MVHS Key Club has participated in a number of events throughout the school year, from the baby blanket making event in November to the Mr. Key Club male pageant that took place on Saturday, March 2nd at Palo Alto High School. MVHS Key Club President and senior Alison Wu, member and senior Jasmine Tsai and Vice President and senior Satoshi Ueda speak about their experiences.

El Estoque: Can you tell me a little bit about Mr. Key Club?

Alison Wu: Basically, it’s a male pageant [that Key Club does] for fun, and they do it mostly to raise money. It’s a super good way to bring together our division with the upper division, and it’s really cool because [Division 34 North is] more involved and they have a lot of spirit, so when we do events with them I think it really encourages our division to be [like] them. It included dinner and was eight dollars so we raised a lot of money. I brought two of my friends who aren’t in Key Club [and] they came along just to watch Satoshi and enjoy the night. Through that we raised an extra like five dollars each and so it’s a really good way to raise money for [the Pediatric Trauma Program].

Jasmine Tsai: Well, I was just [in] the audience, [but Satoshi] competed. Basically we just watched and the audience is really supportive because [that’s what] Key Club is so we just cheered them on.

El Estoque: What were you guys competing for?

Satoshi Ueda: There [are] different sections [of the pageant]. There’s a formal attire [one] where we had to perform a pick-up line on one of the audience members and [there was also] Key Club spirit attire and Key Club trivia [in] which it was Division 34 South versus Division 34 North. There was a casual attire [one in] which we were asked questions by people in the audience and there [was] a talent section and a lip-sync battle, which [was] also division versus division.

EE: What encouraged people to sign up for the event?

AW: There’s no prize or anything and so for the whole division I think we only had six sign-ups and that was enough to put on the show, but obviously that means there wasn’t one guy per school. [Two] of the people were Division Leadership Team members and so I feel like [they probably] should [have been] participating. But for the other people maybe they actually just do have a talent or maybe they like volunteering and they found Key Club as their home. I think [that] no matter how great your talent is, Key Club is a place where everybody will definitely clap for you and cheer you on.

EE: How do events like Mr. Key Club have an impact on MVHS Key Club?

AW: We’ve definitely been like ‘Oh, if we can get these interested freshmen, these freshmen that have been volunteering just to go to even one event, the event itself will do its magic,’ because we felt that ourselves. We believe that if they go to the event then they’ll see how fun and cool it is. Maybe some people don’t like that kind of stuff but we want the people to experience [and see] it themselves and so that’s why we really try to push the event and then when [freshmen] go to it they’ll see.

EE: Where did that money that you donated to the Lucile Packard Children’s Pediatric Trauma Program come from?

JT: It was through the tickets. [They] were eight dollars for entry and to watch and then [people at the pageant] also asked for donations during the [event] too; they passed around a box for anyone who wanted to donate more.

EE: What has Key Club’s involvement with this hospital been and why?

SU: Key Club has a few preferred charities, like [the] Pediatric Trauma Program, UNICEF [and] March for Dimes. [For] a lot of the fundraisers that Key Club does, we donate to those [charities] and I think it’s just because it’s one of Key Club’s preferred charities [that] we donate to [them] a lot and [because] it helps babies and children.

AW: [The hospital is] not Monta Vista Key Club’s choice, it’s not even the division’s choice. I think [it’s] the whole district’s choice to donate to the Pediatric Trauma Program and I think the money gets split to certain hospitals that are dealing with specific children or I think it even goes to [causes] such as paying for helmets to give to kids so that [they] are taken care of. I’m not sure how the connection started but I guess it kind of is something we can can relate to since we [were] just recently kids.

EE: How has MVHS Key Club progressed as a club?

JT: Our freshman year, [Key Club] was there but I didn’t know a lot [about] what was happening [and] I only knew that there were volunteering events, that it was a volunteering club. But [it’s] actually a lot bigger than that. They have division-wide events along with volunteering events like Mr. Key Club and I didn’t know [those] existed but I think the club members starting [at the] end of last year did a good job trying to get [members] more involved.

SU: Yeah, like Jasmine said, this year we really tried to focus on being involved with the division and district events such as [District Convention], [Fall Rally North] and this Mr. Key Club pageant. We want to start the culture so that hopefully in a few years it’ll be normal [for all classes] to go to all these big events instead of just the upperclassmen. I think throughout the year, [we’ve tried] to get involvement from the underclassmen and I think it’s working so we hope they’ll try out to be an officer and continue promo-ing the club.

AW: Key Club only started [at MVHS] less than 10 years ago and when it first started they were super strong, but it kind of died down [for some time] so when I [became president] I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to try to revive it.’ After [going] to the district convention [last year], which is where I met a lot of other Key Clubbers and saw other people [who] were super dedicated to Key Club, I thought it was so cool how big their clubs [were] so I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to try to do that.’ It’s definitely been a struggle because there are so many volunteering clubs on campus and Key Club is fairly small compared to the [others]. However, it has been pretty easy to improve because we have so many resources from the division. I’ve definitely tried to be more involved with the division and this year, I think one great improvement that happened was, me, Satoshi, Jenny and Josh were encouraged to be [more] involved [since we’re from MVHS], so I brought that to my club. Next year, I’m going to encourage either one of the officers and maybe even another member to join the Division Leadership Team [so that there is] involvement [and support] with the division. And I think we need that at MVHS just because that’s what makes Key Club special.