Kiwanis International is a non-profit service organization with members who want to change the world; Key Club International is a branch of Kiwanis for high school students, and more professionally, called the Kiwanis Youth Program. On March 23, 2025, the program celebrated its centennial birthday.
Stroudsburg High School’s (SHS) Key Club has more than 100 active members who are ready to volunteer and contribute their time to the club. This club has been a part of SHS for at least ten years.
Nikolaos Kontos is the advisor of Key Club and has been for the past year. He commented that the workload was daunting at first; however, he agrees with many of its great values and is up for the challenge. The club officers include:
- President: Matthew Sanchez Nugra, ’25.
- Vice President: Meron Domanski, ’26.
- Secretary: Hadiya Hassan, ’25.
- Treasurer: Caitlin Hoffman, ’26.
- Editor: Tanya Sathapornwongkul, ’26.
- Web-Master: Karen Helm, ’26.
Key Club’s first volunteer opportunity of the year was Trunk or Treat at Morey Elementary School on October 29, 2024. Kids donated candy and chocolates, and some even contributed their car trunks. Volunteer hours are used as points for club members. Each student needs eight points per semester: four for volunteering and four for attending meetings.
They occasionally work with the Kiwanis Club at East Stroudsburg South High School. In November 2024, members helped all morning with their Pancake Day event.
As many families enjoyed their breakfast, SHS students were assisting with kitchen duties by cleaning and organizing utensils and platters.
Hridita Hossain, ’27, who volunteered for the Pancake Day event, said, “I loved being able to help provide a healthy and tasty breakfast to friends and families. I also enjoyed helping my friends in the kitchen to clean the dishes.”
Later in December 2024, Key Club hosted a Breakfast with Santa event at Stroudsburg’s Chipperfield Elementary School.
Kids were able to enjoy pancakes, crafts, a free performance from the SHS Show Choir, and a visit from Santa Claus.
The club has many events in the works; one of them is the Spring Clean Out, which SHS principal, Jeffrey Sodl, approved.
This was a last-minute attempt to celebrate the centennial anniversary of Kiwanis and Key Club International.
Kontos said, “The goal was to get some kids and people interested in donating clothes, books, shoes, and things they don’t need anymore to people who are less fortunate than themselves.”
The club aims to donate these gently used items to the SHS Common Threads program or local libraries within the community.
The club is still trying to solicit more donations since the event has not taken off like they had hoped and is a work in progress right now. If a student wants to donate, donations can be dropped off at C-105 (Kontos’s room) until the second week of April.
Another anticipated event is the Easter Egg Hunt at the Stroudsburg Junior High School.
Kontos explained, “It’s a family-friendly event. We have multiple groups of students who are going to be able to participate and assist with different age ranges.”
This event is for all ages, and according to Kontos, there will be “food [available] at a local station that is going to be provided by the club members.”
There will also be an area for yard games and relaxation, but participants are encouraged to participate in the egg hunt.
The egg hunt will have three separate start times so students of different ages can participate.
Kontos commented that further information and details should be released around the first week of April, so make sure to keep an eye out for that. Key Club members are currently organizing a document for the event.
When asked why students should join Key Club next year, Kontos explained that it was a great organization dedicated to helping out the local community. He stated that the club “creates better atmospheres for students to be involved in community service… .”
Kontos also answered the most asked question students have when joining clubs at the beginning of the year. Kontos explained the difference between Key Club and Interact Club, another club the SHS offers, which is dedicated to community service.
He said, “Interact is more focused on community service in general across all areas. Key Club is more focused on helping students and children, so we do focus on having a kid-friendly focus; doing things for more kids than just regular community service.”
Since Kontos has taken over the club, they are attempting to branch out on social media. You can follow @sburg_keyclub on TikTok and Instagram.
Karen Chapman • Apr 3, 2025 at 7:46 AM
This article was a good read. It gave me information about what the Key Club actually does. It seems like a fun club to join now that I know more about it.