Christmas in the Air
Creating a new club can be a daunting task. However sophomore Calli Maroulis decided to start the Christmas club, even though the process was difficult, and turned it into a reality with friends at her side.
“We got the idea last year sitting at lunch,” Maroulis said. “[sophomores] Ashley Jackson, Julia Peters, Katherine McKinney and I started talking about how much we loved the Christmas season, but that having to take finals really ruined our spirits, and it would be amazing if there was a way we could enjoy our holiday season more. There’s a quote that says whenever you’re feeling down, what will help you most is to help others, and that’s really what inspired us to become a real club.”
Becoming a club isn’t as easy as it may seem, however. You must first attend an informational meeting, where you can receive a packet to fill out explaining the purpose of your club at the school. After that, you must find one or more teachers to sponsor the club, until finally only the most deserving clubs are selected to be school supported.
“We chose Ms. Smith, the art teacher, as our sponsor, and she was totally supportive,” Maroulis said. “She’s also very creative and wanted to help us with our club.”
A club cannot be complete without members. Club presidents and board members have a chance to recruit other students at the annual club fair. Having a lot of members gives clubs the chance to raise a lot of awareness and funding, making manpower the most important aspect of success.
“I was really nervous for the club fair because I had no idea if anyone was actually going to sign up for our club,” said Maroulis. “I asked my friend, sophomore Marian Rozyczko, who was already asked to be a part of the club when we were registering, to sit at the table during 4th period lunch. She sent me a picture during that same period and the sign up sheet had almost 50 people on it already. It was one of the most exciting moments because our dream was becoming a reality. During 5th and 6th period lunches even more people signed up and bought a t-shirt in exchange for a cookie.”
Secretary sophomore EC Stanzel was a part of the original group that decided to start the club. At meetings, Stanzel works to check people in at meetings, collect t-shirt sizes and money and make posters to represent the club at events like the club fair.
“The club meets at least once a month, usually on the third Tuesday in Ms. Smith’s classroom. The meetings usually last from about 20 to 25 minutes before school. As the secretary, I work to sign people in at each meeting,” Stanzel said. “Being secretary has given me the opportunity to meet a lot of the people that signed up. Mostly freshmen girls signed up, and I think it’s cool for them to be able to meet upperclassmen. The members are really excited for everything we are planning to do with the club while spreading the Christmas spirit. Our club is also a good chance for freshmen to start working on service hours.”
There’s a variety of clubs, from Bible studies to knitting circles, you can find a group that helps you do what you love. For Christmas club, that shared interest is the love of Christmas spirit and spreading that idea to those who might be struggling financially or mentally during the holiday season. The club plans to not only spread Christmas cheer around the halls of our school, but into the community around us as well.
“Our plans for service projects this year take place in our school and in the Dallas area as well,” Stanzel said. “At the meetings we have a time for people to suggest local charities we can partner with to help them with their Christmas projects, like serving food and collecting toys for families and children in need. Right now, we are still trying to figure out the best-fit organization to partner with for our projects. Around the school, we want to do a candy-gram event during December as a way to spread Christmas spirit to students and faculty who might be having a bad day, because that was the main reason we started the club to begin with.”
With upcoming meetings and scheduled service projects, the leaders of the Christmas Club plan on growing the club over its first year, and hopefully expanding the size and impact of the club at the school and in the community.
