The school year is hectic for high school students. There are classes, homework, sports, friends, music, jobs and countless other things to think about. But many students are making time in their busy lives for the world outside of school. Through service clubs in high schools, students are able to get involved by volunteering in their communities.
A service club is an organization devoted to community service and involvement. Service Clubs such as Rotary, Lions and Exchange Clubs play integral roles in the area by supporting good causes and encouraging community involvement. Some of these groups have established high school chapters such as Key Club for Kiwanis and Z-Club for Zonta International, which is dedicated to the betterment of women.
Sarah Kinnunen, seventeen, is one of many members of the Negaunee High School Z-Club.
“A lot of times it’s kind of hard to fit it in the schedule, and when you’re not here you’re kind of like, ‘Oh, I don’t really want to be doing it,’ ” Kinnunen said about participating in Z-Club. “But when you get here and you realize how important it is to other people, it just makes you feel good about yourself and it helps you with the way you feel. It helps a lot when you know that other people appreciate you.”
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, teen volunteerism is on the rise. As of September 2003, twenty-nine point five percent of all sixteen- to nineteen-year- olds volunteer. The report suggests that an increased emphasis on volunteerism in schools may be responsible for the rise in teen participation.
Cindy Heise, a Zonta member and adviser to the Marquette Senior High School Z-Club, said service clubs benefit kids because they provide a sense of camaraderie and teach leadership skills.
“It’s giving them a chance to see how they can make an impact on their community,” Heise said.
Ishpeming High School Key Club president Toni Healey, seventeen, said the group focuses on helping kids.
“Our motto is ‘Caring: Our Way of Life.’ Our focus is ‘Children: Their Future, Our Focus,’ ” she said.
Members of the Key Club are required to do fifty hours of community service each year. Healey said it really adds up.
“Every club member does fifty hours of service; individually that’s excellent. Fifty times thirty members in your club is quite a big number. I’m not sure how many hours of service we spend a year, but I know internationally, it has to be a couple hundred thousand,” she said.
The clubs participate in numerous activities throughout the community. The NHS Z-Club works at the annual Kaleidoscope learning fair for children and in local elementary schools. The club also does projects within the school like holding dances and raising funds for Bay Cliff Health Camp.
Members of the IHS Key Club volunteer as Salvation Army bell ringers and raise funds for UNICEF, the Humane Society and St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital. Both clubs are involved in helping senior citizens and promoting literacy for children.
Members of both clubs said they feel very involved in their communities and are aware of the benefits of service.
“I don’t think most people realize how self-fulfilling volunteering is,” Kinnunen said. “They think when you volunteer that you’re just wasting your time doing something nice for other people, and they don’t realize how much good you’re doing for yourself. I think that being here has proven to everyone, either the friends of the people who are here or the parents, that volunteering isn’t just for the people you’re helping, but it helps you too.”
Brittany Rice, a freshman at Alma College, is the past president of the NHS Z-Club. She values the skills she gained as a member of the club.
“I think it’s very important for every person to get involved in their community, either through a social aspect or a volunteering aspect,” Rice said. “Everybody can do even the littlest thing to help the world improve a little bit. I believe that being involved with a service activity not only develops your sense of worth and helping other people; it also teaches you people skills and independence and a good work ethic.”
IHS Key Club Lieutenant Governor Beth Roberts, seventeen, enjoys the benefits of volunteering.
“It gives you something more to do instead of just sit around all the time,” Roberts said. “You meet new people. You have fun. You have all sorts of memories that you get from doing all kinds of things in the community. And you feel good about what you’re doing and you see the effects of what you do and the good outcomes that it brings.”
Roberts explained why many teenagers volunteer.
“I think people like us who like to help out and be a part of our community and make it a better place is what the community looks for and appreciates greatly,” she said. “We try to do that with everything we do, just to put back into our community what they give to us through our schools and everything else that we do.”
—8-18 Media

Editor’s Note: This story was written by Rachael Tillison, eighteen. Contributors include Bailey Tucker, twelve; Lauren Belpedio, eleven; and Carlie Coccia, ten.

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