First of all, WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL! I hope that everyone enjoyed the summer vacation regard-less of how short it may have felt. Many of you Key Club-bers went to the events that we had this summer and I cannot express the gratitude that the cabinet feels for such devoted people. Kudos for those of you! Here are some (but not all) of the events we participated in this summer: Relay for Life, New Vision Gardens, Prospect Park cleanup, NYRR Dash and Splash, Kumon, Nautica NYC Triathlon, Cove to Cove, and Lil’ Toot. We are be-ginning the school year with a great start and we plan to extend this greatness throughout the year. I look forward to seeing new faces (as well as old ones) participating in our numerous events this term! To new members: Wel-come to Key Club (by the way, we don’t make keys) and I hope that you will grow to love this organization as much as I do. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!! A toast to a wonderful Key Club year! Lily Tsoi

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Picture of the Month!

THE LOCKSMITHTHE LOCKSMITHTHE LOCKSMITH

A Note From the Editor:

ART:ART:ART:ART:

Jenny Liu

Connie Liu

NEW PROJECTS:NEW PROJECTS:NEW PROJECTS:NEW PROJECTS:

Lauren White

Michelle Wong

ADVOCACY:ADVOCACY:ADVOCACY:ADVOCACY:

Natalie Lam

Danna Wei

PUBLIC RELATIONS:PUBLIC RELATIONS:PUBLIC RELATIONS:PUBLIC RELATIONS:

Christopher Singh

Sue Yee Chen

FUNDRAISING:FUNDRAISING:FUNDRAISING:FUNDRAISING:

HuiZi (Anna) Lin

Sally Cheung

LOCKSMITHLOCKSMITHLOCKSMITHLOCKSMITH

Ashley Cheng

Richard Huang

Member of the Month Member of the Month Member of the Month Member of the Month

of Septemberof Septemberof Septemberof September

!!!CONGRATS!!!!!!CONGRATS!!!!!!CONGRATS!!!!!!CONGRATS!!!

Dianne Yee

Wendy Deng

*Thank you two for

dedicating most of your

summer to Project

Captain the Kumon

Event!

Committee Heads!!!

September, 2006

Volume 2, Issue 1

Letter From Your

President 2

New Visions Gar-

den

NYC Half Mara-

3

Lil’ Toot 4

Chinatown Beauti-

fication Day 5

6

Caring—Our Way of Life

Inside this Issue

Have fun. Enjoy life. Don’t forget Have fun. Enjoy life. Don’t forget Have fun. Enjoy life. Don’t forget Have fun. Enjoy life. Don’t forget about Key Club.about Key Club.about Key Club.about Key Club.

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WEB:WEB:WEB:WEB: Un Soi Chio Pawel Socha Articles? Pictures? Send them to: thelocksmith0607@yahoo.comthelocksmith0607@yahoo.comthelocksmith0607@yahoo.comthelocksmith0607@yahoo.com New Project/Advocacy idea? Email us at: stuykc@yahoo.comstuykc@yahoo.comstuykc@yahoo.comstuykc@yahoo.com LET THESE ADDRESSES BE YOUR NEW BEST FRIENDS!!!!!

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Stuyvesant High

School’s Key Cl

ub

To all Key Clubbers (old and new),

You’re probably pursuing the pages of this newsletter, thinking that you have better

things to do than read articles about some cheesy community service event. You probably want

to go home, get your work done, and fall asleep. And chances are, you’re about ready to toss

this packet into the nearest trash. DON’T.

Besides the fact that doing so would mean that a tree has died in vain, there really is

some very important information in these pages. I’m going to preface some of that information

with advice—some things I wish I had known about Key Club and Stuy in general when I was

a freshman, sophomore, and even a junior:

Don’t stereotype. Yes, Key Club members are mostly of Asian descent. However, to

me they are all simply people. Key Clubbers, at least I like to believe, are compassionate, pro-

active members of the Stuyvesant community who want to show that they are capable of effect-

ing big chances through tiny acts of kindness. Don’t draw boundaries based on race. By doing

so, you are only preventing friendships and good memories from forming.

Don’t dismiss the power of community service. Besides the obvious benefits of help-

ing people in need, community service is also about serving yourself. It’s about building confi-

dence, understanding your strengths and weaknesses, learning extremely useful “people skills,”

being reminded constantly of what is really important in life, becoming a leader, and creating

strong friendships. The biggest mistake you can make when doing community service is to not

take advantage of everything you could receive in return.

Do it for the right reason. While college applications always loom over us in our high

school careers, it’s important to know that the experiences you have in high school, whether in

Key Club or outside of it, can do so much more than fill a space on an application. They ulti-

mately define how happy you are in high school, how much you learn, and how you are re-

membered once you leave. If you do things you enjoy in your high school career, then no one,

not even a lousy college admissions officer, can tell you it was a waste.

In short, put your heart in it.

This year is your chance to revolutionize Key Club.

So sign up, reach out, and get active.

We’re here to help you along the way.

Sincerely,

Courtney

President ’06-‘07

Letter from Your President:

Tucked away in a quiet neighborhood of East

New York , Brooklyn is a little vegetable garden

that is run by the kind and spirited Eliza But-

ler. Here, people from the neighborhood rent

“boxes” that they use to grow vegetables. Then,

they take the vegetables to the farmers’ market

and sell them or take them home to eat. Ms. But-

ler takes her vegetables and donates them to

feed the homeless. New Yorkers generally have

poor access to fresh produce and New Visions

Garden is a portal for just that.

Ms. Butler first requested Key Clubbers to help

paint some fences and picnic tables. The sun

was fierce and painting was no easy task; how-

ever, a table with a fresh coat of red paint was a

satisfying sight. Some of us, new to the art of furni-

ture painting were dressed too decently for the

job. We left the garden with new clothes designs

that—to our horror—wouldn’t wash off! This

prompted future New Visions notification emails to

contain this warning: “Wear old clothes!”

In the next few visits, Key Clubbers were given

varying tasks like weeding, sawing, digging, and

more painting. Weeding was a somewhat edu-

cational experience, as we learned to distinguish

between weeds and non-weeds (F.Y.I., some

weeds actually have flowers). We sawed off

branches of overgrown bushes and dug holes

looking for treasure. Actually, the holes were for

birdhouses, but we were able to dig up some

worms.

During each visit, Ms. Butler provided us hard-

working Key Clubbers with snacks and drinks like

apple juice and ginger cookies (which actually

taste pretty good). There was plenty of fresh air in

the garden and all the strenuous tasks gave you a

nice workout. Hopefully, there will be some more

events at New Visions before winter sets in, but

when spring comes around, there will be new

vegetables growing, which means new weeds to

pull.

- Pei Xiong Liu

“6 AM?!?! Only a week of summer

left, and I have to be in Manhattan

by 6 AM on a Sunday?!?” Chances

are that this is what went through

the minds of the Key Club and

Arista members who went to the

NYC Half Marathon on August 27th,

2006 . Although it was tiring to

have to be in Battery Park by 6 am,

a decent amount of dedicated vol-

unteers did show up that rainy

morning, and fortunately, the event

turned out to be quite fun! The task

of the day was to help sort the bag-

gage of the runners. To begin, all

the volunteers were divided up into

groups of 3 or 4, and separated into

10 trucks, numbered from 0 to 9. In

each truck were the bags of the

runners who had numbers that

ended with numbers corresponding

to the truck number (i.e. runner

1909 would go to truck 9 to find his

bag). The volunteers had to organ-

ize the bags in number order, and

then distribute the bags to the run-

ners when they came to claim

them. All this was in the rain!!! The

event couldn’t have gone more

smoothly, and after all the bags

were distributed to their rightful

owners, the volunteers had a cele-

bratory lunch among themselves.

The bagged lunch was complimen-

tary for all our hard work, and in-

cluded a turkey sandwich, fruit, and

a bag of chips. The event ended

around noon , so everybody could

say that for half a Sunday, they had

done a good deed to begin the new

school year with. What fun!

- Valentin Hsu

Key Club Sails the Waves of Key Club Sails the Waves of Key Club Sails the Waves of Key Club Sails the Waves of Lower ManhattanLower ManhattanLower ManhattanLower Manhattan

On Sunday July 30th, Key Clubbers could be seen sailing

the Morris Canal in Lower Manhattan . We had first ar-

rived at the North Cove in Battery Park City, lower Man-

hattan , at 12:00 pm . After everyone gathered together,

we met our small red and white striped boat, Lil

Toot. Every summer, during the weekend, free boat

rides for kids are given on Lil Toot. Instead of having to

pay for a boat ride, each Key Clubber donated $5 to

Cure Autism Now.

After everyone boarded the boat, Lil Toot began its

journey through the canal. The captain gave a rather

loud blast of the horn, quite a big toot instead of the

ship’s oxymoronic name. The waves moved pleasantly,

rocking the boat as it chugged through Manhat-

tan . After a while, the boat did make a splash, lightly

spraying us with salt water.

The ride brought us through the canal, where we could

see the Statue of Liberty in the distance. It later brought

us through the Manhattan Sailing Club, and then back to

the North Cove. The ride was very relaxing, a great way

to spend a Sunday afternoon. Although the ride was only

45 minutes, it was a very amiable experience that al-

lowed us to successfully raise $60 for Cure Autism Now.

- Michael Chu

THE LIL’ TOOT!

ZyZ

It was a Sunday morning and as usual, I had gone to church. However, after church, I didn’t

go home. Instead, I took the N train to Chinatown . I arrived at CCBA (Chinese Consolidated

Benevolent Association) around 11am . Everyone there was watching the performance by the

Notorious MSG. I signed in and got my free GREEN t-shirt! After the “concert,” everybody was

trying to take pictures with and get autographs from the Notorious MSG. Soon after, all the vol-

unteers got into their groups. We all went to our assigned streets and cleaned, cleaned, and

CLEANED. Some people in my group swept and some people picked up garbage. I was in

charge of taking the “before” and the “after” pictures. Midway into our shift, however, I took one

of someone’s gloves and started to help pick up garbage. After a long and vigorous workout

from cleaning up the streets, we were finally able to go to lunch. After eating, we had to go

out AGAIN and CLEAN some more. However, at the end of the day, my group happily went

home, having accomplished our task. =)

- Betty Zhao

Finally, a chance to give back to our local community! On such a nice summer day, what else can be more fun than cleaning up Chinatown ? To start off the event, we were delightfully surprised by The Notorious MSG! They were totally ripped and totally awesome! Performing hits like “Dim Sum Girl” and “Chinatown Hustler,” these original Chinatown bad boys definitely gave us a show to talk about. After a brief autograph session, we hit the streets of Chinatown in our respective groups. Maybe it was just me, but there was something very special about picking up tiny cigarette buds and stripping ancient layers of ads off the rusted streetlights. Maybe it was the fact that we had passed by the same murky puddle everyday, but had never had the opportunity to do anything about it. Well, now we had the opportunity, the will, and the equipment to do it!

Speaking of those strange puddles, I think I’ve finally cracked the mystery! So here’s what hap-pened. As we slowly inched up East Broadway, I spotted, in the corner of my eye, a 3-year old Chi-nese boy contributing to the puddle, the very puddle that we were about to clean a few moments later! Now isn’t that fun? Anyways, we worked really hard and by the end of the day, East Broad-way was a much cleaner street than it had been before. Free from old cigarette buds and soggy ads, the street seemed to be renewed and full of life again. Well, not really, but you know what I mean!

- Anthony Choi

CHINATOWN BEAUTIFICATION DAY!