Keystone Conference

May 2014

Action/Service

Every year, the Keystone community service teen organisation at the Boys and Girls Club either hosts or attends an annual Keystone conference. Keystone clubs from around the regional area are allowed to attend and exchange fundraising and promotion ideas as well as discuss conference project ideas for the larger conference during the summer. In 2014, this larger conference was held in Anaheim, California. It is the duty of the host members to provide hospitality, entertainment, and leadership during the conference. The keystone members run the events at the conference more than their directors. In 2014, the keystone club of Goshen decided to rent out bouncy castles, bring in a guest speaker, and host a pancake breakfast for visiting clubs. The guest speaker specialized in telling personal narratives over the issue of teen suicide. Each keystone group who is invited to the larger conference must produce an idea for a grand-scale project capable of being executed nationwide. In 2014, the speaker that raised awareness for teen suicide inspired a project to raise awareness about the issue and hopefully reduce teen depression in the US. This experience taught club members ho to run serious party events without help or supervision and forced us to work with one another to come up with the final plans and ideas. The success of the event went over extremely well. When the guest speaker spoke, the inspiration for a larger project caused e and other club members to consider the ethical implications and global importance of the issue.

Outcomes for this event:

• Undertook new challenges
• Planned and initiated activities
• Worked collaboratively with others.
• Engaged with issues of global importance.
• Considered ethical implications.