Key Club

Advisor: Cheryl Ladd

Springfield, MA Convention

PCHS Key Club Receives Govornor's Award

The nine Key Club members who attended the 59th annual Key Club Convention were Connie Glynn, Emily Glynn, Mallory Izbicki, Courtney Davis, Megan Soden, Ashley Butler Hillary Herrick, Derek McKenney and yours truly, Matthew Pinkham. When we first left for Key Club Convention with our neighbor schools Dexter, Greenville, Penquis and Dover, we knew little of what to expect. It was our first time to such an event, and certainly our first time doing something like this as a group. Some of us knew each other, but not for the most part, there were one or two people that someone didn’t know too well. Our ride down, which was governed by the cheesy icebreaker and an accident, offered little insightful conversation into what each other thought, expected, and hoped about our approaching convention. We talked to our friends, and almost no association with anyone from the other schools we rode with. Whatever drove our quietness was gone by the end of the trip.
After our late arrival and wait for the rooms, we dressed and prepared for our greeting into this myriad of different students from the New England district. We prepared for the long meetings, the caucuses, and the socialization with all these new people. We soon discovered what exactly this grand meeting was really all about. Its motto was “Service: Our Superpower”, but the Convention meant much more than the simple ways we serve our communities. It was more about how we can come together as a group and commit to our goals as not only fellow Key Club members, but as friends overall.

The meetings we attended, whether it was about Circle K (a college group with the same goals as Key Club) or the workshops for Key Club officers, we all met our counterparts in Key Club and got to see other people who do what we do. But, most importantly, we went to these activities not alone, facing down strangers without support, but with our group. In this convention, we not only met new people, but we also met our own group members. Whether it was getting lost in a back-stairway, or wandering aimlessly in a food court during a fire drill, we learned more about our own group, or just met them for the first time. We were able to associate when we would never be able to during a school day, or even at a Key Club project. People who would never have even known each other’s name left with a new respect for each other. This is the blood of Key Club, “togetherness” achieved through service and the odd circumstance. Pre-conceived notions about others were replaced with a tenure bond formed from a three-day sojourn in Springfield.

The most important part of the trip was not necessarily attending the meetings or going where you were suppose to, it was going there together. This appreciation can only be good, letting us work together much more efficiently than we could ever do before. Service may have been our superpower, but togetherness is our means of delivering it to those we help.

This all culminated in a picture you see before you, a symbol of what we are. Not only people, but a group, a whole. We’ll only continue to grow closer, and deliver our superpower to those who need it the most. The next Convention will prove to be even greater. With what we have now, we can work together and bring home a few rewards, next to having fun. (Despite having to balance on one leg to get a partial shot in the group.)

Writer: M. Pinkham