2011 Cordova High Key Club
Community Volunteer Awards
2011 Honoree
Distinguished Community Service Organization
Cordova High Key Club
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. Do you know who said that? A teenager. Her name was Anne Frank.
We recalled Anne Frank's famous words as we thought about the winner of the Distinguished Community Service Organization award -- because they are also youth adults anxious to improve the world.
There is a lot of talk about where teenagers today are headed. Sometimes it looks a little gloomy, but then along comes a group of teens like the Key Club at Cordova High and you can't help but feel good about the future.
Cordova High Key Club
is an international student-led organization which presents its members with opportunities to provide service, build character and develop leadership. It is the high school branch of the mighty Kiwanis Club International.
Rancho Cordova Kiwanis Club is well-known for outstanding service in producing the Rancho Cordova Fourth of July parade among many other community projects. Their student wing over at Cordova High is giving them a run for their money.
Key Club's vision of developing competent, capable and caring leaders through the vehicle of service is alive and well in Rancho Cordova as they serve their school, community and world.
In addition to maintaining good grades and excelling in school activities, Key Clubbers have been the youthful muscle at the heart of many community activities this school year:
- They were the set-up and clean-up team for iFest, and in between, painted the smiling faces of hundreds of local kids.
- They were the enthusiastic helpers directing runners at the popular Veggie Chase.
- At the Folsom Cordova Partnership's Cake Camp, a summer camp for kids, Key Clubbers led campers through an assortment of crafts and activities for the entire summer.
- They helped block off roads and make signs at the Fourth of July Parade.
- They helped run Eppie's Great Race, then stayed around to help with the clean-up.
- That was them at Lancer Camp, where they volunteered to help incoming freshmen learn their way around Cordova High.
- They set up tents and chairs at Celebration of Faith, flipped pancakes for volunteers at the Air Show, mentored middle schoolers at Mills and helped out at harvest festivals at Navigator and Mather Heights elementary schools.
- It was Key Club to the rescue again assembling Thanksgiving baskets for the needy, collecting money for UNICEF to feed hungry children in Uruguay, and helping at the Community Christmas Tree Lighting.
- They set aside time to sing Christmas Carols to seniors at the Casa Coloma Convalescent Home, and more.
- Then, they teamed up with their counterparts at Cordova High's Interact Club, the teen version of Rotary, to show adults that two service clubs can work together for fund-raising and just plain fun.
It would be easy to minimize these activities as just a bunch of teenagers padding their resumes for college. And while it doesn't hurt that cause, it would miss this important point:
Our young people are ready, able and willing to help build their community, because it is their community, too. The best advice is to open the door for them and then get out of the way. They are up to the job.
Cordova High Key Club, thank you for reminding us that while we are never too old to volunteer, we are also never too young to start. Your youthful energy and fidelity to service inspires confidence in the future of our city, our country and our world.
The Key Club motto is "Caring - Our Way of Life."
Thank you for walking the talk, proving each and every day that youth can be trusted to carry us into a remarkable tomorrow.
Advisor Alan Withers and Club President Kailey Chen, please share this message with the rest of your amazing crew: Well done!
Website Engineer:
