Lauren Rayman

      HAPPY recently hosted a breakfast to help welcome new students in the district to Stow-Munroe Falls High School.

     On Tuesday, October 29, HAPPY’s breakfast mixer was held for the 75 high school students that are new to the district. The mixer was held during 2nd and 3rd periods in the library.

     Students that attended participated in lots of activities to get to know not only other new students, but to also get to know HAPPY members.

     “We did an “I Like People Who…” game which is like musical chairs and a speed dating game to get people to know each other better,” senior HAPPY member Meghan Koch said.

     While HAPPY was planning the mixer, they divided club members to help ensure that all of their bases would be covered for the event.

     Once they had chosen a date, people were assigned to deciding what food they wanted to have for the breakfast portion of the mixer, and others were assigned to coming up with games and activities that they would do at the mixer.

     Junior Tony Madjerich attended Chippewa during his sophomore year of high school, but had gone to Stow previously. He felt that the breakfast mixer was a great opportunity to reconnect with people he knew before transferring to Chippewa.

     “It also allowed me to meet more people I had not known from being at Stow before,” Madjerich said.

     HAPPY’s breakfast mixer provided students that were new to the district a chance to meet other students in the same situation as them.

     Ryan Hinman, an English teacher and HAPPY advisor, feels that it is very important to make those connections with other students as soon as possible, especially in high school.

     “Everyone needs support groups, and when you come to a new school you don’t always have the support groups you need. You might not have the people surrounding you that can help you out, which makes you prone to, unfortunately, maybe bullying or feeling left out of the general culture of the school. So, this is a chance for other students who may not have those support groups to come together, find them, have a great time and a wonderful breakfast, and feel like Stow cares about them as much as we really do,” Hinman said.

     Koch and Hinman both feel that the overall, the event was a great success in helping new students befriend each other and HAPPY members. It also gave new students the opportunity to connect with HAPPY’s advisors.

     Students interested in joining HAPPY can visit Hinman’s room, room 108, for more information. HAPPY meets during 5th and 7th period lunches on Wednesday’s.