Popular club proves resilient in New Zealand

Their faculty advisor left. More than 60 percent of their membership graduated. And by the end of the year, the incoming president and officers had stopped attending meetings. Things did not look good for the Key Club at Papatoetoe High School in New Zealand.

Papatoetoe High School Key Clubbers chat with their Kiwanis advisor during a pizza party.

A Papatoetoe High School Key Clubber shares a conversation with members of a newly chartered New Zealand Key Club. There are only two Key Clubs in New Zealand.

But the Papatoetoe Key Club—one of only two Key Clubs in the South Pacific nation—has a reputation as a vibrant club of movers and shakers. When word got out the club was recruiting members, it didn’t take long before membership numbers climbed.

“Come the first school week, Shyna Kyalil, the elected president, got her team together and did a number of promotional presentations during school assemblies,” says Kiwanis advisor John Bell.

Things took off from there, and about 80 members now attend regular club meetings. Signup sheets for upcoming projects list 132 names. And a new faculty advisor signed on, providing a backbone of support to the club.

“The club has been extremely active,” John says. “They’ve collected money for a number of charities—around NZ$10,000 in five weekends.”

Says Key Clubber Mephara Khan, who joined the club a little over a year ago: “The Key Club always has done a lot of advertising about what the club does. Everyone always says they want to help people, but nobody seems to actually do anything about it. That’s why I joined Key Club.”