White Center Food Bank  5pm-8pm

• Friday, January 16th, 2009

Kill the Chill – Passing out fleece scarves to Seattle’s Salvation Army. Congratulations Key Club, we’ve surpassed our goal and made more than 120 scarves!  We will be passing it out at the Men’s Department @ 11 am.

• Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Relay for Life – The kickoff is at the Highline Stadium

• Friday, January 30th, 2009

TThe Exchange Club Auction Set Up - Exchange Club is looking for 15 people who are willing to help them set up the Auction.  It is from 4-8 and will be located at the St. Bernadette on 128th St & Albaum Avenue.

• Saturday, January 31st, 2009

The Exchange Club Auction – It is from 4-10 and will be located at the St. Bernadette on 128th St & Albaum Avenue. Volunteers will have to wear white tops and black bottoms.

• Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Convention deadline – The Convention application forms and fee are due on the 2nd. Please pay to the Evergreen bookeeper.

Coming up this week is the making of fleece scarves for the homeless in Seattle.  Last year, Evergreen Key Club was recognized for their assidous work and was featured on The West Seattle Herald.  Our goal this year is to complete more than a hundred scarves for the Seattle’s Mission Gospel.  Let’s give Key Club our luck for their youth venture to “kill the chill”.

What I have posted below are the volunteer opportunites for those who are eager to help their community:

• White Center Food Bank – November 12th, Wednesday, 5:00 – 7:30 pm
• March of Dimes – November 10th – 15th, Donate to your small school office to help benefit premature babies
• Evergreen High School’s Annual Book Fair – December 2nd – 19th, Volunteer as Clifford or as Sales Helpers
• Puget Sound Blood Drive – December 5th, Friday, 7:30 am – 2:05 pm, Volunteer as canteen helpers, check-in/ sign up helpers, and runners
• Salvation Army Bell Ringing – December @ Seattle downtown (will post exact dates/times soon)
• Champions Rally - Walking @ Seward Park to raise money for the disabled (will post exact date/time soon).
• Trauma Dolls – Making Trauma Dolls for kids in need. More details on that will be posted on later.

 Make sure to look at the other pictures from his YV Road Trip to see what other Youth Venture-ers are doing.

Evergreen Key Club was featured on The West Seattle Herald, a local newspaper.  The article was written by our very own Julia Huang discussing our Youth Venture “Kill the Chill.”  Find the same article on here: “Wrapped in Warmth.”

Congratulations Evergreen Key Club!

by Lam-Ha Dang

For most seniors, the two months of March and April will be two very dramatic, if not climatic, months of the year.  It is the time that most colleges and scholarships release their admissions or award decisions.  As a senior myself, I’ve been through the process of applying and patiently awaiting my letters, hopefully bringing good news, so I complied a  few tips for filling out applications and especially for writing essays. 

Many colleges and scholarships, as you may know, do not look for academically incredible students, but rather well-rounded citizens.  Colleges want to know that besides being a stellar scholar, you are also involved in your community, using what you learned in the classroom to change the world for the better.  They need to know that you will be a positive and unique contribution to their student body and campus.  Likewise, scholarships may emphasize community service and leadership, but that does not mean a great academic background will not help.  Be sure you place academics in top priority.

Luckily you are a Key Club member, so you have many expriences to draw from when presenting yourself to the judging panels.  Obviously, you have showed that you care about your community and a leader at school, but that is not enough. 

+There is a reason why it’s called a “personal essay.”  You can log 500 hours of volunteer work, but if you fail to show how it has effected you, your application will not be as competitive.  Be sure to show how community service has effected you as a person and your goals for yourself.  Provide analysis, not just as series of assertions.

+Be specific.  Rather than talking about community service in general, pick an experience that has left a huge impression on you or clearly shows your character.  There are many ways to approach this: pick an experience that you’ve learned from or had an interesting or important “ephiphany.”  Pick wisely because the readers of your essays are professionals.  They can notice undertones and nuances very easily.  Sometimes it’s just these little details that will undermine your application or set you apart.

+“Write from the heart.”  As corny as it may sound, writing honestly will definately set you apart from the hundreds or even thousands of applicants.  Because your experiences are unique, your essay will be unique as well.  It will be much easier for you t0 write something that is true and honest than something made up.  The essays I like the most are those that were very very raw and open. 

+Show how you will apply what you’ve learned and experienced in the future.  Many scholarships will ask this question specifically, but even if they don’t, be sure to include this information somehow.  I find it to  be a nice way to close your essay.

+Many scholarship pair community service with leadership.  Think of leadership from many perspectives.  You do not have to be a “Vice President” or “President” of a particular club or organization to be a leader.  Before talking about your leadership experiences, be sure to define what you think a leader is.  This gives the reader some context and implicitly tells them how you were a leader. 

+Use quotes.  I found this to be very helpful when writing my essays.  Quotes frame your essay and thoughts.  For the reader, it might clear up some confusions because they could allude to the quote for better understanding.  Don’t restrict yourself to just famous quotes.  Pick quotes that have real value to you and relevance to the essay topic.  If a quote from another language clearly describes your thoughts, use it!  Even write it in the original language and translate it.  This implicitly tells readers that you are in touch with your heritage and are culturally aware.

+Be explicit.  Judges have a limited time to read your essays.  Don’t try anything too fancy because they won’t have time to understand it.

+Answer the question.  I can’t stress this enough.  You may have a wonderful fantastic well-written essay, but if it doesn’t answer the question they’re looking for, judges will perhaps (most likely) disregard it.

+Have someone else read it over.  You may understand perfectly what you mean, but to others it might be clear as mud.  Another person might catch nuances that you missed.

+Give yourself plenty of time to complete the essay.  Make multiple drafts and/or essays.  I found myself writing several essays for the same prompt.  You’ll be surprised because you’ll end up using all of them somehow.  Get the essay prompts early if you have to.  Free-write over the summer or at least have ideas.

These are the tips for now.  If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.  I’ll try to answer them next time.  Happy writing and best wishes!

Download: March’s Newsletter

 Check out D26 DCON goodies!

T-Shirts: LIME…

Not just sunglasses, flashing sunglasses.
Not just lime green t-shirts, tennis ball lime green t-shirts.
Not just pom-poms, glowing pom-poms.
Not just crashing DCON ’08, but crashing in style.

In October of 2007, the sixty members of Evergreen Key Club, a student service organization at Evergreen High School of White Center, went through a rigorous application process for the Starbucks Youth Venture Grant. Sponsored by Starbucks in partnership with Youth Venture, the startup grant gives youths with an initiative to better the community the necessary funding for the first year of their “venture.”

After many afterschool hour meetings, Key Club’s members struck an idea that seemed to be the perfect venture project and so came the venture: “Kill the Chill.” The club aims to mobilize youth in community service and ultimately to make improvements in ailing societal issues. Hence, through this venture where students hand-make scarves and take part in the donation of the finished products to aid organizations that serve the homeless population, the two goals are accomplished. Additionally, from past experiences of volunteering, the club members noticed that the homeless are deficient in both care and warmth during the blustery winter months and by providing these handmade scarves, the club members hope to alleviate both.

The initial application process required a detailed action plan, which includes general ideas and an overview to the very minute details of an inventory of supplies and their costs. After this first step, three representatives from the club attended a panel discussion to present this seed to three members of the Starbucks Corporation and two greater Seattle community leaders. As a fruit to their hard work, the members were awarded an eight hundred dollar grant and went quickly to work

In a month’s time of hard work from the sixty students, a total of one hundred scarves were made and donated to the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle’s Pioneer Square on February 18th. The club members all agreed that there was not another place they’d rather spend a day during their mid-winter break. Moreover, the students were thrilled to be joined by Youth Venture’s Jack Knellinger, Kyle Taylor and Melina Buckley. Kyle and Melina, who are currently on a road trip to visit ventures around the country, found time to drop by and document the progress of Kill the Chill and the venture’s successes. After donating the scarves to the mission, students were treated to a tour of the organization’s six-leveled men’s shelter. At the end of the day, everyone walked out accomplished and with their hope of giving back to the community, fulfilled.

But this initiative is far from a single spurt of effort, for Evergreen Key Club hopes to build continuity to its venture and will be busily cutting away at fleece every winter season, long after Santa’s elves have finished their season’s task.

Interested in Kyle and Melina’s road trip?  Please visit their blog:  www.yvroadtrip.com
For more information about the Union Gospel Mission, please visit its website: www.ugm.org

Check out this month’s Lt. Governor’s newsletter: FEB_newsletter

DCON! Are you ready?