Los Medanos College clubs showed off their plans for the semester at the Spring in Bloom Club Festival in the outdoor quad, March 4. Club representatives tabled to charm potential members and fund raise for upcoming activities and events.
The event was busy, with many people buzzing from table to table, carrying bracelets laden with charms. 18 clubs had the chance to table, all of which handed out tiny charms to attendees at the festival.
“I am very proud of how it turned out,” said Diana Gutierrez, a H.E.A.L Club representative and one of the organizers of the event. “I think it was a really good way for people to express themselves in their clubs.”
“The charms are a little thing for everybody to really be together, like physically for everyone,” Gutierrez added. “Every student gets a little charm from each table and can make a bracelet, some earrings, a key chain, anything they want.”
Each table had personalized charms relating to their club in some way.
“I really liked the charm bracelet interaction with all the tables. It brought a lot of people,” said D’Anna Daquioag, an Inter-Club Council coordinator for Women in Stem. “We had a beaker charm, chemical compounds, DNA, and a gas mask. They were cute.”
WinS also had a live science demonstration with invisible ink and Windex, making text appear on a banner at their table.
The Games Club also had a table at the event and had around 40 people sign up, significantly growing its membership.
“We had little dice charms that were different colors,” said Dorian Borg, secretary for the Games Club, who was tabling at the festival. “They were so cool.”
“We got a good amount of people in the room,” Borg said Monday, at a weekly meeting. “More than last semester, which is nice to see.”
The Games Club is planning a game tournament later in the semester, and is excited for what is to come, said Borg. The club meets every Monday and Tuesday from 2:30 to 4:30pm in MU-208.
Some clubs took the opportunity to fund raise as well, selling food or crafts to attendees. The Kapwa club, focused on Filipino culture, handed out cotton candy for free and was a hit at the festival.
The Writer’s Guild, a club focused on creative writing at LMC, sold “a blind date” with a book. Attendees could purchase a mystery book wrapped like a present, then open it and see which book they got to read.
“People can experiment, maybe read a book they might not have otherwise,” said Cypher Elam, the club’s Discord coordinator. “Truly no judging a book by its cover.”
The guild will host a literature festival in April and fundraising at the fair was the perfect opportunity to prepare for the event.
“It was really exciting to see so many people get engaged and say, ‘Oh, I really want to join your club,’” said David Verdin, guild president. “This semester has been so much more exciting than the last.”
New clubs made an appearance as well, such as the Early Childhood Education club, which started this semester.
“We saw a lot of new members after the club fair, it was really nice,” said Ariaha Sanve, vice-president of the E.C.E. Club, who tabled at the event. “We sold a ton of stuff for fundraising as well.”
Sanve made the colorful bead crafts that the club sold.
“I had them already and was like, why not sell them, I want to help out the club and I am a part of it,” Sanve said.
The E.C.E. Club was founded this semester and hopes to not only provide childhood education majors with a community at LMC, but also babysitting and tutoring services, said Sanve, adding that the club fair was very good for getting the word out about the brand new club.
“It’s been hard to get events together because we are all so busy,” Sanve said, “The club fair helped us get ourselves out there.”
E.C.E. has several events planned and is hoping to get its in-home babysitting services up and running.
The club has a game night fundraiser March 21 at 5 in the Child Study Center. Their regular meetings are 5 to 6 Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the center. There are flyers around campus with information on how to join the club, or you can find their club online at their website.
