What is Key Club?
Key Club International is the oldest, largest, and most successful non-profit student-led organization for high school students. We teach and spread our core values through community service: caring, character-building, inclusiveness, and leadership which were adopted by our Key Club International Board in 2002. Members of Key Club, a part of the community-service based Kiwanis International Family, develop themselves into young leaders as they positively impact their schools and communities.
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What exactly does Key Club do?
Similar to other service clubs, we do events like helping out at food banks, park clean-ups, and our favorite- raising money for the Pediatric Trauma Program (PTP). However, we also love to have fun while doing it! We have our own cheers and chants that help represent the true spirit of Key Club. Hosting socials are also a huge part of the club where people can talk to one another, make friends, and meet new people.
By far, everyone's favorite event is Fall Rally North (FRN)! Here, divisions compete to win the spirit stick and raise money for PTP by using cheers! It is a highly recommended event that happens at Six Flags annually. For more information about FRN or anything Key Club related, visit the CNH website!
By far, everyone's favorite event is Fall Rally North (FRN)! Here, divisions compete to win the spirit stick and raise money for PTP by using cheers! It is a highly recommended event that happens at Six Flags annually. For more information about FRN or anything Key Club related, visit the CNH website!
Our Mission, Vision, and Core Values
Mission Statement
Key Club is an international, student-led organization providing its members with opportunities to perform service, build character, and develop leadership.
Vision Statement
We are caring and competent servant leaders transforming communities world-wide.
Core Values
The core values of Key Club International are leadership, character building, caring, and inclusiveness.
Key Club is an international, student-led organization providing its members with opportunities to perform service, build character, and develop leadership.
Vision Statement
We are caring and competent servant leaders transforming communities world-wide.
Core Values
The core values of Key Club International are leadership, character building, caring, and inclusiveness.
Pledge, Motto, and Objectives
Key Club 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 to combat all forces which tend to undermine these institutions.
Key Club Motto
The Key Club Motto is “Caring – Our Way of Life.” Through Key Club’s work in the home, school, and community, Key Club members have learned that their organization is built around the concept of caring. With this concept as the foundation of the organization, Key Club will continue to be an effective and contributing organization in our schools and communities.
Objects of Key Club International
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 to combat all forces which tend to undermine these institutions.
Key Club Motto
The Key Club Motto is “Caring – Our Way of Life.” Through Key Club’s work in the home, school, and community, Key Club members have learned that their organization is built around the concept of caring. With this concept as the foundation of the organization, Key Club will continue to be an effective and contributing organization in our schools and communities.
Objects of Key Club International
- To develop initiative and leadership
- To provide experience in living and working together
- To serve the school and community
- To prepare for useful citizenship
- To cooperate with the school principal
- 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 will make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism, and goodwill.
Cali-Nev-Ha District History
In 1924, Sacramento High School in Sacramento, California was suffering from destructive clubs and fraternities. The fraternities were outlawed and moved underground, meanwhile continuing to exercise a negative influence on the student population. Teachers and community leaders of Sacramento High feared the detrimental influence of these destructive clubs and fraternities. These leaders sought a means of replacing the influence of the negative groups with wholesome youth activities. Mr. John Dale, the principal of Sacramento High, and Mr. Frank Vincent, a faculty member, thought their school needed an organization of students who discouraged delinquency through their exemplary leadership.
Mr. Vincent asked the local Kiwanis Club for help to establish such a beneficial organization for educating youth. The two men decided to pattern a new group after their local Kiwanis Club. John Dale and Frank Vincent’s idea of a junior service club similar to Kiwanis was presented in 1924. A charter for the club was not approved until after eleven young men signed a petition on March 25, 1925 to the Kiwanis International Office in Chicago requesting to be chartered as a Junior Kiwanis Club. By the time the charter was granted and the club held its first meeting, the membership had grown to twenty-five members.
Kiwanis hoped to provide vocational guidance to the students of the entire school through the Junior Kiwanis Club. The club became known as the Key Club because of the positive influence the key students who planned the club’s weekly luncheon meetings had on the school’s atmosphere. Kiwanians attended their Key Club Meetings as guest speakers and Key Club members attended Kiwanis meetings. As the experience of Key Club grew, a trend developed expanding the original purpose of providing vocational guidance and worthwhile activities to students. Soon the entire Sacramento High student body was allowed to join a newly formed service organization, and a social program was offered to balance its service activities.
Key Club went through a period of expansion by word-of-mouth in following years. The youth service organization convinced communities throughout the United States to start Key Clubs patterned after the first Key Club established at Sacramento High School. By 1939, about fifty Key Clubs were chartered, mostly in the southern U.S. In the same year, Florida formed a State Association of Key Clubs (The first Key Club District). In 1943, the Florida State Association of Key Clubs invited Key Clubbers from Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee to attend its convention. Afterwards, Key Clubs formed an international association and elected Malcolm Lewis of West Palm Beach, Florida as its first president. In 1946, the official Key Club International Constitution and Bylaws were approved, and the association became Key Club international (KCI).
The first five clubs officially chartered by Key Club International were located in Sacramento, Monterey, Oakland Technical, Hemet, and Stockton (now Edison) High Schools. Key Club grew beyond its place of birth, since a few clubs already existed in Nevada. In 1947, it was decided that a district should be officially formed. The first step was taken as all Key Clubs and Kiwanis Clubs in California were invited to hold a conference in San Diego in October of 1947. The Key Club California-Nevada (Cali-Nev) District Bylaws and Constitution were adopted and new district officers were elected. John Cooper of Oakland Technical High School was the first District Governor of the Cali-Nev District. The first official Cali-Nev District Convention was held in Oakland in March 1948. It was attended by eighty members representing the 23 recognized district Key Clubs.
The California-Nevada District converted to the California-Nevada-Hawaii (Cali-Nev-Ha, CNH) District when McKinley High School Key Club was established in Hawaii in 1952. The first edition of the Cali-Nev-Ha Key appeared on May 1, 1954. Presently Cali-Nev-Ha has over 45,000 Key Club Members from 736 clubs in eighteen regions, and 74 divisions!
Mr. Vincent asked the local Kiwanis Club for help to establish such a beneficial organization for educating youth. The two men decided to pattern a new group after their local Kiwanis Club. John Dale and Frank Vincent’s idea of a junior service club similar to Kiwanis was presented in 1924. A charter for the club was not approved until after eleven young men signed a petition on March 25, 1925 to the Kiwanis International Office in Chicago requesting to be chartered as a Junior Kiwanis Club. By the time the charter was granted and the club held its first meeting, the membership had grown to twenty-five members.
Kiwanis hoped to provide vocational guidance to the students of the entire school through the Junior Kiwanis Club. The club became known as the Key Club because of the positive influence the key students who planned the club’s weekly luncheon meetings had on the school’s atmosphere. Kiwanians attended their Key Club Meetings as guest speakers and Key Club members attended Kiwanis meetings. As the experience of Key Club grew, a trend developed expanding the original purpose of providing vocational guidance and worthwhile activities to students. Soon the entire Sacramento High student body was allowed to join a newly formed service organization, and a social program was offered to balance its service activities.
Key Club went through a period of expansion by word-of-mouth in following years. The youth service organization convinced communities throughout the United States to start Key Clubs patterned after the first Key Club established at Sacramento High School. By 1939, about fifty Key Clubs were chartered, mostly in the southern U.S. In the same year, Florida formed a State Association of Key Clubs (The first Key Club District). In 1943, the Florida State Association of Key Clubs invited Key Clubbers from Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee to attend its convention. Afterwards, Key Clubs formed an international association and elected Malcolm Lewis of West Palm Beach, Florida as its first president. In 1946, the official Key Club International Constitution and Bylaws were approved, and the association became Key Club international (KCI).
The first five clubs officially chartered by Key Club International were located in Sacramento, Monterey, Oakland Technical, Hemet, and Stockton (now Edison) High Schools. Key Club grew beyond its place of birth, since a few clubs already existed in Nevada. In 1947, it was decided that a district should be officially formed. The first step was taken as all Key Clubs and Kiwanis Clubs in California were invited to hold a conference in San Diego in October of 1947. The Key Club California-Nevada (Cali-Nev) District Bylaws and Constitution were adopted and new district officers were elected. John Cooper of Oakland Technical High School was the first District Governor of the Cali-Nev District. The first official Cali-Nev District Convention was held in Oakland in March 1948. It was attended by eighty members representing the 23 recognized district Key Clubs.
The California-Nevada District converted to the California-Nevada-Hawaii (Cali-Nev-Ha, CNH) District when McKinley High School Key Club was established in Hawaii in 1952. The first edition of the Cali-Nev-Ha Key appeared on May 1, 1954. Presently Cali-Nev-Ha has over 45,000 Key Club Members from 736 clubs in eighteen regions, and 74 divisions!