Huntington Key Club members at Target in Huntington.
Huntington Key Club members at Target in Huntington.

Key Club Participates in Target Tour Initiative

january 3, 2023

Huntington High School’s Key Club continued its long tradition of collaborating with the Huntington Kiwanis Club to make the holidays brighter for dozens of local children.

The Huntington Key Club members joined their counterparts from Half Hollow Hills West to help a large group of kids from financially challenged families shop for winter clothes and assorted items at Target.

The project has is decades old and originally featured shopping at Sears when it was located in the Big H shopping center. When the store at that location closed and reopened in East Northport, the initiative to there for many years. When that store closed, too, it again moved, this time to Target on Jericho Turnpike. It’s now known as the Target Tour

Key Club is a branch of Kiwanis International. Huntington Kiwanis supported the initiative financially and officials from that group were on hand at Target, including retired state judge W. Gerard Asher, who is active in Kiwanis.

Following the shopping tour, the group wrapped the gifts, ate pizza, played games together, sang carols and generally enjoyed a great time. Santa Claus even paid the group a visit.

“All of our officers and faculty advisors met up at Target around 7:45 a.m. so we would be there when all of the other Key Club members arrived,” said senior Kate Balm, who serves as this year’s Key Club president. “We worked in pairs with a child selected by the Family Service League assigned to each pair. We then went shopping. While with the child, we let them pick out jackets, sweatshirts, pants, shirts, shoes and other necessities for the winter that would be given to them during the holidays.”

Joining Ms. Balm on the Huntington chapter’s executive board are Charlotte Gordon (vice president), Brooke Parks (secretary), Haileigh Smith (treasurer), Victoria Befumo (publicist), Jack Ruthkowski (attendance) and Sophia Segal, who is the external executive assistant for the New York District Key Club.

English teachers Kelly Krycinski and Gina Colica are the Key Club’s longtime faculty advisors.

“We spent about an hour and half in Target altogether, then went to Half Hollow Hills West High School,” Ms. Balm recounted. “We wrapped the clothing items along with toys that were provided to us to wrap for the kids. Once we finished wrapping everything, all who participated were invited to join the kids again in another room where we sang songs, ate pizza and got to meet Santa. Overall, it was extremely successful as we had about 30 participants from the Huntington student body who we were able to bring joy to the less fortunate kids in our area.”

“Key Club is the oldest and largest service program for high school students in the world,” according to the national organization’s website. It has approximately 251,000 members in more than 5,000 clubs and is represented in 40 countries.

Huntington’s Key Club membership totals more than 100 this year. They attend regular meetings in the School Heritage Museum. The Target Tour left the Huntington High School Key Club members feeling energized.

“For all of us involved in Key Club this is one of the most heartwarming and rewarding events we host annually as we love seeing the happiness it brings to the children and giant smiles that it puts on their faces, especially around the holidays,” Ms. Balm said.

The project was a meaningful one for the teenagers. “While the main purpose is to serve the children by purchasing their winter necessities, the event does much more,” Ms. Segal said. “It is mutually beneficial to the children and Key Clubbers as it instills a sense of pride in helping the local community. I absolutely loved knowing that the families that the Key Clubbers were helping were local to Huntington and that the positive changes that we were making also brought joy to the children. The Target Tour made me feel so fortunate to be a part of an organization that helps so many community members every year. I also loved connecting with many of the children and hearing what they were most excited for during the holiday season. Target Tour is a wonderful Key Club event that everyone should take part in. It is extremely rewarding and a great opportunity for anyone who wants to make a direct impact on the community.”

Interested in helping Huntington’s Key Club achieve its goals? Send a message to Ms. Krycinski (kkrycinski@hufsd.edu) or Ms. Colica (gcolica@hufsd.edu).