’m their teacher, and I see them become the best versions of themselves when they are serving others,” Miler said.
Key Club is all about building friendships and learning about serving others and KHS Key Club does plenty of that. The club participates in many different activities throughout the school year. From working Relay for Life in early August to throwing a Halloween and Prom for the Life Skills students, Key Club is definitely about giving back to the community.
Miler added that KHS Key Club was one of three organizations that received a $1,000 grant to put the annual Life Skills Prom on in the spring.
Another special event in which the Key Club plays a big role is the preparation and delivery of Goodfellows Christmas baskets throughout Kewanee. The idea of Key Club’s involvement with Goodfellows baskets actually originated from the Key Club advisor back in the 1960s and club participation has grown throughout the years.
Key Club even has a canned food drive challenge at the high school to collect canned food that goes into the Goodfellows baskets. This year, Key Club made a Mean Girls-themed video promoting the canned food drive. As of last week, the video had over 4,000 views on Facebook.
“I was ecstatic to see that, mostly because this video was a pure creation of my students’ work, and I just love that it caught the attention of so many people in the community,” Miler said.
Key Club is part of the Kiwanis Organization, which works to serve children in the community.
“Our official mission is improving our communities, one child at a time, and so our motto is ‘Serving the Children of the World,’” said Key Club Kiwanis advisor Pamela Johnson, who has been in that role for four years.
“I believe in the value of the service leadership programs and the value not only to the school and the students, but our community as a whole. And when that position came open at Kewanee High School that was a perfect opportunity for me to be of service to the students and Kewanee High School Key Club,” Johnson said.
Johnson believes in the benefits that working with an organization like Key Club can have on a student.
“What I appreciate seeing the most is, what it offers the students and how they grow in their leadership and character building skills, especially leadership skills,” Johnson said.
By developing those leadership skills, Johnson said that students learn to work with others in a group, identify needs and develop a plan and follow through.
“And just by becoming aware of what’s around us in our community,” Johnson said.
Johnson told the story of how Kiwanis got its start back in 1915. She shared the journey that the organization went on; from being a place where business people could get together, to starting to serve the communities in which the organization was located, to finally allowing women to join in 1987.
Johnson also shared the history of Key Club and Kiwanis’ partnership for Goodfellows baskets in Kewanee. Goodfellows Christmas baskets are a proud tradition here, and it’s all thanks to Key Club and Kiwanis.
“It brings students and adult members together, as well as volunteers from OSF Saint Luke and other volunteers in the community, and I think it means that people don’t go hungry at Christmastime and that’s really important,” Johnson said.
Johnson encouraged members of the community interested in working with Kiwanis and Key Club to contact a Kiwanis member about being invited to the group’s next meeting.