Leaf Club celebrates individuality and creativity

By Emma London, Staff Writer|January 19, 2018

Photo credit: Emma London

Eighth graders and Leaf Club leaders Zoe Bush, Glory Chase, Bess Frierson and Paola Hoffman pose with their leaf mascot and a paper crane. The club often does arts and crafts projects during their meetings.

Eighth-grader Glory Chase stood outside of the meeting for aspiring club leaders trying to gather other students who would “crash” the meeting with her. She wanted to start a club, but she just wasn’t sure what it would be or who she would lead it with.

Paola Hoffman ‘22 agreed to start a club with Chase. The two proposed the Town Of Salem Club, a game that “challenges players on their ability to convincingly lie as well as detect when other players are lying,” according to their website.

But since it is an online multiplayer game, this proposal was turned down. They only had one day to come up with another idea before the club proposal forms were due.

That’s when inspiration struck Chase.

“The first thing I saw was a leaf, so [I thought of] the Leaf Club,” she said.

“We just started with the word Leaf Club and said, ‘Who wants to join?’” Hoffman said. “We didn’t even know what we were going to do.”

The two quickly recruited fellow eighth graders Amalea Brown, Zoe Bush and Bess Frierson to co-lead the club. But the leaders recalled facing adversity at the start.

“A lot of people think the Leaf Club isn’t real,” Bush said. “Like maybe we’re a mythical unicorn club.”

However, the student leaders were surprised when 31 students came to the first meeting, making it one of the school’s most popular student-clubs.

The leaders describe the Leaf Club as a place to connect with other students and create a stronger community.

“[We] have fun, make food, do something random or take a break from something usual,” Hoffman said.

The Leaf Club encourages all faculty to come and engage in the activities along with students. From watching Bee Movie to making flower crowns, the club offers a variety of activities for the Archer community. 

The Leaf Club leaders are unsure if the club will continue next year but hope that clubs “celebrating weirdness and individuality” will persist.

“[When we graduate], we’ll have a mass of sweatshirts and club clothes,” Hoffman said. “When someone asks what we did, we can say we led the Leaf Club, we led the Shoe Club, we led the Armadillo Enthusiast Anonymous club.”