New Clubs for a week

Misadventures in club hopping

Bella Fratkin

Business Manager

There’s no shortage of clubs at Arcata High School, so I set out to investigate what they have to offer. My plan was to attend one club each day but that didn’t work out.

It proved nearly impossible because of the irregular schedule and sometimes inaccurate club list. It took me two frustrating weeks to go to eight clubs.

The three club meetings that actually had students attending were Makers Club, Drama Club, and Interact Club.

No one attended Chess Club twice, Economics Club once, and Mountain Bike Club ended early. The Native American Club got canceled, the Associated Student Body (ASB) meeting was already over before I got there only ten minutes late.

My journey began with the ASB meeting. Jennifer Coriell is the advisor of this club and told me that these meetings go fast every Monday, and I can attest to that.

I didn’t get that memo, apparently, and it was over before I got there.

My next visit was to The Makers club on Tuesday. It’s overseen by advisor, Jason Sidell, and held in the collaboration laboratory better known as the CoLab.

It’s a creative space and with a spirit that supports people working together. That was apparent even in the brief 15 minutes I was there.

I was welcomed by some friendly juniors, John Gerving and Julian Wan, who explained how the Makers Club works. John shared the three most important principles held in Makers club, “Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Design.”

The Makers’ students worked together to make laser cut earrings, wooden ties, connect four boards, spinning coasters, and more to sell at the artisan fair at school.

For Wednesday’s club, I tried to attend Chess Club two Wednesdays in a row and had no luck. Advisor, Will Bagnall, said they came and went by the time I got there.

On Thursday, I tried to go to Asian American Pacific Islander club (AAPI) but no one was there because it actually happens on Tuesday, contrary to what’s said in the bulletin.

My next stop was the Native American Club. When I got there, the president told me it was canceled because no one showed up.

Onward to the chemistry room where the Mountain Bike club was meant to happen, but it had ended minutes before I arrived.

Lastly, I went to Adam Pinkerton’s room to see if the Economics Club was happening but it was the same as the others.

On Friday, I went to Drama Club which is normally overseen by Melanie Zapper.

Zapper was helping move a delivery into the Fine Arts Building so she wasn’t able to run the meeting. Instead club members, like Maxwell Sims, stepped into leadership roles, and got the meeting on track by keeping everyone engaged.

We played a theater game called mafia and those who know mafia know it can get pretty chaotic.

At the end of the meeting Zapper laid out some of the other club activities, like fundraising and planning trips to see plays in Ashland.

Since I had such little luck on finding clubs that were happening on Wednesday and Thursday, I attended an additional Friday club to try to make up for it.

For this, I chose Interact club who’s advisor is Davena Bagnall. It’s run by Seri Welsh, the president, and Lila Cohen, the vice president.

Interact club is a space where students can gain valuable leadership skills while making positive change in their communities.

A couple of current projects on the agenda are mural painting and a trash clean up at Carlson Park.

Bagnall described Interact Club as the high school version of Rotary Club. She also added that It’s almost entirely student run.

The leaders are very self motivated and are passionate about what they do.

They are currently brainstorming ideas for a mid-year social event for club members to get to know each other better.

Interact Club has made contributions to the school such as building and installing the benches in

The leaders are very self motivated and are passionate about what they do

- Bella Fratkin

front of the school and building the stone entrance to the senior lawn.

Some club members recently did some restorations to one of the benches and hope to be able to clean out the moss from the senior lawn entrance in the near future.

Normally they hold an annual spaghetti dinner to fund their projects but that is one tradition among the many others that the pandemic has halted.

Anyone is welcome to come attend Interact club meetings and be a part of their mission for change.

Meetings are held regularly in room 101 at the beginning of lunch on Fridays.

The Rotary Club also provides pizza for the Interact students since the meetings take place at lunch.

As lucky as we are to have a broad array of clubs to explore at AHS, my journey of discovery was hindered by misleading information in the bulletin, inaccurate listing in the schedule, super short meetings and my own challenges with the clock.

Here’s to hoping the bulletin and schedule get fixed soon, so with a little more luck than I had, your club dreams can come true.

Bella Fratkin/PEPPERBOX Interact Club members and advisors pose for a photo at the end of their lunch meeting in the small gym