California-Nevada-Hawaii District Key Club International - History of CNH

History of CNH

In 1924, Sacramento High School in Sacramento, California was in trouble. Destructive clubs and fraternities, although outlawed, moved underground and continued to exercise a negative influence on the student population. Educators and community leaders feared these detrimental effects and sought some means of replacing the clubs with wholesome youth activities.]] The principal and a faculty member thought that what the school needed was an organization of students that discouraged delinquency by its example. Mr. Vincent asked the local Kiwanis Club for help and, together, they decided to pattern the new group after Kiwanis.

The idea of a junior service club similar to Kiwanis was presented to the school in 1924, but it was not put into practice until eleven students signed a petition on March 25, 1925 which was sent to the Kiwanis International office with a request to be chartered as a Junior Kiwanis Club. By the time the charter was granted and the club held its first meeting, the membership had grown to twenty-five members. Through this group, Kiwanis hoped to provide vocational guidance to the students of the entire school.

The club became known as the Key Club because of the positive influence of these key students who held luncheon meetings each week to which Kiwanians came as guest speakers. Key Club members also attended Kiwanis meetings, thus bringing these young men into constant contact with the business and professional men of the community.

As the experience of the Key Club grew, the club became a complete service organization open to the whole school. A social program was offered to balance its service activities. Over the following years, Key Club went through a period of expansion by word-of-mouth. Other communities throughout the United States started Key Clubs patterned after the one in Sacramento High School. By 1939, about fifty Key Clubs were chartered, many of them in the Southern United States.

The first five clubs officially chartered by Key Club International were those of Sacramento, Monterrey, Oakland Technical, Hemet, and Stockton (now Edison) High Schools. Since Key Club was growing in the area of its birth, and a few clubs existed in neighboring Nevada, by 1947 it was decided that a district should be formed. The first step was to hold a conference in San Diego in October to which all the California Key Clubs and Kiwanis Clubs were invited. A full slate of officers was elected and a set of District Bylaws and a Constitution were adopted. John Cooper of Oakland Technical High School was the first District Governor of the Cali-Nev District. The first official District Convention was held in Oakland in March 1948; it was attended by eighty members representing the 23 recognized district Key Clubs. With the chartering of the McKinley High School Key Club in 1952, the district became Cali-Nev-Ha. The first edition of the Cali-Nev-Ha KEY appeared on May 1, 1954.

The advent of the new millennium saw the Cali-Nev-Ha Key Club District grow to over 500 clubs with nearly 29,000 members. It continues to grow. As of May, 2012, membership neared 45,500.