With the holiday season upon us, it is important that everyone feels respected and appreciated, including the faculty across all of the Malden Public Schools. The Malden High School Key Club showed staff the importance of respect this Thanksgiving, as they sent out 900 creative cards made by all of the members. Senior Maggie Yick, who is the president of the club, stated that the cards went to all the teachers and all the faculty and all of the members were required to make 10 cards.
The Key Club is “an organization that volunteers around the community,” Yick explained, which is spread around New England. It is hosted “in high schools, and some colleges depending on where you are.” Secretary and senior, Sharon Pan, revealed that they “usually just go on volunteer walks” and this is the first event that they had held “themselves instead of going out to an event that was hosted by other people.”
Yick chose to send out the cards mainly because as a senior, she’s “been through a lot,” and had noticed “that some students are treating faculty kind of terribly.” She expressed that this made her “upset” considering how “Thanksgiving is all about giving and being appreciative.” Club member Chloe Chen expressed how “it added more holiday spirit,” and she was glad to “bring it to other people.” With this ongoing problem, Pan explained how the officers “took the opportunity to give students a chance to express their love and gratitude for schools.”
Chen had mixed feelings about the experience as a whole, explaining how at first, she “wasn’t excited because it felt like they were just giving us homework” but once the project concluded she “enjoyed it” overall. She emphasized that “she wouldn’t have done it if [she] wasn’t forced to.” Pan highlighted how they “did commit time to make the cards, but it was worth it because during COVID-19 or school in general, teachers don’t get much appreciation.”
The club officers chose to make the project “very broad and vague” because they know the members “have clubs and other stuff to do,” Yick emphasized. The members can “do it at home if they want to or they can do it in the club right here.” All and all, the Key Club is doing a great job at showing their support for the hardworking staff across Malden.
