Blue Valley Southwest’s Kay Club volunteers earn between 200-400 hours of community service every year. Kay Club is the community service program at Southwest. The volunteers involved dedicate every Monday morning and afternoon to planning projects that are going to change the lives of people in their own community.

“It gets better every year,” Kay Club founder and leader, Carolyn Zeligman said. “It was new when Southwest first opened and not many students wanted to join, but as more and more began to dedicate themselves to it, I saw how much they truly love giving back.”

Kay Club sponsors the majority of Southwest’s community service projects. Currently, they are running a sock drive to provide socks for those in need during the winter. The largest event that Kay Club manages every year is Relay for Life. Relay for Life is a community based fundraising event for the American Cancer Society. Today more than 5,000 Relay for Life events take place across 20 countries.

“Relay for life is without a doubt the largest event we do all year,” Carolyn Zeligman said. “Its a huge event, huge, and the kids love participating.”

Students can keep up with Kay club and their events by visiting http://www.bluevalleyk12.org/education/club/club.php?sectionid=4538&

Community service clubs are perfect for giving back in high school, but as student begin to look at colleges, community service hours also look great on college resumes and offer time management practice.

“Doing community service projects in high school really prepared me for college. It taught me how to balance my time between my extra curriculars and my studies,” said former Southwest student Sarah-Margaret Heffernon.

Southwest offers many opportunities in school for students to get involved. From clubs to multiple events held year round.
Freshmen Braiden Langely and Cameron Kersey, however, have found other ways to get involved outside of school.

“Our church traveled to Copperhill, Tennessee to work with the Team Efforts Mission Camp.” said Braiden Langely. “It really felt good seeing that we had impacted the lives of children so young. I loved spending time with them, they even had me play church.”

Cameron Kersey also had the same experiences. He enjoyed having an impact on a small community in need, and working alongside his fellow timberwolf freshmen.

“It felt really cool that all of us could make a difference by doing the smallest things. I felt like a better person coming back from the trip. It was really inspiring.” Cameron Kersey said.

“I’m really excited to see all the opportunities Southwest has to offer.”