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F r o m T h e D e s k o f t h e E d i t o r

What is this? It‘s the

Locksmith, the official newsletter of

Stuyvesant High School Key Club!

Did you know? We‘re celebrating the 17th anniversary

of Stuyvesant Key Club. The official colors of Key Club are

blue, gold, and white.

Find out more of these interesting facts at www.stuykc.org!

Hey look, it‘s a letter from the editor!

It‘s this time of year! There‘s something special

about it, isn‘t there? Having the spirit is to rec-

ognize that all of these celebrations are about

life and love. What does this season mean to

you? What you‘re doing, community service, is

giving the present of your presence at events

and taking time from the usual things that hap-

pen. I thank you for your undeniably beneficial

and honorable deeds (and just for being awe-

some).

This time of year is charity time, so if you have-

n‘t been active as you would‘ve liked to be,

start taking steps in the right direction in the

new year! Gather your friends, get together,

and do something very meaningful together—

go volunteer! Service brings people together.

The greatest and biggest gift of all comes from

the heart. We, the youth and the next genera-

tion of America, can be the start of something

big and accomplish the unimaginable if we

spread this idea and all work together toward a

common goal to make this world a better

place.

So give the gift of time this holiday season, not

just monetary gifts, and be thoughtful. It does-

n‘t matter whether you get back anything or

not immediately. It matters how you treat oth-

ers. Be thankful. Be with your family and your

friends. Sometimes, we take many things for

granted. Stop and think at this time of year

about how lucky we truly are. Appreciate what

you have. Spread the idea and the gift of giving

service. Give that gesture to show that you care

about other people. You never know; it might

just transform their lives. That‘s the key, the

bottom line, and that‘s ―our way of life.‖

Now that‘s the spirit. Happy holidays! Have a

happy new year. Enjoy reading!

Look inside this issue, and you‘ll find

Another Reality, an article about Feed 500

For Thanksgiving, written by Fannie Law

and Club/Pub Fair by Katherine Chen.

Teensgiving photos! And more Teensgiving

photos!

Caption contest! Send a caption for the

above photo to locksmith@stuykc.org!

By Fannie Law

The temperature in here is only marginally warmer than

the temperature outside. Trains rumble into the station,

opening their doors and letting out crowds of people who

make even more noise. It’s a cold Saturday morning and

I’m standing in the subway listening to a homeless person

talk for three hours.

Wonder how I got into this situation? Well, it wasn‘t an accident. I was on one of the

many Key Club events during the weekend, volunteering for the New York City Urban

Project. This particular event happened to be Feed 500 for Thanksgiving.

I started my day off by traveling up to 207th street, where the event took place. At first, I

got lost walking there because it was actually in a church. When I got there, I met

Jonathan, who was in charge of the whole event. He was really upbeat and enthusiastic

and asked where I was from. I told him that I was from Stuyvesant Key Club. ―So, you

guys didn‘t bring any keys?‖ he joked. Haha. I explained that Key Club was an

organization with members who do community service by volunteering at events. After

that, I signed in and waited for other people to come. Once there were enough people,

we started bringing in supplies from across the street to make sandwiches. I recognized

some people from Key Club and we got to work putting oranges into lunch bags, opening

boxes of chips and cookies, and looking for bread to make the sandwiches. When we

finished making all of the lunches, we sat down and waited for Jonathan to make his

speech.

―Today, I‘m asking you guys to take that extra step. I‘m asking you guys to step into

another reality—one that actually exists in this world. I want you to go up to that

homeless person you see sleeping in the subway today and talk to him or her and listen to

his or her story. That‘s right, I said homeless PERSON. Not a problem that the police

should get rid of. Not an obstacle in your way when you rush to catch the train. I‘m

talking about a PERSON. I want you to sit down with them as they eat their lunch and

just listen. And I want you to get to know them and love them just because the same God

who made you made them. Just because they are. Just because they exist in this

wonderful world. The market will crash and everything else will change, but love

endures.‖

Well, it wasn‘t word for word, but that was the general gist of his speech. It was truly

inspiring. After a few moments, he started to recite a poem called ―My Release,‖ which I

don‘t really remember a lot of, but there were some key phrases that did stick in my head

throughout the whole day—that there was something bigger than you and bigger than

me. That he was majoring in law, and now, he‘s majoring in life. That you are something

more than your GPA. And of course, that there was something more important than the

next season of Gossip Girl. That got a lot of laughs.

Our group was assigned to 181st street after everyone else rushed to get 42nd street and

34th street. It was fine, since it was only three stops away. Once we got there, we split

up into three smaller groups and went our separate ways. Jeshipio and Yvonne were in

A n o t h e r R e a l i t y Clippets of Teensgiving

my group. The first person we met was Alejandro,

who only spoke Spanish. Ivonne talked to him for a bit

and I listened in. We said a prayer for his health and

went on. Actually, we forgot to sit down with him

and talk to him while he ate his lunch, but it would

have been a bit awkward since Ivonne was the only

one out of our group who was extremely fluent in

speaking Spanish. We resolved to ask the next person

and continued walking down the station. At the very end, there were three homeless

men, one of whom was awake. When we gave him a lunch, he asked for two more so that

he could feed his friends. When we started talking to him, he told us that God was the

Father, Jesus was the Son, and that he was the Holy Ghost. We asked him what his name

was, but he wouldn‘t give us his real name. ―Just call me Mechanic,‖ he said.

I learned a lot from Mechanic. I learned about proverbs (the right to be stupid is the right

to do whatever you want), biochemistry (my mother had a dialysis—when they take all of

the blood out of your body and filter it), vocabulary (retaliate, which means to fight

back), and even math (a score is 20 years, two scores is 40 years. Half a score is a decade.

A decade is 10 years. Points to Jeshipio. What‘s three and a half scores? ―Um…70 years!‖

answered Jeshipio.). He told us about the time he was beaten in the park by ―15 red

devils,‖ or 15 Dominican boys. They hit him in the back of his head with a baseball bat

and kicked him in the face. He also told us about the time a Blood member punched him

in the face for no reason and knocked out his front teeth. When his friend got up to leave,

he thanked us for the food and went on his way. Mechanic looked a bit stunned and said

―I‘ve known him for about a week and I didn‘t think that he would have the heart to say

‗thank you‘.‖

Surprisingly, Mechanic still had a job. He was—you guessed it—a mechanic. He earned

about $200 – $300 fixing cars, but he gave away his money to other homeless people. He

said that he preached to them and then gave them the money. He also told us a bit about

his former life—he was an extremely rich executive with $25,000 suits and even had a

girlfriend who was ―6-ft tall and a fashion model.‖ He used to bet on horses, but he lost a

lot of money doing it.

―You guys probably just woke up today on a Saturday morning and thought, ―well, I‘m

going to do some volunteer work today.‖ But you have no idea what you‘re actually

doing. You‘re doing so much more than that. It‘s like, when you have a toothache and the

dentist fixes it, you love the dentist. Wait…oh! I‘ve got it! When you‘re giving these

lunches, you‘re giving [homeless people] an extra day of life.‖

Those weren‘t his exact words, but I was really touched because it was just like Jonathan

said—that there was something more important than us out there and now I was

experiencing it secondhand from someone who had been through it—someone who had

experienced more tragedy and pain than I would ever have. Someone who was telling me

his story right then. And suddenly, I realized that I didn‘t regret waking up early on

Saturday anymore. Nor did I care about the loud noise from the trains or about the cold

temperature. Because at that moment, I was in another reality.

A n o t h e r R e a l i t y [ c o n t i n u e d ] More Clippets of Teensgiving

By Katherine Chen

As I walked to the cafeteria with Shan Shan,

Kevin came and gave me seven sheets of white

paper and told me to write KEY CLUB on it.

And he left. Bewildered, we went in the

cafeteria and picked a table in the middle and

began drawing big block letters on the paper.

My friend, Jessica, from Free Hugs helped us

too. For one whole period, we had fun making

different designs for different letters. Then all

too soon, people started to arrive.

We were barely done with the letters when

the first freshmen arrived. We still had to

color them in and everything. Well, we tried

to explain what Key Club was, what we did,

and what kind of events we had. Sometime in

the chaos, Gavin came in and dropped off

markers, candy, tape, and some other stuff,

and left. Still confused, I tried to answer their

questions without getting wordy. I don‘t think

I did a very good job explaining. One person

kept asking me more and more questions.

Others just wanted the candy. Unfortunately

(for them), I told them, no candy without

signing up! Many of them signed up for a piece

of candy.

By then, we had more people manning the

table and I was free to walk around. It was

beginning to get stuffy. I walked around with

pamphlets and gave some out, but very few

took one. Most of them either were in Key

Club (which is a good thing), not interested,

or not listening (not a good thing). The candy

disappeared very early on (which is also a good

thing). When we needed to get the attention

of more people, we did the Beaver Cheer.

That got a lot of attention.

Towards the end, when there was practically

no one left, we started a congo line and had

lots of fun. After a while, most of the other

clubs left and we helped clean up the cafeteria.

We got many pages of new members and we

had a great time.

C l u b / P u b f a i r

Visit our district Web site, www.nydkc.org!

Members of Stuyvesant Key Club gave

back to the community by planting trees,

cleaning up parks, and painting fences at

Teensgiving, hosted by the 92nd Street Y

and held on Sunday, November 9, 2008.

Wanted: Articles!

Submit your articles,

photos, crosswords,

word searches, art, lists,

etc. to be published in

the next issue to us at

locksmith@stuykc.org!

Anything is appreciated.

Need a reminder? Take a

look at our calendar of

events at tinyurl.com/stuykc

and write about an event you

went to!

M e e t t h e c a b & c o m m i t t e e h e a d s !

Gavin – Your President Victoria – Your Vice-President Kenny – Your Secretary Adeline – Your Treasurer Victor – Your Editor

Antara – Advocacy Committee Head Rebecca – Advocacy Committee Head

Snigdha – Art Committee Head Brenda – Art Committee Head

Shayra – Fundraising Committee Head Amy – Fundraising Committee Head

Bette – Locksmith Committee Head Bryan – Locksmith Committee Head

Amanda – New Projects Committee Head

Helen Luo – New Projects Committee Head

Christine – Public Relations Committee Head Peiyu – Public Relations Committee Head

Donna – USACF Committee Head Helen Song – USACF Committee Head

Jensen – Web Committee Head Chris – Web Committee Head

Photo credits: Thank you to Emily Koo, Katherine Chen, Shirley Lu, Karen Wong, Angie Koo, and Joann Lee for submitting photos for this issue!

Visit us on the

web at stuykc.org!

Email

stuykc@yahoo.com for

any inquires.

Join groups.yahoo.com/

group/stuykc.

Teensgiving 2008