Key Club members trick of treating for UNICEF

ALBANY — It was an unusual sight, to be sure: A teenage girl in a ballerina costume moving amongst the tables at this week’s Kiwanis Club of Dougherty County’s luncheon meeting.

Tessa Campbell was not there to dance, however. She and fellow members of the Southwest Georgia Home School Association Key Club were “Trick or Treating for UNICEF,” currently raising funds for the Eliminate Project, a worldwide effort to eradicate neonatal tetanus among mothers and infants through vaccinations.

Accompanying Campbell on the Kiwanis DoCo visit were Key Club members Haley Davidson, Mallory Johns, Hawke Johns, and Jonathan Morey, along with their adviser, Darlene Butler.

Introducing the young visitors, club member Alan Greer noted that Key Club International is the “largest active service organization in the world. It empowers its members to lead and to serve by cultivating their leadership skills, by developing friendships and performing community service. They have a passion for helping others and for gaining leadership skills, skills that will carry them through their lifetimes.”

Some of the local Key Clubbers are already demonstrating those skills. Davidson, a high school senior, is this year’s Georgia Key Club Division 3 lieutenant governor and previously served as the local club’s vice president. Campbell is the current vice president. Mallory Johns, also a senior, is in charge of media for the club. Abigail Smith, who was unable to attend the meeting, is SWGHSA Key Club president and serves as public relations officer for the statewide organization.

In addition to Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, the SWGHSA Key Club is involved every year in numerous community service projects, such as Stash the Trash, the Light the Night cancer research fundraiser, Operation Christmas Child, Family Day at the Albany Museum of Art, the Cystic Fibrosis Walk, and others.

Speaking individually, Campbell and Davidson talked about the Eliminate Project, which is also a Kiwanis International initiative. According to Campbell, “this horrible disease” kills someone in world every nine minutes. Davidson talked about her duties as lieutenant governor and also narrated a slide show of Key Clubbers trip this year to the international convention in Indianapolis, with a stop along the way to visit a few attractions in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Kiwanis Dougherty president Kristin Caso said, “On behalf of all Kiwanians here, we are so proud of our Key Club. You all are doing an awesome job.” She added that the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF tradition was actually begun in 1950 and has to date collected more than $118 million for various initiatives.

Key Club International has more than 260,000 members across 5,000 clubs in approximately 30 countries. Collectively, they provide 12 million service hours annually.