We have many wonderful volunteers that do many great things for the community, but one of our members — Margaret Lemay — has been a representative working with one of Kiwanis’s supported youth groups for many years: the Kingston High School Key Club.

Key Club International is the oldest (founded 1925) and one of the largest service programs for high school students. As a student-led organization, their goal is to encourage leadership through helping others.

Key Club International is a part of the Kiwanis International family of service-leadership programs. The Greater Kingston Kiwanis supports the Kingston Key Club (although, sometimes I’m not sure who supports who) and we work together on many joint projects. It takes a talented and caring person to gain the trust and spend the time working with these young people, and Margaret is that person.

Key Club International supported Kiwanis International in its quest in eliminating the risk of Maternal/Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) from the face of the earth. The disease affects mothers and newborns in 40 countries worldwide, and while an effective vaccine has been developed, MNT claims nearly 100,000 lives each year.

As part of the Kiwanis International mission to end MNT, Key Club International has pledged all proceeds from its members’ Trick-or-Treat for UNISEF projects to the $110 million funding gap the Kiwanis International Foundation is working to correct.

It takes a talented and caring person to gain the trust and spend the time working with these young people, and Margaret is that person. Key Club International supported Kiwanis International in its quest in eliminating the risk of Maternal/Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) from the face of the earth. The disease plagues mothers and newborns in 40 countries worldwide, and while an effective vaccine has been developed, MNT claims nearly 100,000 lives each year. As part of the Kiwanis International mission to end MNT, Key Club International has pledged all proceeds from its members’ “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” projects to the $110 million funding gap the Kiwanis International Foundation is working to correct.

Key clubs have their own elected boards and govern themselves. They also have a convention each year and other training events, in addition to having lots of fun as typical teenagers. Our Key Club supports Kiwanis on food drives, school supply drives, Kingston Fourth of July parade, the Halloween Carnival, Santa’s workshop, and other fundraisers throughout the year. They have their own charity drives to support the Kiwanis goal of “Children Priority No. 1.”

They are one great group of young people and I would recommend any KHS student interested in meeting others that have a community spirit and like to have fun helping people, to go for it.

The Objectives of Key Club are listed below.

• To develop initiative and leadership.
• To provide experience in living and working together.
• To serve the school and community.
• To cooperate with the school principal.
• To prepare for useful citizenship.

Our Halloween carnival will be at the North Kitsap Medical/Physical Therapy complex, across from Bayside Community Church, again this year. Hope to see you all in costumes with the little ones for games, fun and, of course, goodies.

For more information, call me at 360-297-4462. Or come on down at 7 a.m. to visit with us at the Village Green Community Center.

— Contact Bob Lee at glencarin@aol.com.