While Key Club members attended their District Convention (DCON) in Dallas on April 22-24, the club was recognized for their 75% growth in membership.

“We worked really hard to become more active in our community,” junior Marilyn Downing said. “It was cool to see (we had) such a dramatic increase.”

Senior Vanessa Blaylock also won the $1,000 Krishna Sunther Distinguished Key Club Governor Scholarship on behalf of the Texas-Oklahoma Kiwanis Foundation.

“I gained a different perspective on what the pristine student run organization is,” she said. “It taught me many lessons about leadership, character and service in such a short amount of time.”

This was the first year that all the Mansfield schools were represented at the convention.

“It was nice to collaborate with them (other schools),” Key Club Advisor Pauline Edwards said. “Now we have ideas that we would like to put into action for this upcoming year and it is very exciting to see the impact we can have on the community as a unified group.”

The keynote speaker Houston Kraft discussed a message about “choosing love.”

“He was really motivational,” Downing said. “He kept us interested and inspired. We learned to spread love to everyone we come in contact with, even if we hate them because you never know what they are going through.”

Downing said she enjoyed going to DCON.

“The trip was definitely worth it because of how much fun I had and all that I learned,” Downing said. “I got to experience what Key Club is truly about, (find out) what we are doing wrong with our club and what we can do better.”

Anyone interested in joining Key Club can stop by Room 1122.

Edwards said, “I am very proud of the effort of my Key Clubbers and (I’m) definitely looking forward to working with them next year.”