By Srija Srinivasan | Staff Writer

Irvington’s Key Club and Literary Club recently held hands-on service learning events; Key Club made greeting cards for hospitalized children while Literary Club made bookmarks to promote literacy.

Key Club’s event allowed Irvington students to make greeting cards for hospitalized children in order to help them through their physical and emotional ordeals.

“The purpose of this event and of Key Club in general is to give back to the community and impacting the world one service hour at a time,” Key Club President Nikita Gupta said. “We want all our members to have a heart to serve and to work with one another to help make a change. One of Key Club International’s main goals is ‘Children: Their Future, Our Focus.’ This goal unites Key Clubbers under the banner of service that deals with the most important part of our community, our youth.”

With the help of the Cards for Hospitalized Children organization, Key Club sent their finished cards to the Jacob’s Heart Children’s Cancer Support Services in Freedom, California.

Literary Club worked together with Students Rebuild, Save the Children, and Global Nomads Groups to participate in the Literacy Challenge to improve youth reading and writing skills around the world. Though Literary Club’s original deadline for submitting bookmarks was Mar. 31, the deadline was then extended to June 5 in order to give students more time to participate.

“The bookmarks we created will be matched with funding for a good cause,” Literary Club President Steffi Kwok said. “For each bookmark that we make and mail in, the Bezos Family Foundation will donate $1 – up to $300,000 – to Save the Children’s Literacy Boost program in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Save the Children strives to help children in disadvantaged communities become successful life-long readers and learners.”

The Literary Boost Program will distribute a selection of the 335 decorated bookmarks to students all around the world.