Golden Apple: Brainerd High School’s Key Club Builds Leadership by Helping the Community

Key Club is an international, student-led organization that provides its members with opportunities to provide service, build character, and develop leadership.

At Brainerd High School, Key Club is a great way for students interested in the community to make a difference. The local club has more than 60 members who attend and organize many events aimed at helping better lives of others in the area.

“It just helps me get more involved in the school and in our community and see new ways and how new things are run and a lot of behind-the-scene things that a lot of people don’t see,” said Brainerd High School Key Club Vice President Autumn Schiller. “And just like, helping the community and all the different ways possible through volunteering.”

While being a part of Key Club is something that high school students make sure to highlight on their college applications, members who join seem to have noticed other benefits that are not purely academic.

“Well, it’s great on college applications, obviously, it’s really, it’s really nice. But also, just in the moment, you meet a really great group of people here,” explained Key Club President Hannah Moddes. “I’ve made really great friends here and you know you’re doing something good when everything we do goes back into our community. And since we’re such a small town, it’s really important to me specifically to help our community.”

The student members of Key Club do a wonderful job of helping out their community because they have so much passion in being from Brainerd. They’re also following in the footsteps of their beloved advisor for their club, Wendy Vandeputte.

“She is really, really into everything that we do. If, you know, if one of us is feeling a little bit like, maybe I can’t handle the pressure of like being in charge of an event or something, she’s always willing to to step in and to sort of ease our tension, which is a very nice personal thing she does on the advisor side,” said Moddes. “She is really good at coming up with events to do if we’re if we’re kind of in a rut. She does a lot for us, and she’s very passionate about what she does.”

The latest event the Key Club at Brainerd High School was involved in was passing out hygiene kits for the My Neighbor to Love Coalition and for the homeless.