What’s the club that meets once a month for regular meetings, helps around in the community time and has a misleading name?

Ah, yes. The Cypress Ridge Key Club.

The Key Club doesn’t actually make keys, they do something much better; they help the community.

Senior Brandon Kang is the president of this international high school service organization that, according to him, was started by high school students who wanted to make an impact on their community.

“That’s really just what we try to do. We try to find people that need help, help them out, give back to the community, and just do more volunteering,” Kang said.

Historian Clare McClay, a sophomore,  joined when she was just starting high school.

“I decided to join Key Club my freshman year after someone told me that it was a volunteer club,” McClay said,” I joined so that I could get volunteer hours, but I stayed in Key Club because I fell in love with being able to volunteer and give back to the community,”.

Senior Minjung Kim also joined Key Club as a freshman. She was encouraged to join by peers.

“We do a lot of volunteering like marathon runs, Houston Food Bank,” Kim said, “We help wherever we can. We always look for something to do, or someone to help.”

Each member must complete 30 physical hours, which include going out to events and volunteering, and 10 non-physical hours, which is fundraising money or attending meetings, each semester to participate in the club. If they fail to meet the requirements, they are kicked off of Key Club. These volunteer hours can help add to a student’s application when they apply for scholarships, jobs, and college.

Both Kim and McClay agree that being in Key Club is beneficial to students as well as the community.

“Key Club not only lets students help the community, but also gives them service hours at the same time. It also looks great in college applications,” McClay said.

Each year the club goes to the four day District Convention in April to meet with Key Clubs from Oklahoma and across Texas.

“We basically learn how to become a better Key Club, how to interact better with the community, how to fundraise, how to set up events, and it’s just a really fun way to meet other Key Clubbers and share a passion for volunteering,” Kang said.

One of Key Club’s goals at the moment is to reach being in the top 25 clubs in the state. They want to make sure that they are recognized across Texas and increase their membership.

“We also want to get more involved in the state level of Key Club, and there is a ranking system and we want to move up in the ranking, so our club is more recognized across the state,” McClay said.

McClay also encourages people to join Key Club, for fun and for the benefits it gives to teenagers.

“Last year, Key club had a problem with membership and like, all that, so this year we are trying to use membership, we are trying to get a lot of people more involved in it, so we can do larger service projects and make a bigger impact,” McClay said, “Come to meetings, listen to the meetings, everything, just get involved, really, just start coming to things and you will learn to love it!”