By Nicole Falco
Through "small acts," members of South High School's Key Club have touched the lives of senior citizens in Valley Stream, the family of a recently deceased 11-year-old Long Island girl, and children living in a war-torn country in another hemisphere. And that's just this month.
South's Key Club boasts a membership of more than 100 students in grades 7 to 12; it's a community-service club that reaches far beyond its community. The Kiwanis Club of Valley Stream is the club's parent organization.
Patricia Antonelli, a South guidance counselor, is the club's advisor. During a recent visit to the school, Antonelli ran through a list of the club's activities.
The Key Club sponsors an annual coat drive, and last year 400 coats were collected and donated to a Hamptons homeless shelter. The club hosts a Halloween party for the Robert W. Carbonaro School every year; members collect money for UNICEF; they visit patients at Franklin Hospital Medical Center; and on Dec. 17, 25 members brought holiday cheer, pizza and bingo to members of the Green Acres Senior Center. The club also raises money to send underprivileged children to summer camp, and has plans to recycle stuffed animals. Last year the club raised $3,000 to fight pediatric AIDS.
Perhaps the two most significant projects sponsored by the Key Club this year are its efforts to build a school in Sierra Leone, Africa, and to "adopt" a child.
With the help of the entire school, the club has raised more than $1,500 so far and is well on its way to raising the $5,000 needed to build a school through Free the Children, an international network of children helping children, founded in 1995 by Craig Kielburger. According to FreetheChildren.org, Kielburger, then 12, sought to free children from poverty, exploitation and the idea that they are powerless to bring about social change. To date, 350 schools have been built around the world.
Antonelli first learned about Free the Children while watching "The Oprah Winfrey Show." After researching the organization on the Web, she brought the idea to Key Club. The students voted in June to make Free the Children their charity for the 2003-04 school year. Even better, the school decided to make Free the Children its schoolwide charity.
The Key Club has been selling "bricks" for $1 each at various school events. Each time $1 is donated, a paper brick is taped to a wall in the school. Every time the $50 mark is reached, a paper brick gets added to a paper "school house" outside the main office.
"It's pretty unique," said Robyn Shapiro, club secretary. "I feel like not a lot of schools do it. I feel like it's a very good cause."
Besides the Key Club, the Junior High Student Council donated money from its bake sale; the Senior High Student Council sold bricks at the school's Parent Nights; the class of 2007 donated proceeds from its Karaoke Night; the class of 2008 and the Junior High Student Council donated proceeds from a recent Movie Night; Tri-M, a music honor society, sold bricks at concerts this year; and the class of 2004 donated money it raised through the sale of refreshments at the junior-high musical. There are many more opportunities to raise money for the charity on the schedule.
The Key Club also "adopted" a child. Members visited with, wrote letters to and phoned Danielle DeRidder, an 11-year-old Westbury girl suffering from a rare, life-threatening blood disorder. DeRidder, the step-granddaughter of Greg Peddle, South's assistant principal, died about two weeks ago.
"After she passed away, Mr. Peddle read us a letter about how much [we] meant to her," sad Nicole Eastzer, the club's vice president. "I didn't realize the impact [we] had on her. The letter [Mr. Peddle] wrote was very touching."
Even after DeRidder's death, the students continue to offer their support to the family. On Monday, Antonelli asked members to purchase toys for DeRidder's four siblings. According to club officers, adopting DeRidder had a great deal of meaning to them.
"Making someone happy is the best gift we can give somebody," said Michael Eisenberg, club president. "I think that each activity [we do] makes an impact not only on who we do them for, but on ourselves."
