Have you ever heard of Smile Club? Smile stands for Something More In Life’s Experience. Students of all abilities can come together in a social atmosphere by playing board games, doing crafts like painting and creating cards, as well as physical activities including kickball, kan jam, and bowling. The goal is to develop social relationships with peers that foster higher self-esteem, greater self-confidence, and stronger communication skills. Smile Club, which meets once a month and is monitored by Mrs. Rossi, Mrs. D’Aponte and Dr. Sperduto, allows all students to make a connection with everyone and anyone in the school.

The first meeting on October 19th had a great turnout with plenty of new faces, including the entire girls varsity volleyball team. For the first 15 minutes, everyone introduced themselves. They did an exercise where they thought of an adjective that starts with the first letter of their first or last name. Everyone stood up, and said the adjective and their name to introduce themselves. After saying their name and adjective, they were directed to write them down on a big piece of paper. Everyone in the club signed the banner which will be hung up for every club meeting. The purpose of this activity was to uplift everyone in the club. For the rest of the meeting, we attended the Environmental Club’s Fall Festival.

Dr. Spuduto discussed a few upcoming and past events that Smile has hosted. Hosted for AHRC, Smile will run the annual Christmas party in December. Other fun events are the Empire Games at Mitchell Field in June, the Individuality Dance Company, and the Spring Fling. This year, we will be expanding Smile Club to the entire building to spread positivity on Smile Day. If you are interested in joining, the Google Classroom code is 9gzjo6f.