Fair Grove Clubs on Covid and the Future

Fair Grove High School offers a multitude of clubs that appeal to various interests and hobbies that students at the school might have. While COVID-19 has negatively impacted these clubs in the past school year, they plan to recover and improve by next year.

In chess club, students can play chess and practice strategies. In the past few years they were able to join a small chess league where they competed against other clubs, but unfortunately COVID cancelled the league for the year. There shouldn’t be any changes in chess club next year other than hopefully returning to competing in tournaments. Michael Van Cleave, who sponsors chess club, stated, “Any student who is interested in chess should join, even if they don’t know how to play (because we will teach you!).” Chess club meets every Tuesday after school until 4:30 in the middle school commons.

Ukulele club offers students a place to learn and play the ukulele, as well as having ukuleles available to borrow if students don’t have their own. Because of COVID, the club wasn’t able to share ukuleles and had to be sure to sanitize any ukulele they borrowed before use. Next year the sponsor, Audra Harmon, hopes they will be able to meet a little more regularly and said, “I would also like to incorporate a few performance opportunities outside of school. Or even playing the National Anthem at basketball games.” If students have an interest in learning or practicing ukulele, this is the club for them. Ukulele club meets every Thursday in Harmon’s classroom.

In Book club, students can participate in book discussions, book scavenger hunt games, escape room activities, and an end of the year Easter egg hunt in the library. The book club was still able to meet this year with COVID going on, but they saw a decrease in the number of attendees. Chanda Lemon, middle and high school librarian, is in charge of book club, and shared, “Next year, I hope to increase our attendance and focus on some of the new 2021-2022 Gateway titles.” Students who enjoy reading or just want to participate in fun activities should join the club. The book club meets in the library once a month.

FFA (Future Farmers of America) is a club where students can participate in academic competitions, public speaking, community service events and more, which all revolve around agriculture. COVID led many of these events to be held virtually this school year. There are no planned changes for FFA next year according to sponsor and Ag teacher Matt Crutcher. Any students who have an interest in agriculture, farming, or animals should definitely join FFA. FFA meets once every month in the Ag building.

FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) and DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) is a club that strives to prepare students for careers in business, finance, marketing, hospitality and management. Due to COVID, they were not able to participate in any in-person events, and saw a slight decrease in involvement from students. Next year, however, they plan to go back to being actively involved in the community and participating in in-person events and outings. “It’s a club that gives students the opportunity to belong to something bigger than themselves,” says Cayse Overstreet, who sponsors the club. If students want to show employers that they are active members in their school and community, this is the perfect club to do that. FBLA and DECA have meetings once a month in the library or gym; in addition they have many events that take place in both the school and community throughout the year.

COVID-19 has had a big effect on all the clubs here at Fair Grove this year, but they hope to recover and come back even better next year. They all expect to have more involvement in the coming school year. All of the faculty sponsors are passionate about the clubs they are engaged with, and encourage students with interest to get involved.