Give back, make people smile, and have a little fun while doing it.

According to Webmaster Adam Paymer, Hershey High School’s Key Club wants to do just that. HHS Key Club works with the community and other Key Club’s around the country to take part in service projects to help out all around the United States.

For the second year in a row, HHS Key Club held sessions during Community Day to educate their peers about the club. Their goal is to allow students to become more familiar with the club and what it does, and to maybe gain some new members.

The club meets every other Thursday for about twenty minutes before or after school. According to Paymer, at the meetings the leaders of Key Club, seniors Erica Wang (President) and Michael Miller (Vice President), share with other members the service projects that are coming up in the future, and they give everyone the chance to sign up for them. Some of the annual projects Key Club has are bell ringing, letters to veterans, and tree planting.

During the first session of Community Day, there were 10 students who attended, including HHS junior Laney Herndon. The session began with junior Lydia Gould, sharing the overall premise of Key Club. Gould shared some of the monthly opportunities the club has emphasized. This month’s service projects include fundraising for Trick or Treat for UNICEF, prenatal tetanus, and also fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

A Kahoot was also included in the presentation for the students. It included some fun facts about Key Club fundraising success last year, as well as some other random facts, such as the most popular type of community service and some of the different organizations Key Club is apart of.

Paymer and Gould spent a majority of the time educating the attendees about the Walk for Clean Water that is held every spring at HHS. Paymer reported that last year Key Club had 350 walkers for this four mile walk and raised $17,579. The money was put towards a well to a developing village of their choice. The well cost $12,000, and the remaining money was combined with another school’s fundraised money to donate a second well to towns in the underdeveloped country of Swaziland.  

“It was a really great time to get our whole community together,” said Gould.

According to Gould, for this year’s walk the club has a goal to have 600 participants and to raise $24,000, which is enough money for HHS to donate two wells. The current date for the walk this coming year is April 9th, and Gould encourages everyone to attend and promote the walk to family and friends.

Paymer and Gould then presented the service project “Operation Gratitude” to the students in the session. The project has students from all around the country writing letters to veterans and retired service officers thanking them for their service.

“It’s a nice, fun, easy way to get service hours,” said Paymer

By the end of the meeting, Key Club gained two new members.

“It was really cool to get to learn about the club! I’m definitely going to get involved this year,” said Herndon.