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Key Club International is the oldest and largest service program for high school students. It is a student-led organization whose goal is to teach leadership through serving others. Key Club International is a part of the Kiwanis International group. Each local Key Club is, in turn, sponsored by a local Kiwanis club.
The organization was started by California State Commissioner of Schools Albert C. Olney, and vocational education teacher Frank C. Vincent, who together worked to establish the first Key Club at Sacramento High School in California, on May 7, 1925. Female students were first admitted in 1976, eleven years before women were admitted to the sponsoring organization, Kiwanis International.
Key Club tries to offer a range of services to its members: leadership development, study-abroad opportunities, vocational guidance, college scholarships, a subscription to the KEYNOTER magazine, service-learning, personal enrichment, value-added member benefit programs, and liability insurance coverage.
In 2002, Key Club officially adopted caring, character building, inclusiveness, and leadership as the core values of the organization.
The Service Initiative is a program encouraging hands on service to children aimed towards a common goal. It is changed every two years by the International Board of Trustees.
The 2004-2006 Service Initiative was Child Safety: Water, Bike and Car Safety where Key Clubbers participated in different educational events to try to spread safe habits to prevent accidental deaths.
The 2006-2008 Service Initiative was "High Five for Health." It is aimed at reducing childhood obesity and fighting a rising trend that appears to increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
The 2008-2010 Service Initiative is "Live 2 Learn." It is focused on 5-9 year old youth, with the main goals of promoting education and building literary skills.
Key Club encourages volunteering and fund raising for March of Dimes, UNICEF, and the Children's Miracle Network year-round. These 3 organizations are known as Service Partners(formerly Seasons of Service)
The first full week in November, members promote their clubs with a "Key Club Week." Each day is themed for a different type of service - to children, to the school, to the community, to Key Club (spirit), and a final "Key Club Week Project." The 2008 Key Club Week Project seeks to raise money for Grassroot Soccer, an organization that uses the power of soccer to educate the youth of Africa about the HIV/Aids Epidemic.
The Key Club District organization is patterned after the original Florida District and its parent Kiwanis districts. These organizations hold their own annual conventions for fellowship, to coordinate the efforts of individual clubs, to exchange ideas on Key Clubbing, and to recognize outstanding service of clubs or individuals with appropriate awards.
Today, Key Club exists on almost 5,000 high school campuses, primarily in the United States and Canada. It has grown internationally to the Caribbean nations, Central and South America, and most recently to Asia and Australia.
Key Club International is an organization of individual Key Clubs and is funded by nominal dues paid by every member. Its officers are high school leaders elected by the members at district and international conventions.
Blue, Gold and White
Each color symbolized an aspect of the Key Club International objectives:
"Key Club is an international student-led organization which provides its members with opportunities to provide service, build character, and develop leadership."
"To develop competent, capable, and caring leaders through the vehicle of service."
The core values of Key Club International are "Leadership, Character Building, Caring, and Inclusiveness."
The motto of Key Club is "Caring—Our Way of Life," changed from the original "We Build" in 1978 to better convey members' reasons for helping others.
The Objectives of Key Club are listed below. The sixfold sixth objective of Key Club incorporates the Six Permanent Objects of Kiwanis International as adopted in 1924:
The organization maintains strong partnerships with UNICEF, AYUSA Global Youth Exchange, the March of Dimes, and Children's Miracle Network Telethon. Through the partnership with UNICEF, a major initiative was launched in the summer of 2005 to address HIV/AIDS education and prevention in Kenya.
I pledge, on my honor,
to uphold the Objects of Key Club International;
to build my home, school and community;
to serve my nation and God;
and combat all forces which tend to undermine these institutions.
Key Club International encompasses all clubs within the organization's 33 organized districts and in foreign countries that are not included in any specific district. Key Club International is led by the International Board, which is typically composed of the International President, International Vice-President, and 11 International Trustees (Trustees being assigned to three districts and also assigned to serve on various committees within the board). Furthermore, the International Council is composed of the International Board as well as the District Governor from each of the 33 organized Districts.
A district is normally defined by state or nation and tends to match a similar Kiwanis district. Each district is chaired by a governor, elected by delegates to an annual convention. The district is divided into divisions which tend to, but do not neccesarily match Kiwanis divisions.
The governor appoints a convention committee of elected lieutenant governors or qualified individuals to be responsible for the planning of an annual District Convention. This includes arranging a convention center, meals, hotel accommodations, programs, and special guests.
The district convention ("DCON") is held each year. Key Club members, advisers, Kiwanis members, and guests attend. A convention center has been required to host all members for general sessions. Activities have included: forums (or workshops), which are facilitated by lieutenant governors, club officers, and sponsoring adults; an awards ceremony, the Governor's Ball, and a keynote speaker. Caucuses have been held to elect the new District Executive Officers for the upcoming service year.
The New York District has changed the name from District Convention (DCON) to the District Leadership Training Conference (DLTC.)
A lieutenant governor is elected to represent each of the divisions in a district. The Lieutenant Governor serves as a liaison between the clubs in their division and the district Key Club board. They must also visit each of their clubs, publish a monthly divisional newsletter, hold a monthly Division Council Meeting, and keep in contact with their clubs, district executive board, and Kiwanians.
In California during the twenties, adults were concerned with the pernicious side of high school fraternities and sought some means of replacing them with more wholesome activity for youth.
Two men in the Sacramento Kiwanis club, who were high school administrators, approached their club with the idea of a junior service club in the high school, to be patterned after Kiwanis to hold luncheon meetings. Through this group in the high school, the Kiwanis club hoped to provide vocational guidance, first to boys who had decided upon their future occupation, and then to the entire school. The plan was presented to the Board of Education, and following its approval, the first Key Club meeting was held early in May 1925.
The club held weekly luncheons in the school, where Kiwanians came to speak to the group on various vocations. Key Club members attended Kiwanis meetings as guests of the club to enhance further the value of Key Club membership by bringing high school students into constant contact with the business and professional men of the community. As the experience of the Key Club grew, a noticeable trend toward expanding the original purpose and activity was found possible, and the club was soon a complete service organization for the whole school. It also offered a social program to balance its service activities.
Through contact with the Sacramento Key Club and Kiwanis Club, other Kiwanis groups soon became interested in the activity and sponsored similar organizations in their own communities. Such information was sent out and principals in various parts of the country were responsible for organizing similar groups in their own schools with the help of their local Kiwanis clubs. Practically all Key Club expansion which took place during the next fifteen years was accomplished in this way. By that time fifty clubs were functioning in California, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
In 1939 the first plan for combining individual local Key Clubs into federated groups was developed in Florida. With Kiwanis counsel, a convention of existing clubs was held, a state association formed, and officers elected. The purpose of the State Association was to promote an exchange of ideas concerning the Key Club activity and to expand the number of Key Clubs. Conventions were held each succeeding year, and when the International Constitution and Bylaws were adopted in 1946, the Florida Association became the first Key Club district.
Florida was instrumental also in promoting the formation of an International Association of Key Clubs to perform for the entire country what the Florida Association had done for Key Clubs in that state. In 1943, at the invitation of the Florida boys, Key Clubbers from clubs in Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee were in attendance at the annual convention of the State Association held in Sanford, Florida. The representatives voted to form an International Association of Key Clubs and elected Malcolm Lewis of West Palm Beach, Florida, as first President.
Three formative years followed, during which the outlines of the present Key Club International organization were drawn. Lewis served one year and was followed in office by Eddie Richardson of Ft. Lauderdale, and Roger Keller of New Orleans. Keller presided over the third annual convention in New Orleans on April 27, 1946, at which time delegates from all parts of the country approved the Constitution and Bylaws, officially launching Key Club International.
The Key Club was early recognized as a local Kiwanis project, and no attempt was made to control its overall organization. In 1942 the Kiwanis International Board of Trustees recommended Key Club to all Kiwanis clubs. In 1944 a special Kiwanis International Committee on Sponsored Youth Organizations was formed to look after Key Club work. Finally, in 1946, a separate Key Club Department was created in the International Office of Kiwanis International to serve as a clearing house for Key Club information, to keep the records and handle correspondence of the organization, to provide effective liaison between Key Clubs and Kiwanis, and to conduct the annual International conventions. Now the Key Club Department also handles a monthly publication--KEYNOTER--which was first issued in May 1946. The Kiwanis International Committee on Key Clubs was formed on January 1, 1949.
Kiwanis International is a global organization of volunteers headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises approximately 8,000 clubs in 96 countries with over 260,000 adult members. Kiwanis emphasizes service to children and youth, both through initiatives intended to improve the quality of life of children around the world, and through their Service Leadership Programs, made up of about 7,000 youth clubs with about 320,000 youth members. Kiwanis members have helped shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, mentor the disadvantaged, and care for the sick. They have developed youth as leaders, built playgrounds, and raised funds for pediatric research.
Kiwanis clubs and members are guided by six "Objects."
The organization was founded on January 21, 1915, in Detroit, Michigan, by Joseph G. Prance (a tailor) and Allen S. Browne (a professional fraternity organizer). In August 1914, Browne suggested to Prance the idea of a business and professional men's club with social and commercial benefits. Prance was sold on the idea, and in 1915 the Kiwanis Club of Detroit, Michigan, was founded.Kiwanis became international with the organization of the Kiwanis club of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 1916. Kiwanis limited its membership to the United States and Canada until 1962, when worldwide expansion was approved. Since then, Kiwanis has spread to all inhabited continents of the globe.
Its original purpose was to exchange business between members and to serve the poor. The debate as to whether or not to remain a networking organization or a service organization was resolved in 1919 when Kiwanis adopted a service-focused mission. The organization was for men only until 1987 and since then female membership has grown to be 22% of total members. Each year, clubs sponsor nearly 150,000 service projects and raise more than $107 million. In coordination with UNICEF, members and clubs have contributed more than $80 million toward the global elimination of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD), the leading preventable cause of mental retardation.
In 2007, the charitable financial arm, Kiwanis International Foundation, was awarded the top rating by an independent evaluator.
The name “Kiwanis” means “we trade” or “we share our talents” and was coined from an American Indian expression, Nunc Kee-wanis.
Kiwanis founded and supports Key Club International. Started in Sacramento, California, in 1925, it is the oldest and largest service program for high school students in the world. Membership in Key Club was 245,000 in 2005.
The collegiate version of Kiwanis, which maintains some autonomy from Kiwanis, is Circle K International. The first official Circle K club was chartered in September, 1947 at the campus of Carthage College (then in Illinois). Current membership is over 13,500 members, making Circle K the largest collegiate service organization of its kind in the world.
