Los Alamos Key Clubbers, from left, Ethan Singell, Quinto Geller, Yeanwoo Park, and Brian Han display prizes won at the Key Club convention in Phoenix. Courtesy photo

Southwest District Key Club Administrator Karin Church speaking to the convention. Courtesy photo

First place winner for musical talent, Yeanwoo Park, playing his electric cello. Courtesy photo

BY BROOKE DAVIS
Kiwanis Club

This past weekend five members of the Los Alamos High School Key Club traveled by car, bus, and plane to Phoenix for the Southwest District of Key Club’s annual convention (DCON). Key Club is a student-led high school service club sponsored by Kiwanis International. The Southwest District of Key Club includes over 3,500 students in clubs ranging from Lake Havasu to Roswell and from Farmington to Tucson. The students competed in contests, took leadership and public speaking training, learned how to cope with stress, met fellow Key Clubbers, ate well, and had fun.  They also elected students to lead the Southwest District for 2022-2023.

The convention was organized by the Southwest District’s leadership team led by Governor Layla Nguyen.  She was assisted by lieutenant governors elected to represent the fifteen divisions in the southwest.  Brian Han from Los Alamos was the lieutenant governor for the Sangre de Cristo division comprised of clubs from Las Vegas, Los Alamos and Santa Fe. Los Alamos Kiwanian, Karin Church, is the District Administrator for Key Club responsible for guiding and supporting the student leaders.

The Los Alamos students did very well. Their 2021-2022 President, Adeline Feng, was elected to be the Lieutenant Governor for the Sangre de Cristo Division for the 2022-2023 year. Yeanwoo Park, with his electric cello, took first prize in the musical talent contest.  Brian Han won first prize in the impromptu speech contest.  Adeline Feng won a third-place trophy for her recruiting poster.

Parents of the Los Alamos students drove their students to and from Albuquerque where the Los Alamos contingent rode a 56-passenger Herrera Coach bus to and from Phoenix.  On the bus were New Mexico key Clubbers from Eldorado, La Cueva, Cibola, Rio Rancho. Aztec and Farmington.  The Los Alamos students were chaperoned by Key Club Advisor Morrie Pongratz and by Cheryl Pongratz, a last-minute substitute. Unfortunately, Cheryl fell and broke her hip in the convention hotel.  She is recuperating from surgery in Phoenix.