Hartselle High Key Club

Under the exemplary, caring, capable, and enthusiastic direction of Leah Hoover, Key Club students have consistently addressed and met the needs in Hartselle and throughout Morgan County. Actively engaged in opportunities to give back to their community through service, by addressing goals of the President’s Summit for America’s Future, these students have helped to meet critical needs in their community, especially for children and youth as stated in the goals set by the President’s Summit for America’s Future.

Annually, in addition to many other efforts, the Key Club participates in a county-wide non-perishable food drive, led by WAFF-TV 48 and the Volunteer Center of Morgan County. Members of Key Club excitedly collected over 16,000 cans to donate to the Caring Place, a faith-based organization serving the needy. They partner with local businesses and community members in an all-out effort to collect more cans than any other school in the County!

The students document thousands of service hours yearly to earn the organization a Gold President’s Volunteer Service Award. They independently do yard work, help the elderly at eldercare facilities and help various civic organizations to log enough hours to earn the President’s Volunteer Service Award on an individual basis.

Key Club members consistently help with volunteer projects such as Special Olympics, Relay for Life, and fund-raiser for Cancer research, disaster relief assistance such as drives for victims of hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis. They provide Christmas assistance for children including Holiday Hope Chests, collecting over 150 shoeboxes to give to needy children in Morgan County. They also participate in Salvation Army’s Angel Tree adoptions, Toys for Tots, and UNICEF. Through their participation in community events such as “Camp “ART” sale” these student have helped to make a difference in the lives of children in their community by enriching the community through the Arts. They help provide a “Healthy Start for a healthy future” by making and showing Aids/HIV educational videos/movies to younger students. By organizing a Red Ribbon Week assembly at their school, they provided opportunities for their peers to become involved in substance abuse awareness and prevention activities. They helped provide “Quality education for all” by volunteering as tutors in a structured after school program. Other services that provided for basic human needs include making relief boxes to send to children in Honduras. This is but a glimpse of Hartselle High School Key Club’s involvement in meeting community needs. This type of hand-on service results in building connections between the community and those isolated from it through poverty or literacy issues and has continued to have a demonstrated impact because of the continuum of service through the years that Leah has been the Key Club sponsor.

Although Leah, their leader, is a salaried teacher, she is also a single mother of two, so much of her efforts fall into the “above and beyond the normal activities supported by her salary” realm. She is very dedicated, conscientious, and deserves the recognition of Daily Points of Light, along with the students who have served as members of Hartselle High School Key Club since September of 2002!