Brainerd High School Key Club members have gone above and beyond this year, gaining themselves higher awards than they have in the past.
A dozen Brainerd Key Club members attended the three-day annual Key Club District Convention this past weekend in Willmar. The club overall earned the Distinguished Club Award, first place in the gold division-a division higher than they earned last year.
"I am so tickled," Wendy Vandeputte, Key Club adviser, said about the awards the students earned. "They did so unbelievably well.
"We have a strong core group of volunteers who pour their hearts and soul into the projects. Last year we had about 40 paid members in Key Club and this year we have 70. We really tried to open it up this year to everyone to be involved. Students can volunteer as much or as little as they want to. We encourage all students to join."
Key Club is one of the oldest and largest program for high school students sponsored by the Kiwanis Club. Key Club assists Kiwanis in carrying out its mission to serve the children of the world. Brainerd Key Club service projects this year included the Eliminate Project, which eliminates maternal and neonatal tetanus-a deadly disease that steals the lives of nearly 49,000 innocent babies and a significant number of women each year; Operation Sandwich, a grassroots program that ends childhood hunger by feeding children during the summer months when free and reduced meals are not available through school; to volunteering at the Crow Wing County Fair, the Miracle Field and Habitat for Humanity in Brainerd; and doing blood drives.
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At the convention, BHS junior Jessie Ernster was elected governor for the MinnDak Region for Key Club, which includes 68 clubs from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Vandeputte said this is the first time a student from Brainerd has held this position. In addition, Sam Dirks, a junior, was elected Lt. Gov. for Division 3B. There are 10 divisions and Division 3B is for central Minnesota.
"This is a big deal," Vandeputte said of Ernster being elected as governor. "I've never seen this before in my career here at the high school. I have never seen someone so driven and determined to make Key Club thrive. She is very confident and I knew she would be elected for this because of her dedication."
Ernster, who has been in Key Club since ninth grade, said she is thrilled to be holding the governor position. Ernster said she loves to volunteer in Key Club because she gets to help people of all ages, locally and globally. She said her favorite project to volunteer with in Key Club are the blood drives.
Ernster said a few things she would like to accomplish as governor are to get more students across the country involved in Key Club; encourage members to attend district events; and to set up more resources for members to edit and document issues invested in the district, such as how to balance the uneven gender ratios and how the organization can market itself more as it competes with many other nonprofit organizations.
In the coming weeks, Ernster, who also is involved in tennis, track and Spanish Club at the high school and will be the Good Samaritan Bowl coordinator in May, said she will be training for her position as governor and learning her duties.
Other awards given during the past weekend convention to BHS students include:
• Sophomore Maria Bell earned the Tom P. Horan Award for outstanding club member.
• Junior Luke Norquist was the Oratorical Winner, who spoke on the importance of increasing membership.
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• Junior Shelby Heyn, Key Club editor/publicist, took first place in the nontraditional scrapbook contest.
Junior Claire Gunsbury, also a Key Club member, performed on her flute for the talent portion of the convention.
The annual convention also is held to train new Key Club officers.
JENNIFER STOCKINGER may be reached at jennifer.stockinger@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5851. Follow me at www.twitter.com/jennewsgirl on Twitter.
