Every year, Rocky Mount Academy’s Key Club raises money to make spirits a bit brighter by purchasing and delivering Christmas gifts. This year, Key Club decided to try something new to have an even bigger impact on the community.
For the past 10 years, Key Club has “adopted” a family for Christmas. For many years, the family was chosen by My Sister’s House, as Ms. Baker and Ms. Keel would contact them asking for a family they could help for the holidays. A couple of times, the family was chosen through other organizations such as Sleep in Heavenly Peace or the Downeast Partnership for Children. The parent(s) would give the organization a list of what the kids wanted, and the Key Club officers would shop for those items on Black Friday.
You might wonder how a student organization manages to buy gifts for a whole family. Every November, members of Key Club have to sell a minimum of 25 raffle tickets. These raffle tickets sell for one dollar each, and the buyers have the opportunity to win prizes, including two $100 cash prizes and four $25 gift cards. This year, Ms. Langley and the Crumleys’ grandmother won the cash prizes, while the $25 gift cards went to Mrs. Calhoun (junior Judah’s mother), Ethan Bellamy (freshman), Cassidy Feasmster (junior), and Mrs. Harper (senior Chris’s mother). Many students sold far more than the minimum amount of 25 raffle tickets, which contributed significantly to the money raised for the cause.
With the gifts purchased, our students then wrapped these gifts on the last day of school before Christmas break as one of the activities offered during “Santa’s Workshop”–the two or so free hours on the last day of school when students had time to play games, enjoy snacks, and watch movies before our all-school sing sent us off to the holiday break. When the family was chosen through My Sister’s House, the presents were dropped off at their facility and then delivered to the family by the staff. When the family was chosen by the Key Club leaders, they would deliver the presents to the family at the place that was most convenient for the family, such as their house or a local church. Through this, they got to meet the family that they were giving these gifts to. Frances Tharin says, “Last year it was really moving to see how much the family was impacted by us making the joy of Christmas possible for them.”
This year, the Key Club officers decided to switch things up so they could reach more people in the Rocky Mount area, leading to our school’s participation in the Rocky Mount Christmas parade on December 8. Key Club designed a float decorated with banners that had “Rocky Mount Academy Key Club” written on them in the style of a Radio Flyer red wagon. A committee of Key Club members designed these banners during their free time in the week leading up to the parade, and the float was a trailer provided by Fisher Farms and driven by Key Club members Jack Fisher and Hunter Parker, both sophomores.
During the parade, some members of Key Club handed candy out to kids, while others passed out kids’ toys that correlated with their age range (anywhere from infants to 8-year-olds). The toys were put in wagons that were decorated with wrapping paper to fit the Christmas aesthetic by another committee of Key Club members. The students who handed out candy and toys were walking during the parade, instead of riding the float, so it was easier to give the items to the children.
As Key Club is such a big club consisting of 85 members, the parade was a way to incorporate everyone. Everyone had a job they had to do whether it was helping decorate the float and wagons or participating in the parade. More importantly, it was a way to connect with others. Key Club advisor Ms. Baker will say, “Key Club isn’t just an organization that reaches out to the needy; it is an organization that participates in many areas for our community. This year, we wanted to put our face out there for the community. The parade was designed to be a project to get our name out there, let us be known, and share the Christmas spirit with our city.” Based on the enthusiastic reception the Key Club received, I would say this mission was accomplished.
