Visit to Kiwanis meeting results in new service club at Brewster High School

Lena Negrete is the ASB (Associated Student Body) president at Brewster High School, and part of the ASB president's job is public relations. Back around the time school started Lena attended a weekly meeting of the Brewster chapter of Kiwanis.

"I was there just talking about the dress code," she said. But while she was there the Kiwanis members told her about Key Club.

Key Club is the Kiwanis organization for high school and college students; it's a "club that tries to improve the community and the school," Lena said. So high school principal Linda Dezellem ordered the starter kit for Key Club, and the ASB officers and other kids read through it, and decided to start a Key Club. Lena is its first president; there are 15 members, but it's open to anybody at the high school, freshmen through seniors, and more kids are welcome to join any time, Lena said.

The Key Club members collected snacks and DVDs, magazines and books, phone cards and toiletries and all kinds of easily transportable and good stuff for people in the U.S. armed services on duty overseas. That was their first project last fall. They also plan to shovel snow for shut-ins, "if it snows, ever," Lena said, and in the spring they plan to have a cleanup day around school and in the city parks.

Key Club is different from some of the other organizations at school that have entry requirements, Lena said; with Key Club "anyone can join. You just have to have the desire to help people." The kids in the grade school are watching what happens at the high school, Lena said, and watching what the high school students are doing. Key Club is a way to send a positive message, to the grade school and the entire community. "Good role models," Lena said.

Brewster High School students who want to join Key Club can contact Negrete at school.