Clubs enlist new members at Activities Fair

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Lucas Cohen-d'Arbeloff/Chronicle

Idalis McZeal ’23, Jane Hamilton ’22 and Ava Weinrot ’23 run the Best Buddies club booth, having secured a spot out of the blazing sun.

Lucas Cohen-d'Arbeloff

Prefect Council hosted the Activities Fair on the Ted Slavin Field on Wednesday, allowing students to explore the variety of clubs and student interest groups offered this year and speak to the leaders of each activity. Clubs set up booths along the track of the field and encouraged students to join as they passed by.

Many club leaders decorated their booths and arranged sign-up sheets, while others created QR codes for students to scan, each linked to a Google Form. Some handed out food items to those who registered for their clubs, such as the Westflix film festival club handing out popcorn and Community Council providing snow cones. Members of Prefect Council also walked around the track with Krispy Kreme donuts.

Co-President of the Clean Technology Club Konnie Duan ’23 said running a booth at the Activities Fair allowed her to engage with more students about important environmental issues.

Sophia Evans ’23 and Eve Levy ’22 pose in front of their table for the Animators Club, offering free flip-books while students peruse the more than 100 club offerings. (Lucas Cohen-d’Arbeloff/Chronicle)

“I think the fair went well,” Duan said. “We got a lot of sign-ups, and I felt encouraged because a lot of people seemed genuinely interested in topics like renewable energy. These ideas are so current and important, and it felt really gratifying.”

Junior leader of Best Buddies Ava Weinrot ’23, whose club works with intellectually disabled children, said managing the booth throughout the entire event was a challenge.

“The only annoying thing is that someone always needed to be manning the club table,” Weinrot said. “Since most of us are part of multiple [clubs and activities], not all of us had a lot of time to walk around because we were managing all of these tables. That was difficult, but it was still a fun experience.”

Many students registered for a variety of different activities as they made their way through the Activities Fair. Samuel Hines ’24 registered for four clubs — Harvard-Westlake Outreach Performers, Model United Nations, Peer Support and Babel, the foreign language magazine — and said he enjoyed strolling around the field with friends and learning about opportunities on campus.

“I thought [the fair] was really well put together,” Hines said. “Having this communal event of walking around the track was an interesting experience and really enjoyable. All of the club leaders were very energetic and truly wanted people to join their groups.”