LHS’s annual club fair took place in September. As seniors checked it off as one of their lasts, doe-eyed freshmen searched and scanned the numerous extracurricular possibilities and experiences awaiting them. To make this year’s club fair extra special, 10 new clubs were added: French Club, Future Teachers of America, LEAD Club, Care 4 Cancer, Chess Club, Crafting Smiles, Drone Soccer, Science Bowl, Students Gifting Music, and Writing Society. Principal Matthew Sarosy is excited about these additions. “Between all these new opportunities for the students and the improvements to the library, I can already tell this is going to be a great year,” he said.
One new club that stands out this year is Crafting Smiles. This non-profit attracted nearly 100 potential members during the club fair. “It was a lot of work, but I knew it was something I was passionate about, and it needed to be brought to LHS,” founder and senior Yasmine Afzali expressed. While it is not easy to form a new club, determined students persevere, creating opportunities for others about which they are passionate. “We want to make sure there are clubs that have a purpose and will last in the long run,” Sarosy explained. “The toughest part is
definitely overlapping times and events,” he added.
Along with Crafting Smiles, Care 4 Cancer is another new club brought to LHS this year that has hit the ground running. The club conducted a fundraiser never done before, and students were ecstatic. The founders–junior Coral Roditi, junior Jess Ferrara, junior Emma Mylan, junior Sophia Dwyer, and junior Sophia Ficeto–creatively devised the idea of pieing teachers. They first collected a list of teachers willing to be victims and then narrowed it down to 10 teachers. Those who wanted to vote for a teacher contributed to the club’s cause by donating $1 for each vote. Students were extremely excited to see who won and would get pied in the face during the pep rally on Oct. 20. Students eagerly watched as science teacher Peter Dennis, P.E. and health teacher Brian Donaldson, English teacher Michael Spinella, and social studies teacher David Rabinowitz, the top-four candidates, were pied in the face. “We wanted to do something fun and different for our fundraiser,” Mylan said. “Raising money and pieing teachers? Double bonus!”
A lot goes on behind the scenes when making a new club. Being a part of clubs provides students with opportunities for new friendships and lessons in responsibility and communication. With around 200 new freshmen and upperclassmen searching for more opportunities to join clubs, it is likely these additional clubs will thrive. “I am thrilled that students have new outlets to express themselves and their passions,” Sarosy conveyed. “I can’t wait to see what the future holds for each and every one of [these clubs],” he added.
