S. L. FULLER
News Editor
It’s that time of the year once again, when clubs eagerly set up shop in Steele Hall to try to persuade students to join their organizations. As these students are milling around, looking at tables and deciding what clubs look interesting, there are some organizations that they make a point to look for. Clubs like S.T.E.P.S, Pride Alliance and Sigma Kappa that have been at Fredonia for years and years have garnered reputations. But there are some brand new clubs this semester that are making their Activities Night debut.
These new clubs include:
• Fredonia Democrats
• The American Society for Quality Group of SUNY Fredonia
• Astronomy Club
• Transfer Student Organization
• Fun and Logic Club
• Hope for Honduras
• Finder’s League
• Turkish Association
• The FIT Effect
“I think transfer students always thought it would be too hard to start a club knowing that there is a two-year turnaround; members join and graduate before they can really get involved,” said Kevin Gleason via email. He is a junior theatre arts and marketing double major.
Gleason is the president of the newly created Transfer Student Organization. A club like TSO seems like one that would already exist at Fredonia along side the transfer student honor societies. But Gleason, a transfer student himself, felt a void and took on the task of creating the brand new club in order to fill it.
“This club was created to help the transfer students on campus feel more comfortable with Fredonia,” continued Gleason. “When transfer students come here, they feel like freshmen in a way. We wanted to create a club that would allow other transfers to meet students in the same situation as them. When I first came here, I became friends with mostly freshmen. This club has allowed me to meet (and make) some pretty great friends.”
Now here’s a club that’s a little more unexpected than TSO: Finder’s League. This new club, created by sophomore criminal justice major Nicholas “Goat” Martines, is centered around geocaching. In a nutshell, “geocaching” is like a scavenger hunt, in which the goal is to find items called “caches.” Finder’s League will be dedicated to those kinds of adventurous activities.
“Not many people know about geocaching,” said Martines, via email, when asked why he thought that there’s never been a club like his at Fredonia before. “Also, because Fredonia tends to be an arctic wasteland for most of the year, outdoor clubs find themselves out for a lot of the school year. However, I plan on using indoor places to hide caches as well.”
Martines said that he’s excited that Finder’s League became a provisional group and has the chance to be at Activities Night.
“Hopefully we can get more people involved to the point that we have a solid group that enjoys activities such as hiking, visiting nearby parks and maybe an occasional game of campus wide hide-n-seek,” said Martines.
Jordan Goold, junior social studies major, also created a club akin to his interests. However, it’s not an activity — it’s a cause. Goold is the president of Hope for Honduras, a club that represents the Little Angels Foundation, which fights to decrease the infant mortality rate in Honduras.
“Personally, I have been involved with the foundation, and I have been on six trips to Honduras,” said Goold via email. “Two of those trips [were] to the hospital [that] is the inspiration behind the Little Angels Foundation and the Hope for Honduras Club here at Fredonia.”
During his trips, Goold was able to see the infant care units firsthand. It was that experience that inspired him to create a club on campus.
“For me personally, I will do all I can to aid in this fight,” said Goold. “Using a Fredonia club seemed like a great way to raise awareness as well as offer students a chance to have an impact on the world around them — and even possibly save lives.”
Activities Night is definitely not an event to be missed. From talking politics with Fredonia Democrats, to geocaching with Finder’s League, the variety of clubs on the Fredonia campus keeps growing and diversifying every semester.