138 Students Participated in This Year's Key Leader Weekends

by Nicole McDermott

Our two 2011 Key Leader weekends have passed and were both highly successful. 138 students participated in both events along with 24 Kiwanis members! Thank you to Past Governor Yvonne Holley of the Kiwanis Club of Virginia Beach, Virginia, for serving as the Jamestown 4-H/Williamsburg site coordinator, and thank you to Corey Goggin of the Kiwanis Club of Tysons Corner/McLean, Virginia, for serving as the Arlington Echo/Maryland site coordinator. And, kudos to the Key Leader District Committee for their enthusiastic promotion of this program all around our District.

To all of the Kiwanis Clubs that made Key Leader a priority - listening to someone on the Key Leader District Committee speak about it or reading an email from me, thinking about it, putting it in your club budget, identifying a student or more to sponsor, and seeing it through so that the student actually attended - THANK YOU! Because of you, 138 teenagers have now changed their outlook on life and their place in our world. Because of you, they feel empowered and KNOW that they have the power to change themselves and their world. Because of you, 138 teenagers now understand service leadership and the values that come with that. This IS Kiwanis: changing the world, one child (teenager) and one community at a time.

Past Kiwanis International Foundation President Jane Erickson was the professional lead facilitator Kiwanis International assigned to us for both of our 2011 weekends. What a gift to have such a talented and inspiring Kiwanis member leading the program for our students. Interested and enthusiastic about everything she had to offer, the students were truly impressive from beginning to end. To hear them talk at the end of the weekend of their experience is amazing; they speak about being nervous at the beginning, but realizing quickly that this was a safe place and one where they could feel comfortable to grow. One student who attended last year said that Key Leader helped put him on the right path, the path to attend college (he will be the first in his family to do so) and the path to understand his values; he came back again this year and received more encouragement to stay motivated towards these goals.

As a Kiwanis member, I am so proud to be part of this program. In 2012, we will be looking forward to THREE Key Leader weekends - two in the spring (Jamestown 4-H/Williamsburg and Arlington Echo/Maryland - dates to be announced soon) and one in the fall (site to be announced soon). This means more than 200 students from our District can learn and benefit from this amazing Kiwanis-sponsored program.  I hope this also means that even more Kiwanis members will be able to participate not only by sponsoring students but perhaps by attending the weekend and/or joining the Key Leader District Committee. This video paints a great portrait of what Key Leader is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=66s68rARedk . Please contact me if you're interested in getting more involved with this program in our District - CapitalKeyLeader@gmail.com or 703.829.5481. Search Capital District Key Leader on Facebook and like it! Visit www.youtube.com/CapitalKeyLeader and watch testimonials from local students about the quality of this program.

Thank you again for your support of and interest in the Kiwanis Key Leader program!