18 FEATURE
Junior Emma Duggan works on the FIRST robotics robot during a team practice. PHOTO PROVIDED BY HAYDEN GARD
Changing Gears
Clubs and other extracurriculars adapt and cancel gatherings, meetings and events during pandemic BY EMILY HELMUTH AUBREY BANKS co-editor-in-chief reporter It is fair to say that COVID-19 has changed the way students attend school, as we have transitioned from going two days a week to four to none. With these constant adjustments to the schedule, clubs and extracurriculars have had to change the way they operate. Performance based clubs, like theatre, have continued to rehearse in person but socially distanced. They have also limited the amount of people in their audience at a time. Theatre live-streamed their fall performance and plans to do the same with their spring musical. “We are doing our best to avoid those as much as possible. For performances, we are spacing the audience out and requiring masks,” theatre director Kit Degenhart said. “As of now, only two family members can attend a performance for each student
involved. We have also started live streaming our shows so more people can experience the production.” Degenhart notes that outside of the cast, the crew has also been impacted by the pandemic. “We are also practicing social distancing and mask wearing at our crew’s work sessions,” Degenhart said. “That’s a little easier, but sometimes there are jobs that require people to be closer than six feet apart. We are doing our best to avoid those as much as possible.” Community service based clubs have had to adjust meetings and fundraisers. For Student Council, events like selling candy grams and setting up the Christmas tree have been canceled, while events such as the blood drive were heavily altered. “The worst part is that the fundraisers go towards Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. We have fundraisers at Chipotle and Panera Bread coming up that can hopefully make up for those missing funds,” Student
Council sponsor Colleen Fano said. Even with the pandemic, Student Council is still able to meet over Zoom and the club did host a new kind of event this year. “I am proud to say that Student Council has still been an active club despite COVID-19,” Student Council president senior Matt Gerona said. “For example, we were able to host the first ever Gaga ball competition for Lurie Children’s Hospital which was a massive success.” Like Student Council, key club has also had to cancel many of its big events. “Sadly, because of COVID-19, we haven’t been able to have our Halloween or Christmas parties, which are two of our biggest events of the year,” Key Club president senior Jonah Peterson said. The pandemic has heavily limited the amount of community service Key Club can do, which according to Peterson can be challenging in a club based around community service. “As an officer in Key Club, it has been
