Anna Claire Mitchum  | Raider Staff

Loudoun County has a club fair every September, where approximately fifty active clubs try to recruit new members. This year we have three new clubs: Hiking Club, Awareness for World and Local Conflicts, and Animal Rescue Club.

“I started the club to share a passion of mine with more people in order to possibly ignite the same passion in them,” founder of Hiking club, Tomasz Anders, said. “We will hike and try to admire nature more than we do in our everyday lives,” Anders said.

“We had our first meeting last week and planned our first hike, which is at Ravens Rock at noon on the Sunday following Homecoming,” Anders said. “The first hike was successful, there were about 15 students who joined us Sunday. In the future we hope to continue hiking.”

Anders is pleased with the club at the moment and hopes it will continue after he graduates.
Awareness for World and Local Conflicts (AWLC) club is also new this year. “We started this club because we wanted to raise awareness for what actually goes around locally and in the world. We want to do our parts as young adults to make a difference,” founder of AWLC, Henna Patel, said. “We are going to go out in the community and work with different charities, organizations, and shelters.”

“We have had our first meeting and we would have expected more people to show up, but it’s just because we haven’t really spread the word,” Patel said. “We hope to expand the club and we will want to hold events at the school where the entire community can get involved.” Patel has big plans for the future and wants her club to make a difference.

Another new opportunity came this year with the Animal Rescue Club. “This club exists because Sam Hartmann asked me to sponsor it. He knows that I love animals; therefore, he figured I would be willing to sponsor a club whose purpose is to help animals,” sponsor Kathryn Ives said. “So far the club has had a pet supplies drive for animal victims of Hurricane Florence in North Carolina. This netted about 100 pounds worth of food as well as other supplies, like paper towels and pee pads,” Ives said.

“We have already had three meetings and they are going fine. Our first meeting had over 30 students interested in joining the club. We hope to have more pet supply fundraisers since inability to feed one’s pet can be a reason people surrender their pets to shelters. We will also continue to work with the Loudoun Humane Society and other animal rescue organizations in Loudoun County, helping them in whatever ways we can from volunteering at fundraisers to walking dogs at adoption events, to helping out at the actual shelter in any way needed,” Ives said. She hopes to continue working with animal rescue club.

Loudoun County clubs are student-led and will fail or thrive based on how much effort students give. Being involved in a club is a great way to spend time with friends and make a difference.