On September 10 at lunch, new and returning clubs participated in Club Day by setting up stands and recruiting students to join. It was a fun activity for students of all ages to see what extracurricular activities they could be a part of.
Students prepared their tables with colorful illustrations to catch the audience’s eye. Some posters had QR codes or a computer with a sign-up sheet along with candy. Returning clubs like Campolindo Civil War Days stood out with their United States flag and a member dressed up as a soldier from the Civil War.
Commissioner of student affairs, senior Patricia Da Vila Gill said there were over 150 clubs on campus that are open to students. The main clubs were made of academic clubs, service clubs, hobby clubs, athletic clubs, and affinity clubs.
This year also saw many underclassmen pitching new club ideas. Sophomores Leila Martynenko and Abby Tam started a nutrition club called Food in Mind to help educate students on what they’re putting into their bodies. Tam said they started the club because “We were super interested in nutrition and that’s what we want to do in the future.” They also wanted to start the club to help teach fellow students easy meal prep and strategies. Tam and Martynenko said the idea first emerged when they were concerned about their athletic friends for not eating breakfast. This year, they plan to host a meeting twice a month to help support students with their nutritional journey.
Sophomore Annabelle Sullivan began a new club to try to get dogs adopted called Paws for a Cause. Her primary goal is to help support local animal shelters and teach people about adopting rather than buying from a breeder. Her goal is to get dogs off the euthanasia list, saying “…shelters most likely don’t treat their dogs well and we’d get them out of those unsafe environments and put them into rescue homes or hopefully get them adopted.”
Many other sophomores began clubs, including Izzy Verbanzsky who began the Campo Historical Society. To help her achieve her gold award for girl scouts, Verbanzsky plans to teach Moraga about Campo’s own history. She will plan a website where she can archive all alumni interviews and photos into a digital display.
Junior Audrey Hsiao began the National Alliance on Mental Illness club, shortened to NAMI. She started the club to raise awareness about mental illness. She said, “Our goal is to do outreach about mental health and to volunteer. [We want to] try to help people out and destigmatize mental illness and we plan to do so through volunteering.”
Those who participated in club day this year overwhelmingly enjoyed looking around, grabbing some candy, and joining Campo’s array of new and existing clubs offered on campus.
