The longstanding leaders of Menlo’s Happiness Club have graduated, but new senior leaders are in place with new ideas for the upcoming school year. Staff photo by Bella Scola.

By Electa Narasin

After two years with the same leaders Sophia Davirro, Darcy Matsuda, and Amy Shoch, Happiness Club faces a new year with new leaders and ideas.

Seniors Kathryn Wilson, Abby Wolfenden, Ellie Kunwar, and Kristin Sellers will be serving as the leaders this year. “As leaders, [Wilson], [Wolfenden], [Kunwar], and I are basically in charge of coming up with activities for each week and getting members to bring materials for the activities,” Sellers said.

They have numerous ideas for the year to come. “We are working on getting a budget so that we can host more lunchtime activities and give out more food,” Wilson said. “All activities we plan are designed to promote happiness, whether it is posting post-it note compliments around campus or providing arts and crafts supplies during lunchtime for people to make friendship bracelets. Our events are spontaneous, so people are usually pleasantly surprised.”

The new leaders have discussed specific initiatives they hope to implement this school year. “We’re trying to have days where we bring in flowers, balloons, lemonade, root beer floats, and more fun things during lunch. Also, one of my favorite new ideas is “Tat Tuesday” where we bring in temporary tattoos or henna for students to do during lunch,” Sellers said.

Other leaders mentioned additional ideas that they have developed. “Some of our new ideas for next year include Fruit Fridays, giving out ‘encourageMINTS’, and M&M Monday’s,” Wilson said. “We are planning a lot of fun new activities […] including Gum and Strum[…], Music Mondays and more,” Kunwar said.

In addition to new student leaders, with Brad Ward leaving Menlo, there will also be new teacher advisors. English teacher Cara Plamondon and Spanish teacher Janet Tennyson have joined the happiness team.

The new leaders are excited to expand and grow their club as well as spread happiness and tranquility across campus to promote a stress-free way of life.