Features

At your service: Ways to give back at KHS

Olivia Silvey, opinions writer| December 2, 2019

Students create posters for the upcoming feminine hygiene product drive during a Coalition Club meeting Nov. 14.

Once the school day ends at 2:40 p.m., it’s expected that the parking lots will clear and the classrooms will empty. However, this is far from reality; KHS offers many clubs and organizations to get involved with. While it’s always fun to play video games or eat pancakes with your friends, contributing to your community through service, no matter how small, makes a difference in the world around you. (P.S., it’s also good for college applications.) Here are some service clubs to join at KHS.

Coalition Club

Sponsor: Amy Barker

Meetings are every other Thursday alternating between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Contact club President Lydia Cohen, junior, to join the Remind.

“When I was a freshman, I was scared to get involved, but if you just come out with your friends it will be a good time. It’s very relaxed, and we all support each other. The Coalition really works to make the school environment a better place, mainly focusing on feminism and gender equality, but we do a lot of other projects too. Our biggest project is probably the feminine hygiene product drive where we collect feminine hygiene products to donate to homeless shelters. We also do a dress drive and send them to Panama for girls there who can’t afford dresses. Sometimes we do volunteering for other women’s organizations.”

– Eleanor Steuby, junior

Coalition officer

KHS Cares

Sponsor: Lara Sullivan

Meetings are every other Wednesday 2:50-3:30 p.m. Contact Anna Kappel, Sophie Chappell, Sarah Thaman, Kyle Buening or Ally Ortmann to join the Remind.

“We are a club that works on different service projects. It could be different things — we are working with homeless veterans right now, we’ve done yoga with kids, we’ve babysat kids with disabilities while their moms had lunch. Really, whatever organizations we can reach out to in the St. Louis area that we can go and help and work with them so we can care for other people. It’s a really relaxed club. I think it’s a great way to get involved and one of the easiest ways to get involved. Even if it’s a small difference, we are all trying to make some sort of difference in the community.”

– Anna Kappel, senior

KHS Cares leadership board

Kirkwood Service Group

Sponsors: Emily Werner and Jeff Gutjahr

Meetings are on a need-to-know basis. Contact board members Anna Carmody, Catherine Butler, Lindsay Kocher, or Paris Bute to join the Remind.

“I’ve met a lot of new people just trying to help out. It’s a good way you can help the community. We try to do service around our community, by helping with Ronald McDonald House making food for them, or helping the homeless and making meals. The Ronald McDonald House is in the city, but we usually try to do more in Kirkwood, like Kirk Care. [Our projects are] around different times of the year, and we just try to help out and do as much as we can.”

– Ellie Palombo, sophomore

Random Acts of Kindness Club (RAK It Up)

Sponsor: Gina Woodard

Meetings are on a need-to-know basis. Contact Co-presidents Emily Hartfelder, junior, or Ainsley Wade, junior, to join the GroupMe.

“I would say our goal as a club is to spread kindness throughout the school and into the Kirkwood community. [Last year] there was a threat in the school by one of the students, and it was written in the bathroom stall. I just thought about the amount of fear that has grown in the school, and that there was never a club dedicated to pure, genuine kindness. I’m not going to say it’s an easy thing to do, but it’s not a hard thing to do. I feel like everyone can do it. It’s not only for a certain group of people, it’s for everyone.”

– Emily Hartfelder, junior

co-president