GREENVILLE – Greenville High School (GHS) Junior student Landin Brown has been voted as the Lt. Governor of the Ohio Division Three Regional Key Club.
Key Club International, a part of the community-service based Kiwanis International Family a non-profit student-led organization for high school students. It teaches and spreads core values through community service: caring, character-building, inclusiveness, and leadership. Members of Key Club develop themselves into young leaders as they positively impact their schools and communities.
One of those young leaders, Brown, the club’s secretary, joined Key Club last year, and through encouragement of a friend to attend Key Club events, Brown said his eyes were really opened.
“It is really fun,” he said. “When I saw there were leadership positions, I decided it was something I wanted to pursue.”
Throughout the years, Brown said he has grown pretty responsible, and can bring many valuable skills to the table in his new position. Some of these include: having the ability to balance duties and prioritize, having the insight as a Key Club Secretary and the desire to teach people, he said.
The Key Club is completely student–run, but GHS Virtual Academy Instructor and Key Club Adviser Ken Neff helps make things run smoothly, Brown said.
According to Neff, Brown was elected Lt. Governor as a result of a majority vote from Key Club representatives of Division Three. These include include Covington, Greenville, Piqua, Tri-Village, and Troy schools. A vote took place between Brown and one other student, at the February Key Club Divisional Meeting.
“Landin Brown is a good candidate for Lt. Governor because of his responsible execution of his duty as Key Club Secretary, his participation in monthly division meetings and his all-around leadership in the classroom, including extra-curriculars and athletics,” Neff said.
Brown was already busy, as a three-season athlete: football, wrestling and track; Class President and officer of three other clubs. Yet he wanted more. He approached Neff and said he wanted to run for Lt. Governor.
As part of Brown’s position as Lt. Governor, he will attend the club’s District Leadership Conference on Saturday, where he will officially be inducted. The three-day event, in Columbus, Ohio, will have attendance from the Ohio Key Clubs taking part in rallies and service projects. Some of his new duties will include: inquiring if areas without Key Clubs might want one and being a liaison between the regional clubs and the district board.
“I am in charge of newsletters and setting up divisional monthly meetings, to keep everybody updated,” he said. “I will also help clubs formulate ideas for service projects and see what they have been doing for the past couple months.”
Some of GHS Key Club recent projects have included: a fund-raising carnival to help a local family, helping out dog shelters with homemade toys and Box City, which helps raise awareness for the homeless community. In addition, Division Three is doing literacy projects, to help provide books for children who need them.
“I want to try to positively impact the community the best I can,” he said. “It is always good to make people aware.”
Brown encourages other students to join the club. While helping the community, students receive community service hours, the club also offers college scholarships, through Kiwanis, and a chance to meet new people.
“I think when people think of the club, they may think it is a hassle or troublesome to do some of these community service projects,” he said. “We have a good chance to offer a variety of projects that people are interested in to help the community. It really helps build your abilities to communicate with others, too. Plus, we get free doughnuts at the meetings.”
When asked what has made Brown so successful in his endeavors, his first answer was, “To have the right parents.”
“Other than that, I would always make sure you know where you want to be in the future,” he said. “Don’t do things spontaneously, make sure you have a plan and make sure you know how to get there with that plan. You have to see how you want to impact others in your life and identify platforms to get you to those positions.”