Within AHS is a huge, thriving community of students, many whom are unified thanks to various clubs at our school. These countless clubs span across a variety of topics, ranging anywhere from spreading cultural awareness to taking care of the environment, all with the purpose of bringing people together under a common interest. This year, new clubs have begun to gain traction, two of which include the Atoms Pokemon Club and the Crochet Club.
Having made their debut this year, the Atoms Pokemon Club is one of the newest clubs of the school, sponsored by Glenn Loup and Jessica Swee. Their first meeting was right before Thanksgiving Break which exceeded the initial expectations of Sujoy Sarker, the founder and president of the club.
“It was a very huge success,” Sarker said. “We had over 20 people in our meeting, and we gave out cards for free—everyone loved it.”
The club began with Sarker’s unconditional love for Pokemon, as he has been very passionate about it ever since he was a kid. Knowing there were already a lot of Pokemon fans among his peers, he decided to join forces with his close friend and current vice president, Maximo Rodriguez, to create the Atoms Pokemon Club. This was an unexpected project for Sarker, as he had never imagined ever starting his own club.
“My favorite thing is just being able to do what I love and being able to talk about it to people,” Sarker said.
According to Sarker, the club’s main goal is to simply create an environment for Pokemon fans of all kinds to bond, regardless of prior knowledge or experience with Pokemon. He also wishes to introduce more people to Pokemon, offer opportunities for members to collect cards, and provide help for any Pokemon-related inquiries.
“I wanted to build a community where people can just talk about Pokemon—talk about the game, the show, the cards—and just have fun,” Sarker said.
Similarly, the Crochet Club also aims to build a lighthearted community for students with a shared interest in crocheting. Currently, the club is run by two presidents, Diana Clavijo and Keylee Alfaro Aldino, with the objectives of teaching others how to crochet as well as giving back to the community.
“We just want to give back to people, like animal shelters or just people in need in general,” Aldino said.
Sponsored by Timothy Hardy, the club technically made its debut last school year, but the club unfortunately did not have a solid plan nor could they recruit enough members to be successful. This year, however, the club has started on a much stronger foundation, recruiting about 20 members at their first meeting of the year.
“My favorite thing is that I get to see new people try this hobby,” Aldino said. “For me, it’s really fun and refreshing, so it’s really good to see people try something new.”
The Crochet Club is currently working on Crochet For Paws, a project where they crochet donations to animal shelters in order to support the animals. They also hope to launch a similar project later in the year for retirement homes. The Atoms Pokemon Club, likewise, has a few projects planned for the year, a major one being the introduction of a tournament system for the members to compete in.
One prominent lesson that Aldino learned from beginning a club was the importance of patience, especially in the early stages of the club’s growth.
“When we started [our club], we thought a lot of people would come, but we only had less than 10 people,” Aldino said. “But this year, we had a lot more people coming, so you just have to wait and see if people will come out.”
Additionally, Sarker noted that it was very important for him to have a strong support system among his peers as well as within his sponsors.
“It’s important to see if the people like the thing your club is about,” Sarker said. “You also need to have a lot of support from your friends and your teachers.”
Both Aldino and Sarker are excited with the promising beginnings of their clubs, and they hope that their clubs continue their strong upward momentum as the year progresses.
“In the future, I really hope to see more people join the club,” Aldino said. “I’m very happy with the progress we’ve already made, and I can’t wait to watch the club grow and see what we can achieve.”
