001so mr miller whenever you're ready i will listen all right so hi everyone and welcome to danbury high school key club's 50th celebration we have worked tirelessly over the past year in preparation for the event and now it has arrived we could not be more excited so before we get started we would like to share a short video created by the social committee and this event and our account achievement so over the time oh well there it is emery [Music] so just say happy birthday mr monday [Music] so we hope you all enjoyed the introductory video made by the social committee who have been very dedicated very very dedicated to preparing this men thank you hello everyone i am audrey hinn co-vice president of key club i will be introducing the key club pledge and
002significance followed by its recital one of the objectives of key club international is to cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which makes possible the increase of righteousness justice patriotism and good luck typically we state these intentions and if you have fled before each meeting today i will happily lead you all in the first in-person key club pledge of the school year before we do that mr godman would you honor us and leave the pledge of allegiance thank you audrey can you please stand and join me i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice hope thank you mr donovan will you all now please join me in standing up and
003raising your right hand to recite the pledge i pledge on my honor to uphold the objects of key club international to build my home school and community to serve my nation in the world and combat all forces which tend to undermine my institutions [Music] hello everyone if you don't know me my name is elena jacob and i just wanted to welcome you all with a speech that i made so laughter exploded out of my computer speakers as i talked to my fellow people officers over google me only the sounds of people wheezing holding onto their chest for a chance to breathe could be heard the hysterical atmosphere placed us in the same room sharing our common thoughts and feelings as we headed into completing the largest task of the year though our officer team was
004daunted with holding a fundraiser for the first time online our common core values allowed us to click the humor we shared allows tensions to ease so i have to thank miss clinton camp for insisting that the platform we were using to raise children's miracle network was snapchat you know the one with the dog filters and selfies was what we're using instead of snap rays our difference in distance and age not hinder us from becoming a dynamic team by the end these officers not only had the courage to keep leading members online but we all as key club members became the pillars of the successful fundraiser that was able to raise over four thousand dollars i welcome you all both to in person today and to those watching from home to key clubs danbury high school
005key club 50th anniversary and induction ceremony if you were to ask d-club alumni all those years ago where they thought danbury high school keep love would be in 2021 i don't think they would have fathomed what we've experienced this year in fact i don't think we even imagined standing here today but despite all that we have endured i am proud to say that the integrity of this club has not been moved in fact i would say it's strengthened with over 1 000 service hours key club members have been able to uphold hiko's message of building our home school and community through various ways in another year raising money for a charity would be the only thing we could call an accomplishment but this year we have painted a mural for our school a garden for
006our community it has served local online events that have touched individuals from their homes the highlight of it all is the character i've observed from you all but spending time with officers and members online smiles are always scary even if you can't see it and the memories i've created this year are something i hope to never forget oh and if you don't know i am the lieutenant governor of division 30 of the new england and bermuda district and i served as president of danbury high school key club maybe i forgot to mention this because things are coming to an end and as the first and last time i am able to say that title of you all that title i was only able to achieve with my belief in god my parents who drove me
007to countless key club events and my friends so for supporting me along the way however we are only getting started so the social committee and the members have prepared a wonderful ceremony today that i hope you all enjoy and i know next year the next president of louisiana governor yes there are two people this time samantha anderson and after rafi will be the key to success next year so next i would like to introduce the alumni video which features alumni of our club from various years and i hope you all enjoy [Music] though our dna high school key club started in 1970 with less than 10 members today young students ready to serve as key club has grown over the past 50 years key club members still follow the virtues of serving our home school
008and community we want to ask alumni how they keep following the virtues of people beyond the days of high school so here they are hello my name is murray stratis and i've been a part of the key club for two years this year i've also had the honor of serving as an officer position so one of our questions we have for our key club alumni is why did you join key club hey everyone my name is angela sacrano and i graduated danbury high school last year in june of 2020. originally i joined keith club in order to get more involved with student activities i was a very shy freshman coming into high school and i was just looking to fit in and making friends over the years however as soon as i joined key club
009it became so much more to me than that it would be a place where i would learn to grow and prosper as i learned more about leadership and giving back to the community overall it became a part of my high school experience and one that i will always remember and hold dear to my heart hi everyone my name is rebecca anderson um i'm a stanbury high school key clubs webmaster for two years and a general member of the club for four years i graduated in 2020 and i am now a freshman at the university of connecticut um so i joined key club as a very anxious freshman who was really just trying to find my place in the very big and very intimidating new school after attending my first meeting i immediately felt that sense
010of belongingness that i really really needed um k-fuck really just made dhs feel so much smaller so much more manageable and so much more purposeful as well community service was new to me at the time but i always had a desire to help others from my lifelong desire to teach to my love of just being out in the community i knew that joining club was the perfect outlet for these passions that i possessed key club has had a huge impact on my life it has taught me the power of community the power of commitment and the power of service most importantly it's safe to say it even solidified my decision to major in education as i realized that helping others is something i would love to dedicate my life to as a college student this
011passion is only growing stronger so much so that i am going to be uconn circle k's digital marketing chair next year which is kind of funny with all that being said happy 50th anniversary key club thank you for guiding me to where i am today hi i am srija tarala an upcoming co-secretary and i'm currently in my sophomore year i wanted to ask you what your favorite memory of key club is and if it was an event or a project please explain it to our members and thank you hello everyone my name is emma thatch i am the former 2018 denver high school keith for president i was in peace for four years and i became president of my senior year i'm currently a junior at yale student economics and pre-med i wanted to make
012this quick video talking about my experiences my very fun experiences looking back on gary high school key club and the different service events that we hosted and spearheaded looking back on my experience with key club i definitely remember the hoops for hope and our annual red cross blood drive and booster hope is basically a fundraiser that we had for a basketball game at denver high school we raised funds for hurricane maria every week in puerto rico and the red cross blood drive was basically our annual summer blood drive that was entirely student run and so looking back on these events i remember them very fondly because i remember not having much experience leading really big service organizations as well as a really big events um you know like those two events that i listed um
013i think these two events are just my experience you know as like in general really taught me leadership talking communication and taught me determination hi my name is before ruffy and i'm currently a junior i've been in people since my freshman year and that officer since my sophomore year first responding teacher then as co-secretary and now i'm going to be president this upcoming school year so what is one thing you think members should take away from key club hey dhs key club i am george martinez i was vice president of key club there at dhs and i graduated in 2019. so my answer to the question what do i think you guys should take away from people because personally for me is balance so when i was in key club and when i was vice
014president i was taking five ap classes and i was in deco and then i was vice president and that may seem like a lot and you know it was it wasn't fun but you know you know what you can handle you know what you can do and do what you feel comfortable with doing but you know also push yourself a little bit you know because that your balance can always change you can always accommodate things that you want to do and things that you should do that you should get out of the way um so just you know do whatever you want but you know buy a new balance hi my name is elena jacob i am the current president of danbury high school key club and i also serve as nintendo governor for division
01530 of the new england and bermuda district for key club the question i have for you is what does the 50th anniversary mean to you as an alumni hi key club my name is jessica elizondo and i graduated in 2017 from dhs and now i am a senior anthropology major at uconn with a minor in animal science a word to describe key club for me would be continuity key club continues and will continue to inspire so many young individuals to give back to the community just as it did for me so many years ago and being its 50th anniversary this just shows that key club will continue to continue to inspire so many individuals in the years to come heathcliff inspired me to join a sorority at yukon where one of our pillars is cervix
016and i accumulated over 200 service hours within my time at college it also has inspired me to apply for the peace corps as one of my post-graduate plans and hopefully i will get accepted and serve two years in a different country giving back to a more global community i hope key club continues to inspire so many young individuals like yourself and i want to thank you for all your hard work i hope you guys have a great time and have a great day hi everyone my name is ireland janelle and i am co-vice president of key club and and today i just want to introduce mrs soraya voldeo and she has graced us at this special event so i just want to introduce her and tell you guys a little bit about her miss valdeo
017is in english as a second language teacher at danbury high school this is her seventh year at danbury high school and prior to teaching miss valdeo worked with various non-profit organizations that fostered positive youth development she also worked with organizations that promoted service to others such as the volunteer center of greater bridgeport and america america corps in 2005 she joined the united states peace corps founded by john f kennedy on march 1 this volunteer program works to promote world peace and friendship by helping the people of interested countries meet their need for trained men and women and by promoting mutual understanding between americans and the people they serve as a peace corps volunteer miss valdeo served as a community educator in the kingdom of tonga in the south pacific for three years teaching english at
018a government primary school and working with village youth on various leadership and recycling projects it was her peace corps experience that inspired her to pursue a career in teaching miss gilberto earned both an m.a in industrial and organizational psychology and an m.a in tessel with an initial certification from fairfield university in her spare time miss velveo enjoys running out on the trails swing dancing reading she's a stefan king fan exploring new places and spending time with family and friends her favorite quote and personal motto is by john f kennedy one person can make a difference and everybody should try over to you ms valdeo [Applause] all right good afternoon everyone um welcome welcome as noted my name is ms bilbao i'm an esl teacher here at danbury high school and i am very much honored
019to have been given the opportunity to speak say a few words here in your very special day here in your induction to key club which also marks the 50th anniversary of the organization so i thank you for the opportunity i'm pleased that to see so many of you have taken the decision to be a part of keep club and to engage in service to others i went to the key club website and it states that key club is a student-led high school organization members make the world a better place through service in doing so they grow as individuals and as leaders by answering the call to lead summoning the courage to engage and developing the heart to serve and as you embark on your journey as uh key club members i'd like to take this
020opportunity to reflect a little bit on what does it mean to lead oxford dictionary defines leadership as quote the action of leading a group of people or an organization another definition defines uh leadership as quote the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal in this paradigm it seems that leaders are individuals who have some skill attribute knowledge that other group members may not have and it's that individual who motivates and coordinates to help others achieve their goals however i would like to propose that we take that paradigm and shift it and i'd like to talk about leadership in a different way in the way in which the leader is the servant per wikipedia servant leadership is a leadership philosophy in which the goal of the leader is to
021serve another organization expands on this concept a separate leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong while traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the top of the pyramid servant leadership is different the servant leader shares power puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible and how do we do that how do we participate and actually implement servant leadership it comes back to what we learned in primary school the five who's uh the five w's uh what are the five w's who remembers who what when where why how um so it comes down to asking the questions of those who you work with and those who you work for um for example
022as was noted earlier i i had the wonderful opportunity i'm very excited to see that one of your alumni is also going to be pursuing peace corps um i years ago a few years ago back in 2005 i made the decision to might join the peace corps myself um it was a difficult decision to make a little nervous about never been overseas for and away from my family for such an extended amount of time peace corps service requires two years of service um i actually ended up extending a third year i was known as what as was noted earlier i served in the kingdom of tonga in the south pacific when i received the imitation letter after all several months of applications a very lengthy application process and once i received my applicate my invitation
023letter in the mail i opened it and i was like wow i gotta accept that kingdom of tonga and then i'm like where is tonga so how to quickly look in the map and uh it is a little speck in the south pacific um uh if you're thinking fiji samoa that's that's the vicinity um and while i was serving um overseas that's where the concept of servant leadership um really it gave me the opportunity to really apply that for example um going into a lot of us there were group of us uh many uh volunteers we a lot of us were graduates from college um some were retired individuals some had masters others were had a previous experience uh who already seasoned in their professions so we came in knowing right we were going to
024help others we were going to lead them into something and it took children from a primary school to kind of put us in our place um so we had an activity one time where the image of a coconut tree was put up projected on the board and all these uh uh you know young people adults seasoned uh volunteers were asked look at this coconut tree and what are some of the things that you could do with this coconut tree we were having we had service we had training in the country um and so we all had brainstorming we came up with all these ideas um i think at most maybe 15 20 things at most in terms of what we could actually use with the coconut tray and then all of a sudden the same
025question had been asked to a class one of the classes at one of the primary schools and the list that the children generated far outnumbered the list that we seasoned our volunteers could come up with um and that just highlighted the importance of uh focusing on asking the questions so when we talk about serving others it's not about what we know and what we're going to give to others but it's rather turning it around and saying what do they know how do we learn from them and how do we help mobilize how do we work with our community how do we work with our group members to bring something create something new so as on our own we only came up with a certain number of things we could come we could do with a
026coconut tree uh however the children having lived being in that culture living experiencing that having historical background with their families uh using coconut trees in so many different ways who are easily able to generate a whole bunch more so how does this story relate coconut trees relate to your service here at denver high school as key couple members since we do not have coconut trees we have now a wonderful garden which i happen to see which is just outstanding um but as a rising key club member and what i would like to consider as a rising servant leader the challenge is i challenge you to look at your role as leaders leading the community not necessarily as what you know and how you can give that to others but rather taking a step and looking
027taking your role as investigator as the servant leader asking the question who what when where why how how do what do you know asking the questions from from the student in the group who is a newly arrived esl newcomer who doesn't know the culture here who doesn't know the language making sure that their voice is heard all the way to the student who's taking honor classes several ap classes every single person in that group has a say they have ideas and it's your challenge as servant leaders to make sure that every individual feels valued heard and appreciated in the group and you will be so amazed to see the diversity and the variety of projects that you're able to develop and i'd like to just leave you with a quote uh one of my favorite
028quotes some of you may have heard this uh it's by a chinese philosopher um lao tzu i believe and um it to me it speaks to what servant leadership is and it states go to the people live with them learn from them love them start with what they know build with what they have but with the best leaders when the work is done the task accomplished the people will say we have done this ourselves and uh so right now uh does my wish for each and every one of you in the upcoming school year uh now and in the future uh that i um i wish for you that you engage in servant leadership that allows your group members each and every one of them to say we have done this ourselves thank you congratulations
029on embarking in a lifetime hopefully of service to others uh you will get a lot more i'm speaking to the choir but you get so much from it both individually and hopefully with others as well thank [Applause] you thank you so much mrs bilbao i would love i would now like to invite all of our 2020 2021 officers to the stage during this difficult year all of our officers have undoubtedly worked endlessly to support this hold and its success it is now with great honor that i will retire the 2020-2021 key club officers thank you to alina jacob our president audrey hinn and ireland janelle our vice president after rafi and samantha chong our secretaries samantha anderson our treasurer conscientious our web mastery maria stratus and our fundraising chair theresa our bulletin editor philippe peralta
030our club historian jake goodwin our membership chair mario voighos estrada rd concha and finally elizabeth herrera our project's chair you are all now officially retired from these positions and thank you all so much for your service [Applause] i will now be introducing the key club officers for the 2021-2022 school year each of you have been elected because of your dedication to the key club message and because of your willingness to take on the challenge of leading this club without further ado i introduce apha rafi our president uh samantha chung our vice president [Applause] maria stratus and seresia 12 our secretaries samantha anderson our treasurer former lens our bulletin editor classes rash our webmaster amy couch and brooklyn are fundraising chairs [Applause] mario vallejos estrada are deconshared [Applause] ireland [Applause] congratulations to all of you and
031best of luck in your leadership next we would like to recognize all of our senior members first off congratulations for making it through high school you've all been dealt a pretty rough last year of high school to say the least despite everything that's come your way all of you have continued to serve your homes school and communities like you've been pledging to for years some of you have been in key club for years while other others have just joined this year but what's common in each of you is your dedication and commitment to this club you have all truly created a standard of character and service that the rest of us and i as a rising senior writing senior will be hard pressed to live up to i hope that you continue to use your
032strengths of leadership and service beyond high school by joining circle k in college or continuing to volunteer within your communities with that said i wish you each the best of luck with whatever you choose to do going forward and thank you for your invaluable time as danbury high school key club members to commemorate your membership in key club we will be awarding castles to each senior so you can proudly display the key club colors you earned on your graduation day all seniors please come to the front and receive your tassels now alina jacob audrey him [Applause] jake goodwin [Applause] penelope for alpha amy cordova [Applause] and lucy chen thank you all for your time as key club members so hello everyone i hope you're enjoying everything so far so now we'll be honoring all the
033members so what we ask is that members in first for one hour they stand up bring your card that way we can say your name and celebrate you proudly and then return after your receipt thank you so much gabriella alicia [Applause] nici yeah alberta [Applause] sarah kelly [Applause] sarah palmer para pearl chia keeley herrera [Applause] test azalea azalea [Applause] molly [Applause] jasmine alondra len [Applause] sally goodman [Applause] kayla taylor emily sorry [Applause] can you create [Applause] theresa fernandez congrats to all of you for being inducted to the club ceremony this year i thank you all for attending especially our kiwanis guests do you have anything to say if you liked it i just want to say congratulations everyone and to the seniors good luck as you move on to your new challenges and look forward
034to working with all of you we've got the giving garden coming up that we're planning on june 6 so maybe we'll get a good uh group turning out and helping us raise some food for uh food pantries and shelters thank you so that's it everyone i hope you all enjoyed their summer refreshments outside and your certificates with your name on it i'm sorry if i mispronounced it again and i hope you all enjoyed thank you for coming you