By Ethan Harrigan – Staff Reporter

Mr. Boynton is the advisor of Jonathan Law’s Key Club. This year, the club undertook a challenge called The Thirst Project and raised enough money to build a well in Swaziland. The club also recently elected new officers and attended their District Conference in Springfield, Massachusetts. Advocate staff Reporter Ethan Harrigan interviewed Mr Boynton about the club’s busy year.

Ethan Harrigan: To recap, what has Key Club done this year?

Mr. Boynton: We had a great year this year. We were up at the District Conference on April 4, 5, 6, up in Springfield, compiling our yearly achievement. We accomplished over 56 different individual projects ranging from Salvation Army, to Parents Night, to Minds in Motion, all over the spectrum, but our biggest feat of all was we finally reached our goal for the well in Swaziland. We were supposed to make $12,500 and our final total was $13,470.16. So when we presented the check at District Conference, there was a great happiness about that. I’ve been speaking with the people who are in charge out in California, and once they get the paperwork in order they’re going to be in contact with us. Probably starting late spring, early summer, we’ll get month by month reports and pictures about where it’s exactly going to be. So, we had a great year.

EH: What does the club have planned for the rest of the year?

MB: Usually, at this time, we have our end of the year Spring Membership Drive where we try to get some new members, people who may need some end of the year community service hours. We usually don’t get a big influx, but what happens is we lose the seniors. The senior’s year ends basically in April, so what we usually do is we have our end of the year events. We have the Senior Award Night where we usher and help serve at the banquet, the Honors Breakfast where we’re going to help set up the cafeteria, we usher All-School Awards, graduation, of course, and then we’ll get ready for the summer. Our big thing in the summer is the Oyster Fest. We work with the Kiwanis, and come August, many of our members work at the Freshman Orientation.

EH: How are the new officers fitting in to their positions?

MB: Well to be honest with you, we have only met once. Our first meeting was this past week because they don’t take over until after the Conference and then we had their week vacation, but these guys and girls who are taking over as new officers have big shoes to fill, obviously. We had a great slate of officers last year led by Patrick Hall, but I think they’re going to be OK. They’re going to be young. They’re going to make some mistakes. Most of them are only going to be juniors next year because we are lacking juniors from this year. If any junior or senior is interested we take all years. They’re going to be fine, they’re all great kids, they’re all volunteers. I think as leaders they’re going to lead by example, but they’re also going to be motivators and get the new people to continue the tradition we have here at Key Club.

EH: What new projects do you plan to take on after the success of The Thirst Project?

MB: The Thirst Project was a huge undertaking and something that you do maybe every few years. Something that caught our interest though at the District Conference is a project called Camp Sunshine. Camp Sunshine is a camp that is located up in Maine for kids who have cancer. It’s kind of a retreat up there. We’re either going to possibly sponsor a child to go up maybe some of our members can go up and volunteer for a week, but those plans are in the making right now. We’re in the process of setting a meeting up with some of the representatives from Camp Sunshine. That probably will be a major undertaking for next year and then whatever pops up across the road. We have repeat business. September, we have Saint Mary’s and we have a lot of things in October with the middle schools, Trunk or Treat, Halloween Dances. The community calls upon us quite a bit. Camp Sunshine would definitely be our new Thirst Project, so to speak.

EH: How successful do you think Key Club will be next year?

MB: We’ve been on a roll for a number of years now. We’ve been successful. I’m going to say for the last 10 years we’ve had what they call a Lieutenant Governor. On the District level, it’s compared to local politics where you have your mayor and Board of Aldermen. On the District level, you have your Lieutenant Governor and he or she is in charge of like five different clubs in the area. It just so happens it’s going to be Joey Merly. So Joey Merly is the new Lieutenant Governor of Division 29B; he’s taking over for Rohin Manohar. It’s my thought that we have a good plan in place and I think as long as we follow the plan, success will follow.