Andrew Gillis was the first Carolinas District Key Club Officer from Jack Britt High School. He paved the way for the New Carolinas District Governor Nick Nosbisch and 4 other District Officers.

Key Club is the biggest High School Service organization in the world. It is Sponsored by the renowned Kiwanis Club.

Andrew Davis Gillis was born to John Davis Gillis II and Jennie Rena Markus on March 2, 1981.

Andrew Gillis is a busy young man. A normal day for him when he was in high school included classes at Jack Britt High School and Fayetteville Technical Community College, capped by hours of homework and Key Club paperwork.

Gillis was elected in the spring of 2004 as the Key Club Lieutenant Governor of Division 11 of the Carolinas District of Key Club International for the 2004-2005 term. Division 11, in 2004-2005, included Jack Britt, South View, Seventy-First, Terry Sanford, Gray’s Creek, Pine Forest, Cape Fear and Hoke County high schools.

Key Clubs are high school organizations sponsored by local Kiwanis Club chapters. The Key Club at Jack Britt was sponsored by Cumberland Kiwanis Club in 2004.

“I’m a liaison between the district and the individual clubs in this division,” Gillis said. “I pass information on to local school Key Clubs, and I have been visiting each one and letting them know who I am.

“I am responsible for a monthly newsletter that goes out to all of the local school Key Clubs,” Gillis said. “It’s about four pages, and I type up all of the articles and get the newsletter printed and sent out.”

He is a senior at Jack Britt for the 2004-2005 school year, where he graduated with a 4.7 grade-point average that is weighted with a total of 12 advanced placement courses. He was ranked twenty-first in a class of 414 students.

Gillis was a member of the Key Club beginning his sophomore year.

It’s hard for Gillis to find a moment to catch his breath during the day.

Each morning during his senior year, he worked as a helper in the school office before attending a Film One class. In this class, students edit raw footage of events such as ballgames and assemblies. The film is then shown on the school’s closed-circuit television.

About 11:30 a.m., he left for a calculus class scheduled at noon at FTCC.

He attended a programming and computer-based logic class Monday through Thursday at FTCC and was enrolled there in an advanced placement-type chemistry course. It met Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

On Fridays, Gillis would come back to the high school and volunteer to do whatever is needed to help teachers.

“At night, I go home and do homework, labs and Key Club paperwork,” Gillis said. “Sometimes, I’m up until around one in the morning. I stay extremely busy, but I like it that way. Sometimes it can be hectic. Like the other day, I looked down and saw I was almost out of gas. I had my mind on so many things that I had forgotten to even check the gauge.”

Gillis admits that he puts a lot of miles on his car each week but said it was worth it to attend the classes that he enjoyed at FTCC.

“And I really enjoy Key Club,” he said. “I want to continue with Circle K in college.”

Gillis planed to attend N.C. State University and major in aerospace and mechanical engineering.

“Andrew is just a great kid who is fun to be around,” said Conrad Lopes, principal at Jack Britt. “He works real hard and cares a lot about what is going on here. He is very involved and does so much for our school.”

But Gillis doesn’t limit his involvement to school activities.

He is a Salvation Army volunteer during the Christmas season and is active in his church, Cross Creek Presbyterian. He helped with activities there when the church sponsored a homeless family as part of the Cumberland Interfaith Hospitality Network.

Gillis has been on four mission trips. This past summer, he spent two weeks in Brazil and has traveled to Mexico. Gillis has worked, too, on inner-city projects in Miami and Atlanta.

“I really like helping people,” Gillis said, “and I like learning.”

The Key Club met weekly. Gillis was an executive board member of the school’s National Honor Society chapter, was a member of the Academy of Scholars and the French and was the president of Navigators club. Navigators Club members tutor other students and help new ones adjust to the school.

Gillis plays the bagpipes and is a member of the Cape Fear Pipes and Drums.

For fun, he rides his family’s horses and four-wheelers and goes hunting for deer and doves. When he has the time, he searches old newspaper articles for information on his family’s history.

“I like it all,” Gillis said. “The people here at Jack Britt are so nice and great to be around, and the Key Club work is not so much like work because I enjoy it. Staying busy is fun.”

He recieved a Scholarship to attend North Carolina State University in 2005 for $20,000 in the Textile field. In Spring of 2006 he left NC State to pursue other academics. In Summer of 2006 He began attending Fayetteville Technical Community College. In the fall of 2006 he was accepted into the Pharmacy Technician program at FTCC. In January 2007 he began dual enrolling at Campbell University to work toward getting his prerequisites for Pharmacy School.
04:01, 3 January 2007 (UTC)Andrew Gillis

<references/>Used from a news paper article from the Fayetteville Observer, Fayetteville, NC Originally published on Saturday, October 09, 2004 in the Saturday Extra category.By Thad Mumau
Correspondent
http://www.fayobserver.com/article_archive?id=967476&highlight=Andrew,Gillis,Andrew,Gillis