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Students Key In On Service
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If you've got a project you need some help with, Key Club members want to hear from you.

The youth arm of the local Escalon Kiwanis Club, the Key Club at Escalon High is going strong, involved in the community and looking for ways to continue helping out.

President of the local service club this year is Pearl Rivers, with Katie Heflin filling the role of vice president, Jennifer Shipley as secretary and Anne Bacay as treasurer. Rivers, Shipley and Bacay are seniors; Heflin is a junior.

The Club is in the midst of a campaign called 'CARE,' with each of the letters standing for a specific slogan.

'C' stands for Combat Poverty, with the club collecting items for the needy. 'A' is Acknowledging Daily Heroes, with a recent drive designed to collect goods to send to troops serving overseas.

"That was our first thing this (school) year," Bacay noted of the 'A' week to highlight those everyday heroes.

'R' is for Reduce Global Warming and 'E' is for Encourage Healthy Living, with activities still being developed for those campaigns.

"My week is Encourage Healthy Living, it's going to be in the middle of January," Shipley said, adding that she is working on ideas to focus attention on the theme.

Each officer gets one of the letters, club members said, and put together a project built around that theme.

Rivers said while she originally joined the club due to family ties, she has grown to appreciate the good the organization does.

"I first joined because my brother was in it and it seemed like a lot of fun," she said. "Then I got really involved."

Heflin said there are many activities the club members participate in, from beach clean up work to the local food drives.

"Everything's fun," she said. "The most fun for me was going to the Rose Bowl Parade and helping out, I liked working on the float."

Key Club advisor is Escalon High teacher and coach Rick Heflin, who said there are several dozen paid members in the club, which is one of many groups on campus that are aimed at getting students more involved in their community.

"So far we've been doing a service project weekly," advisor Heflin said. "A couple of things we have coming up, we're going to help out with the Escalon Historical Society spaghetti dinner and later we'll work with the fire department on their Christmas tree pick up."

The Key Club also actively participates in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and Heflin said they are looking for more service projects, so anyone with a suitable project can contact him at Escalon High, 838-7073, for information about getting the Key Club involved.

Some members were on hand for the recent Kids in a Box fundraiser, which was coordinated by the school's Interact Club, the youth arm of Rotary. They also spent a recent Saturday participating in the annual Santa Cruz Beach Clean Up project, focusing on an area near Santa Cruz on a piece of beach the club has 'adopted' and cleaned up annually for the last few years. After the work day, they headed to the Boardwalk for a bit of fun. The annual California beach clean up was Saturday 9/19. Escalon High key club once again was present. This is our 8th year. We have adopted Laguna Beach which is about 6 miles north of Santa Cruz on highway one. 31 Key clubbers were present along with parents and 4 Kiwanis members. ( Alina James, Dave Willis, Judy Irons, and Rick Heflin.)