Getting Service Hours is Easier Than You Think: How Key Club Makes Service Hours Accessible to Students

October 27, 2026 - Eliana Finegan (11)

Many students may think that acquiring service hours is unobtainable, especially with the workload that many of us take on. In reality, earning service hours can be much simpler than what many students believe. One club in particular, Key Club, offers service opportunities nearly every meeting, which takes place once a month on Tuesdays. 

“Key Club provides a place where people can align their interests with helping the community. It is a good creative outlet while simultaneously supporting those who need aid in our community,” said Secretary Julia Alencar (11). Alencar also stated, “I chose to join leadership because I saw a club that I loved participating in and I saw that it had faults that could be improved, and I wanted to be a part of that improvement.” She, along with the other officers, President Luke Williams (11), Vice President Blain Boku (11), and Kiwanis Outreach Brynn Breitwise (11), all agree that the most valuable benefit that Key Club provides its members is accessible service hours. 

Key Club is a club that has international recognition as the largest and oldest student-led club. The club was originally established in May of 1925, with the first International Association established in 1943. Today, Key clubs are established in more than 40 countries worldwide, with more than 231,000 members obtaining about 1.5 million service hours a year.

At Hough, nearly every single meeting provides a service opportunity. During the second meeting of this school year, members engaged in creating bookmarks for elementary schoolers, where two bookmarks that showed high levels of effort could earn members one service hour. The meeting before that, members created thank-you cards for teachers around the school with two cards getting them one hour of service. President Luke Williams highlighted that many students during club rush in September found that having service opportunities provided by the club (as opposed to the students having to find service opportunities by themselves) was the largest factor drawing students to join the club.

Every year, Key Clubs around the country work tirelessly to help their communities in any way possible. Hough’s Key Club participates in an annual service opportunity where members pack meals for the less fortunate around Thanksgiving. Most Key Clubs, including here at Hough, participate in DCON (District convention) in the spring and ICON (International convention) in the summer. At DCON, Key Clubs from schools in a certain district (for Hough, it is Key Clubs from schools all over North and South Carolina) gather together and hear speeches from well-known, graduated members, take part in leadership workshops, and elect new district officers, such as district governor, district secretary, and district treasurer. At ICON, many Key Clubs from all over the world gather here in the U.S. to elect new international officers such as an International President and an International Vice President, participate in leadership workshops at a much larger level than those at DCON, and listen to some of the most well-known and important leaders at Key Club International. This year, ICON will be hosted in July in Washington, D.C.

All things considered, Key Club is a great club for making service opportunities accessible to students from all grade levels and offering ways to earn and track your service hours, which helps students immensely when it comes to applying to honors societies as well as colleges later on. So, if you were wondering what clubs you could join next year (or maybe even this year) for service opportunities or leadership opportunities, Key Club might just be the club for you.