School is stressful. Luckily, there are clubs that meet during PREP on Fridays that are a wonderful way to alleviate stress and celebrate the end of the week. You can join three clubs that meet during PREP, one that meets on A days, B days, and C days. You can join many more clubs that meet solely after school.

Here are just a few of the unique clubs that Linganore has to offer.

Creative Writing Club

You can see a brainstorm brewing in Mr. Daniel Lake’s room with the Creative Writing Club. This club is mostly student-led, and their goal is to produce writing to submit to The Watermark, Linganore’s online literary magazine.

Most years, a physical magazine is produced with a sampling of some of the students’ writing submitted that year.

The young writers host writing parties usually once a month on Fridays after school.

What is a writing party? Beau Cameron, editor of The Watermark and president of the Creative Writing Club, defined it as a “safe space to be creative and express yourself. We get to have fun, receive input on our writing, and eat tasty snacks.”

Members are also encouraged to participate in contests through The Watermark and through other organizations. Specifically, club members support those participating in NaNoWriMo, a demanding challenge where participants have to write an entire novel in the month of November.

The creative thinkers, daydreamers, and rising novelists are all encouraged to join this club. Anyone wishing to explore different genres or improve their writing should join as well. There is no experience required to join this club.

Drama Club

Have a flair for the dramatic? Consider joining Drama Club which meets in the auditorium on club days.

“Even if you’re not enrolled in a drama or tech theatre class, you can still join this club and be a part of shows and plays,” said club treasurer, Hannah Haught.

This larger group of drama enthusiasts enjoys playing theatre games and acting exercises.

The officers for the 2017-2018 school year are: Christian Howard, Rozmia Fattah, Presley Dougherty, Hannah Haught, Macy Armagost, Samantha Buntman, and Sarah Jamison.

Robotics Club

The Robotics Team meets in Mr. Mark Lastova’s room on club days but they meet more than once in a blue mooooon. The team calls themselves Bovine Intervention, a pun on “Divine Intervention”. This club is more of a commitment than some of the others mentioned since they work together at Walkersville High School to compete in FIRST robotics competitions outside of school.

The students fundraise and market their club to raise the funds to design, build, wire, and program a robot to do certain functions during the FIRST competitions. They compete in an alliance consisting of three teams from three different high schools, and they battle against another alliance of three teams.

They emphasize working together as a team, and last season they were able to fix an integral part in five minutes during the semifinals. They lost the next match, but it wasn’t an udder failure because they were proud to say that their robot out-performed their other alliance members’ robots.

“We don’t just need students who are interested in designing, building, and programming robots. We also need students who interested in doing marketing such as taking and making videos and pictures, making flyers, outreaching to the community, and keeping our social media up to date. We are looking for students who think robots are cool and who are looking to learn and have some fun,” said president of the Robotics Club, Anthony Southmayd.

Any students or adults interested in participating in our club should email [email protected] so they can start prep for the next competition, Battle of Baltimore, immediately.

Anime Club

Do you watch Japanese Anime or have an interest in cartoons? Well then Anime Club may be for you.

It is held in the media center on club days and it is a tight knit community that enjoys various activities related to anime such as: trivia competitions, contests in art and writing, and playing games.

“It’s always amazing to see the artistic and creative talent in the students during the contests,” said club adviser, Mrs. Marsha Thompson.

Extreme Music Club

Headbangers and curious students alike congregate in Mr. Daniel Lake’s room on club days to listen to extreme heavy metal.

Students kick off the club by discussing why they listen to heavy metal and then they go on a scavenger hunt exploring all of the music put together by one artist.

Though they meet exclusively on club day, they are active on Google Classroom. On the club’s Google Classroom page, members often share the music they’re listening to.

It’s a small group of 12-15 people who regularly attend club meetings, and the most active members are part of the Class of 2019.

Lake said, “Metal fans and people interested in broadening their musical horizons should consider joining the club.”

Harry Potter Alliance (HPA)

If you’re seeing sparks flying from the media center, it’s probably just the Harry Potter Alliance practicing their spells.

A Headmaster, akin to Dumbledore, leads the club as the president and the Heads of House serve as the officers. Each year starts with sorting the new members into their respective Hogwarts houses of: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff.

Once the new recruits are sorted, there are competitions between the houses and there’s typically a Quidditch tournament at the end of the year.

They have one fundraiser or service project during the year and this year they had an extremely successful book drive.

Key Club

While Frederick does have the popular minor league baseball team called the Frederick Keys, this is not their fan club. Instead, Linganore’s Key Club is a part of the larger Key Club International which is one of the biggest service programs for high school students.

Linganore’s chapter of Key Club is student led by president Daniel Moore and with officers: Colleen Avila, Shelby Tkacik, and Haley and Devin Barge. This club meets in Mr. Brown’s room as he is the adviser of this club.

This year, they served in the community and in their own school. For example, they had a car wash at Food Lion and cleaned up around school.

Their goals for next year include gaining more members and having more fun activities to keep the members engaged.

Through Key Club, there are scholarship opportunities and ways to get service hours.

“It’s a great way to get involved in the community and help out while getting service hours,” said officer, Devin Barge.