Kiwanis joins Key Club: clockwise at left table, Glenna Richards, Bob Otis, Lyn Richards, Bill Westlake, Bill Hagen, Doug Pearson and Melanie Flint. Clockwise at right table Key Club President Claire O'Neill, Orcas High School Principal and Superintendent Barbara Kline, Key Club Vice President Kathryn Tidwell, Aiden McCormick, Max Blackadar and Zach Wolford.
The Kiwanis International Service Club has long had an active Orcas Island branch. Part of their service is in mentoring the Key Club, their high school service club counterparts.
Orcas Kiwanis outreach has regularly included hosting Key Club members at their weekly Tuesday lunch meetings in the Upper Room at Orcas Homegrown.
This year the Key Club decided at one of their weekly meetings to turn the tables and invite their parent group to a lunch at school. They picked Wednesday, Sept. 28 at the suggestion of Key Club member Huxley Smart, who was preparing an “island-grown” menu to serve that day as part of her Senior Project.
Six Kiwanis members accepted the invitation and enjoyed a lunch of Shepherd’s Pie, homemade bread and applesauce in the Middle School Commons with seven Key Club members. They exchanged stories of military service, top-security clearances and Hawaiian leper colonies, among other conversation.
This year, Kiwanis has offered to support tuition at a weekend Key Leaders workshop for the Key Club officers. And Key Club has agreed to help Kiwanians in purchasing another Kiwanis Park bench, and in making wooden toys and sponsoring a stuffed animal drive for Christmas presents for Island children.
Membership in Key Club is open to all Orcas High School students at $12 annually; service hours are recorded as part of the students’ record of community service. Other Key Club plans this year include helping with the Funhouse-Commons Halloween activities, PTSA childcare, escorting participants in the college “Futures Fair” at Orcas High School and a Toga Dance.
For further information about Key Club, contact mdoyle@orcas.k12.wa.us. Kiwanis Club inquiries can go to bhagenbeach@rockisland.com
