Two men in the Sacramento Kiwanis Club, who were high school administrators, approached their club with the idea of a junior service organization in the high school to be patterned after Kiwanis, to have its own classification based on high school interest, and to hold luncheon meetings. Through this group in the high school, the Kiwanis club hoped to provide vocational guidance. This vocational guidance would first be performed on boys who had decided upon their future occupation and then to the entire school.

     The Kiwanis Club President liked the plan and appointed a committee to look into the matter. The principal of the high school was most receptive and assisted in finding boys interested in joining such a group. The plan was then presented to the Board of Education upon the principal's request. The Board approved, and the first Key Club meeting was held early in May, 1925. Evidence of the value of this group and its program is found in the fact that the Sacramento High School Key Club is still flourishing today.

     The club held weekly luncheons in the school where Kiwanians came to speak to the group on various vocations. Key Club members attended Kiwanis membership by bringing high school students into constant contact with the business and professional men of the community. As the experience of Key Club grew, a noticeable trend towards expanding the original purpose and activity was found and the club was soon a complete service organization for the entire school. It also offered a social program to balance its service activities.

     Through contact with Sacramento Key Club and Kiwanis Club, other Kiwanis groups soon became interested in the activity and sponsored similar organizations in their own communities. One source of expansion during these early years came through high school principals and other educators. The school men responsible for the Sacramento Key Club talked of it with their colleagues and wrote of its activities in various articles. This resulted in many requests for information sent to the Sacramento Kiwanis Club concerning Key Club. Such information was sent, and principals in various parts of the country were responsible for organizing similar groups in their own schools with the help of their local Kiwanis Clubs. Practically all Key Club expansion that took place during the next fifteen years was in California, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington.

     In 1939 the first plan for combining individual local Key Clubs into confederated groups was developed in Florida. With Kiwanis counsel, a convention of existing clubs was held, a state association formed, and officers elected. The purpose of the state association was to promote an exchange of ideas concerning the Key Club activity and to expand the number of Key Clubs. Conventions were held each succeeding year, and when the International Constitution and Bylaws were adopted in 1946, the Florida Association became the fist Key club district.

     Florida was instrumental in promoting the formation of an International Association of Key Clubs to perform for the entire country what the Florida Association had done for the Key Clubs in that state. In 1943, at the invitation of the Florida members, Key Clubbers from clubs in Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee were in attendance at the annual convention of the state association held in Sanford. The representatives voted to form the International Association of Key Clubs and elected Malcolm Lewis of West Palm Beach, Florida, as the first president.

     Three formative years followed during which the outlines of the present Key Club International organization were drawn. Lewis served one year and was followed into office by Eddie Richardson of Ft. Lauderdale, and he by Roger Keller of New Orleans. Keller presided over the third annual convention in New Orleans on April 27, 1946, at which time delegates from all parts of the country approved the constitution and bylaws officially launching Key Club International.

     Key Club is truly an "International" organization. In 1946, the first Key Club was built in Canada and since that time many more have been added. Every year, under the capable leadership of International officers, one hundred or more clubs are added to this vastly growing organization. However, emphasis is put on permanent, active clubs rather than mere numbers as such. During these years of early growth and increasing organization, Kiwanis International had not been idle. The Key Club was early recognized as a local club project and no attempt was made to control its overall organization. In 1942 the Kiwanis International Board of Trustees recommended the movement to all clubs and directed the boys and girls work committee to undertake the sponsorship of these clubs as an activity for high school age. In 1944, a special Kiwanis International Committee on sponsored youth organizations was formed to look after Key Club work. Finally, in 1946 a separate Key Club department was created in the general office of Kiwanis International. It serves as a clearing house for Key Club information, keeping the records, and handling correspondence. It also provides an effective liaison between Key Clubs and Kiwanis and conducts the annual International Convention. Also added to the duties of the Key Club department was a monthly publication, the Keynoter, which was first issued in May, 1946. The Kiwanis International Committee on Key Clubs was formed on January 1, 1949, and is now responsible for all Key Club activities.

     After eighty (Kiwanis) and seventy (Key Club) years, the International organizations are still going strong, serving their communities, and each doing their best to make the world a better place in which to live.