The line for Key Club cotton candy at a recent Friday night concert at Ashley Pond. Courtesy photo
BY BROOKE DAVIS
Kiwanis Club
If you have attended any of the Los Alamos Friday night Summer Concerts at Ashley Pond this season, you have probably noticed a new vendor booth run by enthusiastic and energetic LAHS Key Club students delighting customers with their “technicolor” cotton candy.
Key Club has traditionally been the largest club at Los Alamos High School. Students are attracted to join for the community service and social opportunities, the travel, and the fun. The local club is one of over 120 high school Key Clubs in the Southwest District of Key Club International. One of the highlights of membership is the district convention, where students get to meet and interact with fellow club members, learn leadership skills, and share community service and fundraising ideas and projects.
Because registration and travel to convention is expensive, when the club met on May 5, the topic turned to fundraising. Knowing that the school would feature “Lunch on the Lawn” as the school year ended, one idea was to sell cotton candy to the lunch crowd, which quickly expanded to selling at the Ashley Pond summer concerts. In short order a budget was formed, a machine, sugars and supplies were purchased, and the project was underway. A small hiccup on a windy day led to the purchase of a bubble top for the machine.
Securing permission to sell cotton candy at the summer concerts was a challenge that was met in record time and by May 27, the Key Club students began selling their sweet confections. Unfortunately, success came so quickly they had to shut down early that evening when they ran out of ingredients!
The students have faced and overcome other obstacles. A canopy (borrowed from their Kiwanis sponsors) was needed to protect them from the elements, a fire extinguisher was added to address LAFD concerns, and sand-filled anchors were obtained to weigh down the canopy. Inclement weather has curtailed candy sales twice, once when the wind threatened to blow the canopy away and recently when a downburst ended sales for the evening.
The Key Club has a way to go to raise enough money for future expenses, but they are having fun, learning leadership, teamwork, and responsibility. The cotton candy sales are filling a niche in the offering at the concerts.
So, please stop by to say hello to these great students and help them to continue all their community service activities. See you there!