The morning began with an introduction from a member of every section of the Kiwanis Family: from K-Kids all the way to Kiwanis. The cute little 5th grade President of his K-Kid Club, and the 8th grade President of her school's Builders Club, touched my heart in ways I did not expect. These kids had such a passion for service that I did not possess at their age. I am thankful to know that there will be citizens like these kids to lead Key Club into a greater and brighter future, after most of us have graduated.
My fellow Key Clubbers and I attended 3 workshops yesterday. The first was about Kiwanis' ELIMINATE Project, and it was as informative as it was inspiring. Kiwanis International is taking on a new international challenge: to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus from the face of the earth. Tetanus is a completely curable disease that affects mothers in lesser-developed nations. Toxic spores from the Earth infect the mother at birth, and it causes a slow and painful death of her child. This can all be prevented by 3 vaccinations of the mother during her reproductive years, which costs 60 cents per vaccination. Kiwanis is seeking to raise 110 million dollars to save the lives of over 129 million people by 2015. Seeing Kiwanis International taking on such a massive endeavour was very inspiring, and makes me want to help with this project in anyway I can. I will be sure to use my Lt. Governor position to promote ELIMINATE in any way possible.
I attended a workshop about Club Excellence, where I learned about to grow my Key Club and make it more effective in service. Excellently presented by two Lt. Governors, it really provided me with several tips to make my club better.
Later in the evening, we attended a banquet with a delicious meal and amazing entertainment (Tony Choi FTW), that further showed me how diverse Key Clubbers are. Though all of us love community service and love Key Club, we are also a multi-faceted, diverse group of people, united by our desire to change the world through service.
The entire evening was just perfect. As all the clubs were presented with awards for excellence in service, I couldn't help but think to my very first Key Club meeting, which six people attended. All these clubs had once been brand new, and they were now doing great things for their communities and even the world. Showing that size didn't matter, the Key Club of year only had fourteen members. That might have been the most profound revelation, at least for me, of the entire weekend. I have poured so much energy and time into increasing membership, which is important, that I have lost sight of the actual point of Key Club: service. It's not quantity that matters, but quality. If clubs spend too much time focusing on membership, then the most important aspect of Key Club, our entire reason for existence, service, is lost.
The second day of Key Club Convention was the perfect continuation of an already amazing weekend. I met amazing new people, pissed people off by pushing all the buttons on the elevator, and felt closer to my Key Club family than ever before. Great day.
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