Fine Arts and Key Club Come Together for Holiday Fun

For their first collaboration, the Key Club and Fine Arts Club brought together a well-organized enjoyable event to celebrate the holiday season. With the tables set up and the contestants excited, the event started with the attendees drawing out their plans for their gingerbread houses.

As the competition started, contestants excitedly gathered at their tables as they collaborated with their group mates to think of ideas for their houses. Once contestants finished planning them out, they started to create them. The houses consisted of an Oreo gingerbread as the base. For decor, the contestants were given various candies such as gumdrops, candy lights, Hershey kisses, marshmallows, and more. In addition to the gingerbread houses, hot chocolate was also offered at the event, served by the Fine Arts Clubs, with a variety of toppings. 

Key Club members mentioned this was their first collaboration with the Fine Arts Club, and that they were very excited to work with another club. The club also mentioned their excitement for hosting an event of their own. “Key Club, in the past, we're known as a contractor, we go out and we help organizations with their own events. So I feel like being able to make our own events, for people in our own community, is something that we've actually really never done before,” President Nick Duggan mentioned.

As time continued, the Key Club warned the contestants that time was almost up. To judge the houses, there were various judges that Key Club invited such as Mayor Christenson, Mr. Mastrangelo, and many more. “So we have Mayor Christensen coming in at four o'clock. We have Mr. Mastrangelo coming in too and also, Ms. Jones is going to  be coming in, as well as Ms. Gilbert, who's an art teacher,” Scott explains. President Nick Duggan also expressed how having the Mayor as a judge was exciting. “I feel like just having someone like the Mayor come in, it kind of spices up the environmental level and gets everyone going a little bit.”

Contestants of the event were very ecstatic and enjoyed the event on many different levels. “I think it's fun, I think it's a good way to get some holiday cheer in before winter vacation,” Junior Amber Benfield mentioned. Once the houses were finished the judging began. Once the judges cast their final votes the winners were announced. First-place winners were Elina Yang, Elise Wong, and Angela Phu. Second-place winners were Adriana Arotoma Inca, Manal Aboukhalil, Isabelle Tan, and Jay Wong. Finally, third-place winners were Amber Benfield, Ashley Benfield, and Aya Benjebli. 

Contestants of the competition had the opportunity to win a basket filled with various goodies made by Key Club Vice President Makeila Scott. “So there's different things in them, we have the first-place basket, which has cotton candy in there, and there's a notepad. A bunch of goodies. And then there's a solving cube, stuff like that,” Scott noted.

After a successful event, the winners excitedly collected their baskets and houses to take home.