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What is Key Club International?
Key Club International is the oldest and largest service program for high school students. It is a student-led organization whose goal is to teach leadership through helping. Key Club International is a part of the Kiwanis International family of service-leadership programs. Many local Key Clubs are sponsored by a local Kiwanis club.
The organization was started by California State Commissioner of Schools Albert C. Olney, and vocational education teacher Frank C. Vincent, who together worked to establish the first Key Club at Sacramento High School in California, on May 7, 1925. Female students were first admitted in 1977, ten years before women were admitted to the sponsoring organization, Kiwanis International.
Key Club International now includes 33 formal districts, including the California-Nevada-Hawaii District Key Club International, its largest, and one District-in-Formation.
As of May 2011, Key Club International included more than 255,000 members, approximately 50% of Kiwanis International Family membership. Key Club International itself employs three full-time staff members and utilizes the services of the nearly 120 more specialists employed by Kiwanis International. All work at International Headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Key Club exists on more than 5,000 high school campuses, primarily in the United States and Canada. It has grown internationally to the Caribbean nations, Central and South America, and most recently to Asia and Australia. Clubs exist in Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Germany, Guadeloupe, Italy, Jamaica, Malaysia, Martinique, Netherlands-Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Panama, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, St. Lucia, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turksand Caicos Islands, and the United States of America.
The organization was started by California State Commissioner of Schools Albert C. Olney, and vocational education teacher Frank C. Vincent, who together worked to establish the first Key Club at Sacramento High School in California, on May 7, 1925. Female students were first admitted in 1977, ten years before women were admitted to the sponsoring organization, Kiwanis International.
Key Club International now includes 33 formal districts, including the California-Nevada-Hawaii District Key Club International, its largest, and one District-in-Formation.
As of May 2011, Key Club International included more than 255,000 members, approximately 50% of Kiwanis International Family membership. Key Club International itself employs three full-time staff members and utilizes the services of the nearly 120 more specialists employed by Kiwanis International. All work at International Headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Key Club exists on more than 5,000 high school campuses, primarily in the United States and Canada. It has grown internationally to the Caribbean nations, Central and South America, and most recently to Asia and Australia. Clubs exist in Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Germany, Guadeloupe, Italy, Jamaica, Malaysia, Martinique, Netherlands-Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Panama, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, St. Lucia, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turksand Caicos Islands, and the United States of America.
Objectives
The Objectives of Key Club are listed below. The sixfold sixth objective of Key Club incorporates the Six Permanent Objects of Kiwanis International as adopted in 1924:
- To develop initiative and leadership.
- To provide experience in living and working together.
- To serve the school and community.
- To cooperate with the school principal.
- To prepare for useful citizenship.
- To accept and promote the following ideals:
- To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than to the material values of life.
- To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships.
- To promote the adoption and application of higher standards in scholarship, sportsmanship and social contacts.
- To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive, and serviceable citizenship.
- To provide a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render unselfish service, and to build better communities.
- To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism, and good will.
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 and World;
and combat all forces which tend to undermine these institutions."
to uphold the Objects of Key Club International;
to build my home, school and community;
to serve my nation and World;
and combat all forces which tend to undermine these institutions."