One club, Students Against Violence Everywhere, SAVE, started by Juniors Arlie Rubin and Lainey Shapiro is a continuation of the national Sandy Hook Promise movement started to raise mental health awareness and provide resources for students. Both founders were committed to the cause after attending a Sandy Hook Clinic last year, inspiring them to bring a branch to Plant. Rubin answers a few questions concerning her and Shapiro’s new club, explaining their mission.  

Q: What’s your largest aim of the club? 

A: To one educate the community about mental health, gun violence and self-violence, as mental healt is a very big part of gun and self-violence, and to provide resources to people struggling with mental helth. Just to provide resources and education around the school community.  

Q: What are some events you have or will do? 

A: So, we are actually planning an art contest for the school and everyone can submit designs, drawings, and paintings that capture the theme of mental health awareness which is a very big part of violence. And were going to pick a winner out of one of those designs and that’s actually going to be painted as a mural in the guidance office, so that’s one thing we have coming that we’re really excited for.  

Q: What do you forward to most and why?  

A: So, the art contest is something I look forward to because one it’s a really good way to get the school community involved and get the word out about SAVE and just continue in spreading the message.  

Q: How does your club encourage new members or participation?  

A: Well social media is a big thing we are trying to get our word out on social media, we have an Instagram page and just word of mouth and there are certain months, like mental health awareness month, and there are certain weeks that Sandy Hook Promise has dedicated to specific themes, so just really getting our message out especially during those times as well. 

Q: What do you enjoy most about your club and why? 

A: I enjoy most the knowledge that it is helping people, you know if we tell the message to a 100 people but really it’s only going to impact one than it did its job, it’s just to help people and make sure they know there is a safe community at Plant where they can discuss these issues and learn about them and get resources if they need them.  

Another club, Helping Heroes Society, created by Junior Madison Lawrence dedicates itself to spreading awareness for the military and helping to support them.  Being part of military family, she was inspired to bring attention to veterans through the club by including students in events to help veterans and their families. Lawrence explains her upcoming plans for the club in the following questions.  

Q:  What is your largest aim of the club? 

A: Basically, to just spread awareness for the military and get more people to help support it, it’s basically just a military support club, so like so far, we’ve sent care packages and everything like that.  

Q: What are some events you have or will do? 

A: Well, some events we have done is like I said the care package one and on Pearl Harbour Day we made posters after and then we hung them up around the school, around campus, just to raise awareness for Pearl Harbour Day. Because sometimes some people can’t hear the announcement or sometimes people just don’t know it’s happening, so it’s nice to just remind everybody of a certain day like that. And so far, that’s all we’ve really done but we’ve been involved on club days and the club fair in the morning. But in the future, I know that we’re hoping to like to celebrate the days of each military branch, like when it originated basically sometimes, we want to give out pins or like bracelets just so everyone has a little reminder every now and then.

Q: What do you look forward to most and why? 

A: I look forward to the outreach we can get because living in Tampa with MacDill Airforce Base right down the street, there’s always so many opportunities for students and people in the community to get more involved. So, I’m excited for when COVID’s over or hopefully a little bit less intense, I’m hoping that we can get more outreach and touch more lives.  

Q: How does your club encourage new members or participation? 

A: We have a remind that we us my Vice President Hannah is responsible for sending messages int her Remind, basically just reminders about days that are happening, if it’s just an important day for the military, or like take a moment of silence, or basically stuff like that in any way we can reach out. We have our club members talk to their friends about it and try to get as members to events, that we can.  

Q: What do you enjoy most about your club and why? 

A: I like the happiness that it brings people, because when we did our drive for the supplies to send overseas we dropped it off at this headquarters place that sends them out all the time, and we had like three big boxes and the lady was just so beyond thrilled to see us stop in out of nowhere with so many supplies, And so just seeing that kind of happiness and knowing how many lives we touch with just that simple act was just nice to see. 

Lastly, another new club Speak Up, made by Junior Silvia Farfante highlights the importance of mental health awareness and strives to break the metal health stigma through education and events. Farfante felt that it was important for students to know that Plant is a safe environment for mental health issues and wants to aid in spreading awareness through creating the club. Farfante explains how her club creates a positive mental health at Plant in the following questions.  

Q: What made you want to start Speak Up? 

A: When realizing how young adults like us, teenagers, and such were not given a great base to learn about mental health and a safe environment to talk about it with our peers. I do think that psychologists and school counselors help a lot, but a lot of kids don’t know about these offers that they have, so I wanted to start Speak Up to bring attention to mental health and begin the ending of the negative stigma against it.  

Q: What are some events you have or will do? 

A: One event that we have done is going to the crisis center and helping them call businesses about flyers that they are helping to put out. We are also going to do some events with the elderly and getting them involved, which I really think will help their mental health in this pandemic as well as with people not being able to see them. And we will also be doing zoom calls with mental health speakers just so that people can really gain more knowledge about mental health and be able to talk about it with an educated adult.  

Q: What do you look forward to most and why? 

A: I look forward to the future and hoping that this pandemic comes to a close soon so that our club can meet regularly with the full members in person, I think mental health wise that’s a big drawback for us because people really need human interaction. 

Q: What do you enjoy most about your club? 

A: I enjoy most the inclusivity of the club and its mission, I really enjoy how everyone, and anyone can join no matter who you are, where you come from, or your background, and I also just love the people involved, they really want to make a difference, and you can tell everyone who’s in it are in it for the right reasons. 

Q: How does your club encourage new members or participation? 

A: With my club we love new members, and we do encourage everyone to be involved because it is something that someone struggles with in their life and will struggle with in their lives, so we do keep our Instagram public we love people to follow it, we update it with quotes, with events, we also have our remind on our Instagram you can text. So, we just love new members whenever they come, whenever they can come, and we just welcome everyone and anyone who wants to join.