At St. Petersburg High School, service clubs have always been popularized and highly recognized by organizations within Pinellas County. These service clubs, consisting of Key, Rojans, Interact, and Leo, exist with the purpose of providing students with an easily accessible way to help their community. This year, the presidents of these clubs have implemented a change in the requirements.

For the past few decades, the service clubs at St. Petersburg High School have upheld many traditions established upon their creation. These traditions include the audition process, tapping day, the induction ceremony, and many more. Another one of these well-known traditions is the restrictions on who can join. For example, students were formerly unable to join until their sophomore year. With this new change in the guidelines, students from all grades are able to join service clubs this year.

The presidents of Key Club, Parker English, and Bronwyn Ewert were the first to mention this new possibility. Their Key Club predecessors had also been attempting to open service to all grades. When Bronwyn and Parker went to DCON, a statewide Key Club event, they realized that the other clubs included Freshmen. Because of this, Bronwyn and Parker made the decision to open Key Club for everyone. With the support from their sponsor and the other club presidents, service clubs at St. Petersburg High School are now accessible to all.

When asked why they believed Key Club should be available to all students, Key Club co-president Bronwyn said, “we shouldn’t gatekeep service.” Parker and Bronwyn believe that the goal of service clubs should be to do as much service as possible and to help the community. “A lot of kids want to do good in the world,” they added. They believe that students should be allowed to have easy access to service.

Now, with a larger applicant pool, the service clubs at St. Petersburg High School will be able to help the community more than ever!