The Friends of Rachel club has experienced a few changes this year with one primary adviser and meetings switching to after school. Club adviser Julie Yahner took some time to discuss the club.
Q: Why did this club start?
A: “We started friends with Friends of Rachel when I was still a counselor at the junior high, so it’s been a pretty long time. We had a really powerful assembly from Rachel’s Challenge and implemented Rachel’s challenge into our school. We wanted to do that because we were really inspired by the story of Rachel Scott, who was the first victim of Columbine. Her and her life story about how she did really just small, kind things in people’s lives really made a big impact, so we wanted to bring that to our school.”
Q: Why did the club change?
A: “We’re just really changing with the times. So really the club hasn’t changed, it’s just we’re changing when we’re meeting. We’re just going to have more after school meetings than in school.”
Q: Do you think the club needed to change?
A: “I want members that are very dedicated and that really want to have a positive impact on the school and their peers, and I feel that the time change might show a little more dedication on the students’ part. We definitely don’t want to have a club where the students want to join because they can get out of class.”
Q: How are members adjusting to this change?
A: “We’ve only had one meeting so far, but we’re going to have an upcoming second meeting. The first meeting went very well. I could see there was a lot of dedication on systems part. Some students even went to two meetings. They had another meeting that day, and they ran over and came to our meeting. I think that it showed a lot of dedication. At the first meeting, we wrote letters to new students, and I think that went really well. The students did a really good job on their letters.”
Q: Do you think kids were abusing the club time or did they last year?
A: “I think that we had a lot of kids that were like, ‘oh, Friends of Rachel meets during school.’ They wanted to be part of that club because it was a period a month that they could get out of the class, and even though they didn’t get out of class a lot, I think some kids were just wanting to join it because their friend did or because they heard our meetings were during school. So that’s why we made a shift to after school. We might still have some meetings during school, but that’s going to be once the club is established and we know who our members are, and they’ve come to some after school meetings, then we might have some in school meetings later.”
Q: Do you think the club lost or gained more members from the change?
A: “We definitely have. We do not have as many members, but that’s okay with me because the members that we do have are showing a lot of dedication.”
Q: Are all the meetings always going to be after school?
A: “We’ll go back and forth. It’ll be some during and then we’ll have some after school as well.”
Q: Is there anything you would like to add?
A: “I would like to mention [Rachel’s] closet because I think the closet is very successful. The kids that are working down there are doing a really nice job. They’re very welcoming. They’re keeping it organized. They’re actually doing laundry, so they wash the clothes before they go out on display. It’s a lot to keep the closet organized, so we definitely want to promote the closet as part of the club as well. I think that it’s running really well this year.”
