Alaina Galang is a senior at Glendale High School, and she is president of both Key Club and Save the Seas Club on our campus. She is currently in her second year as the sound supervisor for the GHS stage crew, and she is a member of Nitro Crew, the California Scholarship Federation, and the National Honor Society. Outside of school, Alaina enjoys cooking, baking, crocheting, and watching TV shows.

What is Key Club?

Key Club is one of the biggest clubs worldwide. It is part of an even bigger Kiwanis family, which consists of clubs from different age levels, from pre-school to post-college. They encourage the development of leadership skills–the ability to take initiative, [to] become more sociable, and [to be involved] with your community

How was Key Club founded on our campus?

The way Key Club got rechartered at this school last year was [through] our current social media manager, Keisha [Belen], who had a friend who was part of Key Club at a different school. 

Our lieutenant governor of Division 3 South, Nat Fernandez, got into contact with Keisha’s friend, which is how we heard about how the division was interested in rechartering the club. Keisha introduced us to what Key Club was, and how they were looking for cabinet members, and so Mihiro [Okubo], Elsa [Graham], Edna [Cardona], Keisha, and I became the founding cabinet.

What types of projects and community service is Key Club involved in?

I think my favorite service opportunity that we do, and I want to hold it a few times a year, is volunteering at a soup kitchen in LA called Project Angel Food. They’re cool, and they distribute over 3,000 meals weekly to the community, such as people who are severely ill. They tailor the meals that they prepare and distribute according to their dietary restrictions and diagnosis. They take a lot of volunteers and I like this service opportunity

because I feel that it is more impactful and it feels like you’re doing hard work. 

Along with that, we have other club-level events, such as the Griffith Park cleanup, and last year we partnered with UC Santa Barbara’s For Future Lungs Club, to spread tobacco awareness to children in Vietnam. As far as division events, we have divisional council meetings so people can get service hours. And at those [meetings], the clubs catch up with each other, but we have also made dog toys to be donated, or our most recent one was a book drive.

How did you first get involved with Save the Seas Club?

In [my] sophomore year, I was offered an officer position by former President Riley Millward. Save the Seas stood out from most other clubs, especially because in my second year we had just come back from Covid, and they were doing active and direct service. 

A lot of other clubs were doing cards and Zoom-related events, but Riley would do educational presentations and collect students’ recycling for service hours. They also took advantage of COVID-19 and had service opportunities to make environmental education Instagram posts. But they were mainly doing recycling in classrooms and [during] football games, and I admired their work.    

I’m really happy to be doing this and I’m honored to have taken it [from a] former president who was very good at what they did and very on top of everything. I just hope to follow in their footsteps and get the school even more involved

What is the purpose of Save the Seas Club, and what are examples of your projects and community service activities?

The purpose of Save the Seas is to educate our community about the human impact on our environment, specifically, our oceans and our seas, to recycle around our community, and [to] raise awareness. Especially during the fall sports season, we’re focused on recycling at the football games, both [during our home games] and also Hoover and CV’s home games that they have here. And we also have recycling bins in teachers’ classrooms. 

We often work with FoLAR, [or] Friends of the LA River, and Heal the Bay, to do LA River cleanups. We also have two or three beach cleanups of our own, donate our profits to environmental preservation organizations, and hold an aquarium field trip at the end of the year.

What is your favorite part of being president of these clubs?

I feel like my favorite part, especially this year, is seeing that people are showing a lot of interest in what the clubs do and their purpose. I feel like last year, Save the Seas was a much smaller club, and it was a little more difficult to get volunteers. But…we’ve been having a lot of people interested in doing football recycling and a lot more dedicated members who are excited for what’s to come. 

With Key Club, it helps that I have a lot of friends in the club, but it’s also a cool opportunity. I wish more people around the school knew what it was, and it’s really hard because just the name doesn’t explain what it does. 

I want to spread more awareness about what Key Clubs is at this school and have more people involved in it. Because I feel like, if more people knew what we did and realized how many people they could meet through it, and all the places and events they could go to and do through this club, [they’d be more interested].

What are your plans for these clubs this year?

[For Save the Seas Club,] I want to make donations a bigger deal and do them twice a year. I love the group that’s come together this year. 

Similarly to Save the Seas, [in Key Club] I hope to have more dedicated and active members who stay engaged throughout the year, and I want to be able to retain membership. I feel like we learned a lot last year the hard way, with how to deal with member engagement and club logistics in general, how to anticipate people’s questions and their needs, and explain everything that Key Club does, and also getting better at advertising out events. I want to have more engaged club members who will attend divisional and district events as well.

Why should people join these clubs? 

They’re really easy service [opportunities], but it’s also very meaningful and impactful. In my old apartment, we would collect recycling, and it would all go into the trash anyway because we didn’t have a recycling bin near us. 

I want to start collecting personal recycling more, especially [during] second semester when there [are] no more football games to recycle at and give students hours for it. It’s really easy because you just do what you would normally do, turn it in for a decent amount of hours, and it goes to a good cause. 

Active members get to go on the aquarium field trip at the end of the year. You only have to pay for admission, and you miss a full day of school at Long Beach with friends and it’s really fun. 

Key Club allows you to meet people across…California, Nevada, and Hawaii. You can make long-lasting friends and connections from other schools, or even get all of your friends involved together. We try to do community service that’s meaningful and benefits those most in need. 

What are your plans for the future?

For the longest time, I’ve been on a computer science path, and it’s why I was going for such academically-rigorous classes, and getting involved at school and I don’t regret any of it. But, during the summer of my senior year, I realized I didn’t prioritize a well-paying job over one that I would enjoy. I’ve loved baking as a side hobby since I was a kid, but I decided [that] culinary arts would be easier to get your foot in the door. I want to pursue an associate’s in culinary arts at Chaffey College, try to work at the same time, get a job at a nice restaurant, and see where that takes me.

If you are interested in joining Save the Seas Club or Key Club, please contact Mrs. Keefer at [email protected] and Ms. Postajian at [email protected]. Or you can follow their Instagram accounts: @stsc_ghs and @ghskey.club.