Key Club History: Past and Present
The following history of Key Club was taken from the Key Club Manual, Chapter II, titled "The Key Club: A Unique Kiwanis Program for Youth."
Origin. It was in May 1925 in Sacramento, California, that the eleven charter members comprising the first Key Club met officially for the first time. Prior to that meeting came a full year's activity and thought, through which the idea of the Key Club developed and finally reached fruition. The following describes that flowering.
In California during the twenties, high school fraternities were in their heyday. Educators and others were concerned with the pernicious side of these groups and sought some means of replacing them with more wholesome activity for youth. Fraternities were banned by law; they merely went underground, to be heard of only when their excesses received glaring publicity. The idea of junior service clubs, similar to Kiwanis and other civic clubs, was broached in 1924, but the practical application was not put into effect until 1925.
Two men in the Sacramento Kiwanis club, who were high school administrators, approached their club with the idea of a junior service club in the high school, to be patterned after Kiwanis and to have its own classifications based on school interests and to hold luncheon meetings. Through this group in the high school, the Kiwanis club hoped to provide vocational guidance, first to boys who had decided upon their future occupation, and then to the entire school. The Kiwanis club president liked the plan and appointed a committee to look into the matter. The principal of the high school was most receptive and assisted in finding boys interested in joining such a group. Next, the plan was presented to the Board of Education upon the principal's request, and following its approval, the first Key Club meeting was held early in May 1925. Evidence of the value of this group and its program is found in the fact that the Sacramento High School Key Club is still in flourishing existence today.
The club held weekly luncheons in the school, where Kiwanians came to speak to the group on various vocations. Key Club members attended Kiwanis meetings as guests of the club to enhance further the value of Key Club membership by bringing high school students into constant contact with the business and professional men of the community. As the experience of the Key Club grew, a noticeable trend toward expanding the original purpose and activity was found possible, and the club was soon a complete service organization for the whole school. It also offered a social program to balance its service activities.
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� 2001 Key Club International.
