The Huntington High School Key Club’s K-Factor talent show is returning after a one year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show will be performed twice on consecutive days. Seniors are invited to attend on Friday, May 21 and students from all grades are welcome on Saturday, May 22. The curtain will go up on both nights at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale now.
K-Factor began 10 years ago to support Huntington Class of 2009 alum Kaila Harlan during her battle with leukemia. A Key Club member throughout high school, Mr. Harlan passed away on August 29, 2013 at the age of 22, but the show has continued annually in her honor.
Alexa Rind serves as president of Huntington’s Key Club. The executive board includes Charlotte Cheshire (vice president), Alexis Kaloudis (treasurer), Morgan Colleluori (secretary), Sophia Toscano (publicist), Julie Rogel (attendance officer) and Sophia Segal (lieutenant governor – New York Key Club District). There are also 16 administrative assistants. English teachers Kelly Krycinski and Gina Colica are the faculty advisors.
Auditions were held for the show to narrow the list of performers, who have all been working diligently to refine and perfect their acts. Key Club members have been spending hours organizing the show.
“We are working so hard to get this show up and running,” Mrs. Krycinski said. “We really want to make it special!”
Tickets priced at $10 are on sale for students in the cafeteria and lobby during periods 4-9 and after school in the main lobby. No tickets will be sold at the door. Only 100 tickets will be sold for each night.
“The show is looking really great,” Ms. Kaloudis said. “It will consist of 24 acts, including dancing, singing and more and it will feature students and teachers. While parents and those outside of the district cannot come in person, the event will be live-streamed for everyone to watch. All of the proceeds for the show are going to Rachel’s Dance for the Cure, a non-profit organization raising money to fight childhood cancer. We encourage everyone to make a donation!”
Planning continues in an effort to smooth out any wrinkles. Key Club members are heavily promoting the event around the high school building.
“We could not be more excited for this year’s K-Factor,” Ms. Rogel said. “All of the officers have been hard at work to ensure the success of the show. Our acts this year are truly talented and we can’t wait for the opening night.”
Naturally, there will be a host of COVID-19 related safety protocols in place. Principal Brenden Cusack has thrown his support behind the show along with his encouragement of the Key Club’s efforts.
“This year’s K-Factor is definitely going to be a different experience due to COVID-19,” Ms. Toscano said. “This is the 10 year anniversary of the K-Factor and all Key Clubbers are excited to be a part of the production. We have about two dozen acts featuring a variety of different performances ranging from bands to dance groups to poems. We’ve been working hard all year and continue to bounce ideas back and forth between each other. We planned for the seniors to have their own special night to enjoy their last K-Factor show. Every Key Clubber is excited for viewers to see what we’ve been working on and all are looking forward to enjoying the fun night.”
Previous K-Factor shows have drawn large crowds and been fun. This year’s show promises to be equally special.
“K-Factor is going to be amazing this year,” Ms. Colleluori said. “We have 24 very talented acts that will be performing and we are all very eager to put on this show that we have been working on behind the scenes for several months. This is going to be Huntington’s first in-person event of the year so we are super excited to be involved in it and very thankful for everyone who helped to make it happen! While we can only have 100 people in the audience each night, we will also be livestreaming it so everyone else will have a chance to watch it. We are encouraging high schoolers to buy their in-person tickets as soon as possible because we are selling out quickly.”
Key Club members hope to raise thousands of dollars at the event. It’s a challenging goal since attendance is strictly limited.
“We are really excited for the show because it’s the first in-person event of the school year and we are happy that Key Club was able to do that for this community,” Ms. Rind said. “We’ve worked very hard on making this happen and Mr. Cusack has been extremely helpful. There are so many amazing acts performing this year and it’s going to be such a fun two nights. If people haven’t already bought tickets they should really consider doing so because it might be one of the only events they can attend this school year and it’s going to be amazing!”
Key Club members will be working at the show, handling every little detail on both sides of the curtain.
“We felt that since seniors have missed out on so much this year, it would be a great opportunity for them to enjoy an exclusive in-person event,” Ms. Segal said. The second night of the show is Saturday, May 22 and open to a maximum of 100 students from all grade levels. At this point, we are making great progress with ticket sales and began selling at the beginning of this week. The core officers as well as the administrative assistants volunteered to help out on their free periods and have already sold many tickets for both nights. The officers and advisors are aiming to make this year extra special because it is the 10th annual K-Factor So we are trying to raise the most amount of money possible for Rachel’s Dance for the Cure.”
Word around the high school is that this year’s acts are spectacular. “We’re all so excited for the show coming up because it’s the 10th anniversary and we hope to make it as special as we can while still being safe,” Ms. Cheshire said. “All of the acts are so incredible and we are so grateful to be able to continue the show safely this year! Sales have been going really well so far and we’re looking forward to an amazing show.”