Combined club holds key to helping peers, community

Charles Wu, Contributer

Two North clubs focused on helping others have combined efforts — and names — to form one new team: Peers and Key Club.

According to their website, the Peers part of the name is “regarding anything within Appleton North’s walls” and the Key Club half is influenced by “a connection to the community.”

Mrs. Pynenberg and Mrs. Bruce are the advisers. Mrs. Powell, who was the adviser of Peer Helpers last school year, took a position this year at Appleton East.

Peer Helpers, which focuses on efforts within the school, has been in charge of the anti-bullying campaigns in the fall and the Teens Against Tobacco Use (TATU) educational presentations to the local elementary schools. The members also participated in a training seminar on how to effectively present and role model positive behavior at North. More recently this year’s training seminar taught skills on time management.

“Truthfully I signed up for the seminar to relax and get out of a bit of school. It ended up being well worth my time. I bonded with a lot of different people that share the same passion for getting involved, and I also learned some fundamental time management skills,” sophomore Olivia Hackney said.

Key Club, which is dedicated to making a difference in the community outside of Appleton North, organized the Special Olympics basketball game last year for high schoolers in Appleton and surrounding areas with special needs. Throughout the year, they organized food drives, raised money for charities, and took on community-based projects that help foster leadership and creativity in their members.

Mrs. Pynenberg said that she plans for the club this year to have many events that “pique the interests of our diverse members.” In this month alone she said, “We (Key Club) worked alongside our sponsoring Kiwanis at Quarry Quest, held a training for club members (Peer Helpers) on time management, are planning a fashion show for the residents at Century Oaks Assisted Living Center, as well as a Homecoming Social on Tuesday, Oct. 6 to help students with special needs make connections.”

“By combining the clubs and bringing the effort to support and lead at school and beyond, we have become more organized and structured,” Mrs. Pynenberg said.