Key Club has made a unique giveback to the community, creating and donating over 500 bookmarks to the Miami-Dade Public Library last month.
Organized on Oct. 20, Key Club members met to make the bookmarks, with each student asked to make 10 to 15. Drawings such as minions and doughnuts, accompanied by phrases such as “Books Rule” and “The Magic is inside” captured Key Club’s spirit to increase the desire to read.
“I feel like we have definitely made a difference with this drive by giving readers a little surprise when they go to the library,” senior An Nguyen said. “I hope that our bookmarks bring a smile to their faces.”
It serves as an addition to the Florida District’s Key Club Governor Project for this school year known as “Lit for life.” Within the project’s three phases, Florida District’s Key Club hopes to engage with communities and the youth with literature. Additionally, they hope to strengthen communal relationships with literary works. Key Club has already done a children’s book drive and book donations to hospitals and to neighborhood sharing libraries.
“The bookmarks were a great activity for the literacy project,” Haratz said. “It’s something in which our members can express their artistic talents or write nice messages.”
Materials for the drive were both funded by the members of Key Club and were donated by board members from the state chapter leadership. Key Club President, Simja Haratz, and 12th grade class director, Danna Balayla, cut up the paper bookmarks. Afterward, 11th grade class director, Rachel Carmi, laminated and cut up the bookmarks alongside Haratz. Haratz then gave the bookmarks to the Miami Dade Public Library on Dec. 4
“It’s just a hands on type thing; a lot of children and adults that frequent the libraries grab a bookmark,” Key Club Sponsor and AP Mathematics teacher Tarrence Holmes said. “And [the members of Key Club] are creative, so these can spark conversation on where they were from and that the bookmarks were created with all types of themes.”
As for now, Key Club has more projects set to occur. They plan to do at least one more project that follows the Florida District’s Key Club’s governor’s project. Their other previous work included a holiday toy drive, writing letters to the elderly and military veterans.