Tag archives: Key Class

A Key Event
By Richard Mineards   |   November 7, 2023

Uber party planner Merryl Brown hosted a garden party at her East Valley Road antebellum-style home for former international event producer John Daly’s 12-year-old Key Class, which mentors at-risk and other students in learning important life skills, including social etiquette. With a $120,000 annual budget, it has taught more than 10,000 students, mostly from the […]

The Key to Success
By Richard Mineards   |   May 16, 2023

John Daly’s Key Class graduated some of the smartest and most talented eighth graders in town at the MOXI Children’s Museum. The ceremony had no parents, just chaperones and teachers. Keynote speaker was Daisy Fuentes of UCSB, who shared her inspiring journey as a first-generation college student. The graduation was funded by the Audacious Foundation, […]

The Key Class
By Steven A. Blum   |   July 19, 2022

John Daly was in his mid-60s and had already enjoyed a highly successful career as an international event producer who advised his Fortune 100 corporate clients on proper protocols at the Olympics and World Cup and other such events around the world. But his awareness that the overwhelming need for more civility and social skills […]

Learning Life Skills from The Key Class
By Stella Haffner   |   February 22, 2022

“My parents don’t work in an office, and they never went through interviews. So they wouldn’t be able to teach me this type of stuff,” says Fatima Lopez. A first generation American and the first in her family to attend college, Fatima reminds me that details such as how to conduct yourself at an interview […]

The Key Class: A First-Hand Experience
By Stella Haffner   |   February 8, 2022

Since I was about elbow height, I’ve been making grocery shopping difficult for my mother. If I’m honest, I’ve probably been making it difficult since before then. But it was around four or five years old that I developed the especially vexing habit of zoning out, stepping on her heel, and having us both ram […]

Ps and Qs
By Richard Mineards   |   October 31, 2019

Afternoon tea and champagne was on the menu when John and Marti Daly and the Key Class, a nine-year-old organization that teaches students the manners and etiquette they need to succeed, threw a fundraiser at the Ennisbrook Club House. Seasons Catering of Ventura donated their services for the 60 guests at the fun fete which […]

Holding the KEY
By Richard Mineards   |   May 9, 2019

It was a night on the tiles for more than 500 underserved school students over a two-day period when Montecito resident John Daly‘s nine-year-old organization, the KEY Class, which teaches youngsters social and business etiquette, threw a graduating dinner on the roof of the MOXI museum. The four-course dinner, prepared by Seasons Catering, was underwritten […]