How do you feel? Fall Rally 2015
November 19, 2015
The dreaded sound of my alarm clock disturbed my much-needed rest. My pupils constricted at the brightness of my phone displaying the time: 5:00 A.M. On any Saturday, waking up before the sun is unheard of, but the Saturday of Nov. 14 was not just any Saturday. Instead of my usual painful roll out of bed, I nearly jumped out of bed to throw on my Key Club shirt, a tutu, bandana, and other spirit wear.
I left my house at 6:30 A.M. to pick up donut holes for my division and arrived at Magic Mountain by 7:00 A.M. Division 16 North’s Division Leadership Team (DLT) along with a few people from Division 25 East were the first to arrive. Division 16 North’s DLT, who are Key Club members who are chosen to lead the division, opened up the boxes of t-shirts, bandanas, leis, and sunglasses to sell to members. As Key Club members from Division 16 North, including members from West Ranch, Alemany, Canyon, Golden Valley, Saugus, Arleta, Sylmar, Valencia, and William Hart, gathered in the cold morning air, the DLT members painted pink and black stripes on faces, helped members review cheers, and passed out donut holes.
Key Club, an international high school community service organization, annually hosts Fall Rally to celebrate service and philanthropy by raising money for the Pediatric Trauma Program (PTP). Seventy-three Key Club divisions, which are clusters of Key Clubs from different high schools, from the California-Nevada-Hawaii (CNH) District were invited to attend Fall Rally on Nov. 14. The proceeds from the Six Flags Magic Mountain tickets that were sold to Key Club members along with funds raised throughout the year by each club are donated to PTP.
At 9:00 A.M., Key Clubbers entered the park, marking the official start of Fall Rally 2015. Throughout the day, the attendees screamed cheers in spirit battles with other divisions and rode rides until their division’s rally time. Since there are so many divisions, there were four different rally sessions. Spirit battles are initiated with a group of Key Clubbers cheering “WE GOT SPIRIT YES WE DO, WE GOT SPIRIT HOW BOUT YOU?” to a group of another division. The cheer is repeated back and forth between the two groups, with added variations of cheers that are unique to each division, until one group messes up (think of the riff offs in “Pitch Perfect”).
Division 16 North, along with other divisions, gathered at the Golden Bear Theater for their rally session at 4:00 P.M. Swarms of colorful tutus, face paint, and posters filled the theater. The sound of cheering was almost deafening. At the rally, each of the Lieutenant Governors (LTGs), who are the student leaders of divisions, offered to spend time with the division who offered to donate the most amount of money to PTP.
Meanwhile, divisions competed for the spirit stick, which is awarded based off of spirit and positivity. Each division used their money raised throughout the year to “buy” an LTG to spend an hour with them after the rally. Key Club is like a huge family, and being with an LTG is like being with your favorite celebrity because LTGs are basically the embodiment of Key Club. So, divisions bid large amounts of money to meet their favorite LTG. The main point of the “auction” is to make donating for PTP more interactive and fun rather than having divisions simply send in their donations. Division 16 North donated over $900 to PTP at Fall Rally this year. In between the auctioning, the six out of 13 divisions who will move on to the second round for the battle for the spirit stick were announced. Division 16 North successfully made it to round two. During the whole rally, the DLT ran up and down the aisles encouraging Key Clubbers to cheer even louder and keep up their spirit. At the end, Division 25 West won the spirit stick. In accordance to Key Club values, the other divisions applauded Division 25 West for their amazing spirit while cheering “G-DOUBLE O-D J-O-B! GOOD JOB! GOOD JOB!”
After the rally, the park was enveloped in the dark night sky, with only the lights of the park and the moon illuminating the glittery and colorful tutus and posters. The rally session was over but the spirit was not. Key Club members continued to go on their last rides and cheered with voices hoarse from the long day. My voice was gone from all the cheering and my muscles were exhausted from standing all day, but the physical strain was worth experiencing one of the best Key Club events of the year. This Fall Rally was my last and I enjoyed every bit of the day. The new friends I made and the energetic rush from cheering for my division left me smiling at my camera as a clicked through the pictures I took. The park closed at 7:30 and all the divisions returned home, posting with the trending hashtag #fallrally and anxiously waiting for next year’s Fall Rally.
