Miami Palmetto Senior High’s Key Club is gearing up for its biggest fundraiser of the year—its partnership with Lifetime for the upcoming marathon. Known for its commitment to service, Key Club constantly organizes volunteer events all around the community. This time, the club partners with Lifetime as an opportunity to give back to the community while simultaneously raising money to support the club itself.
“Key Club is a club that gives back to the community through community service,” freshman and Key Club member Sophia Francis said. “We do different types of drives like toy drives, book drives, hygiene drives, et cetera. We also help runners at marathons by giving them water and we have a ton of different types of fundraisers.”
On the day of the upcoming marathon, volunteers will be stationed along the route, handing out water and encouraging runners as they pass.
“We’re supposed to set up the tables for the water stations and we hand out cups of water, and we’re supposed to cheer on our runners who are participating in the marathons,” sophomore and Key Club President Savannah Sanin said.
While the work is simple, volunteers play a huge role in keeping the runners motivated throughout the marathon.
“Having a can-do attitude and a smile really makes the service,” Sanin said. “We’ve actually gotten many compliments saying we’re the best water station because we’re so hyped up with music and we’re making it fun for all the runners.”
Despite the large scale of the event, volunteer training is pretty straightforward. Volunteers are taught exactly what to do at their stations at the monthly Key Club meetings.
“The training process for the marathons isn’t particularly rigid since our members are spread out through the running route at different water stations, so really whoever is running your station can teach you however they prefer,” freshman and Chair of the Key Club Projects Committee Lila Schroeder said. “At my station, they just guided us on how to fill the cups and how to hand them to the runners without contaminating them or getting in their path.”
Have no fear about payment methods, as Key Club does get paid back for their hard work. For events like this, Key Club signs up volunteers to attend, and for every person that they sign up, they get a certain sum of money.
“For us, we get $25 [per person] so pretty much it’s a good way of serving and also gaining funds for our club,” Sanin said.
The best part of the Key Club fundraiser is that any student at MPSH can volunteer.
“Key Club members can invite their friends and family because that will still go to our fundraiser, and so it’s nice for them to come out with their family and friends,” Sanin said. “It also acts like a social, kind of, because we’re able to bring our members together and just spend a nice day out in Brickell or at Miami Beach.”
Not only do volunteers get to raise money for Key Club as well as spend a nice day with their friends and family, but volunteers also get 10 community service hours for just a couple of hours working at the marathon.
“It’s just a great way of having fun and bringing together our Key Club to truly feel like a united family,” Sanin said.
