Discover > Magazine > September 2012 > Spotlight: Ravenscroft High School Key Club
< September 2012 magazine
SPOTLIGHT: MAKING WISHES A REALITY
Ravenscroft High School Key Club fulfills children's dreams
story by Danielle Karstens
For years, Angelika Barth had dreamed
of raising enough money to sponsor a
child’s wish through the Make-A-Wish
Foundation. Mission accomplished!
Barth (pictured at right, with her father Paul) and her fellow Key Club members
at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh,
North Carolina, organized a father-daughter/
mother-son dance fundraiser.
The dance was open to all of
Ravenscroft’s students—kindergartners
through seniors—and about 150 people
attended. As a result, the club presented
US$16,000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation
of Eastern North Carolina, which
was enough to grant at least two wishes.
“Through this project, I realized my
leadership abilities and time-management
skills are gifts that I’ll continue
using to help those in need,” Barth says.
Barth has been involved with Make-A-Wish
since an early age. When she was
nine, she discovered she had Burkitt’s
lymphoma. With two eggplant-sized
tumors in her stomach, she underwent
chemotherapy. While she was in the
hospital, the organization granted her a
wish. Her choice: a trip to Australia.
At the dance, Barth—then a senior—
shared her story during a special candlelight
service.
“There wasn’t a dry eye,” says Key
Club Advisor Elise Thrash. “She talked
about how Make-A-Wish granted her
an amazing two-week vacation for her
entire family where they were given the
red carpet treatment.”
During this time, attendees listened
to other stories and made pledges to
Make-A-Wish. Although each couple
paid a US$25 admission fee, the crowd’s
additional generosity far surpassed
Barth’s original goal of US$6,000.
Planning such a large-scale event
wasn’t easy. Some of the club’s accomplishments
include stuf fing and mailing
1,000 invitations, building towers
for their 200-plus cupcakes (pictured, left) and recruiting
two Arthur Murray Dance Studios
instructors as volunteers to teach the
Carolina shag and swing dancing to
attendees. To handle all of the responsibilities,
several Key Club committees
were formed to prepare decorations,
refreshments, music, promotions, photography,
coat checks and check-in.
It might have taken a lot of work, but
Barth said it was worth it.
“Everyone had something they were
in charge of, but we all had the same
vision,” Thrash says. “Teamwork made
the dance successful.” KC
