International Club Helps Those in Need

By Ludo Gioacchini

The International Club is very popular among the students in fact this year there are about 36 students who joined the club. The International Club is a typical activity here at EHS, and every year students can’t wait to participate.The club has existed for 23 years and before it was called Foreign Language Club, so it has a very long history.

Mrs. Lancaster, the teacher who guides this club, said that students like it because they can learn about other cultures and languages. She said that the goal of the club is to expand students’ knowledge about other countries.

The club has changed over the years because of the number of students that join it and because of the number of people who have traveled abroad and have experienced different countries. This year the news is not only the number of students who joined it but, for the first time the club focuses on service projects.
The typical activities during the meeting are presentations from people from other countries or who have traveled abroad, or trying food from different countries. In the first activity period this year, the foreign exchange students talked about the differences, difficulties that they had met when they first came here. An example of the the new project took place during the last activity period when students prepared care packages that have been delivered to 10 families to the Mission Adelante in Kansas City.

Mrs. Lancaster and the group obtained a list of needed items for families in the Kansas City area. They gave the instructions on how to put the bags together and the International club spent the last meeting decorating the bags, writing a Spanish message and then filling them with food.

Unfortunately the club usually have meetings only during the Activity Period, but they have planned two activities that will take place outside school. The first one is going on February to El Porton, a Venezuelan restaurant, to learn something more about this country and obviously something about the food. And in April they will attend the World Expo at KU, where students from all over the world set up booths with clothing, food from their particular country. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about the country you have always wanted to visit, so maybe when you will have the chance to do that you will know exactly how to behave or what to eat or visit.

But while they are waiting for this day in April, the next meeting will be December 4th. During that meeting, the group will be collecting paperback books for Africa, sampling some African food, and playing a typical African game.