New year, means new possibilities, and new clubs. The Glamor Pals Club now a new club at Malden High starts the year with their newly founded club. The Glamor pals are made of their President Sarah Pham, Vice President Helen Xie, Pr officer Julianna Lin, and Treasurer Henry Dzuong. The Glamor Pals club consists of opportunities to gain volunteer hours by helping the elderly in various volunteering events. The club provides opportunities to volunteer with the elderly every Tuesday at the Forestdale Park Senior Center. The club provides an opportunity to give back to the community in a positive light that also gives participants a chance a scholarship. It provides a way of volunteering that gives back to the community.
The club first started from a spark of an idea from President Sarah Pham. “Well, I was just kind of looking for something to do, especially with, like volunteer hours” Pham stated. She mentioned she decided to pick helping the elderly as the volunteer option as she feels they are overlooked. “Then we decided to work on this, especially because, like, you know, like, senior centers, specifically, like, I feel like they’re very, not looked at right now.”
President Pham mentions starting the club was surprisingly not a difficult process. She started by contacting organizations and grouping together her friends to start a council. “Actually really easy, because like, they had a website, it was more just like finding it, like, cause I was looking for those kinds of things before like, I was considering, like DECA(Distributive Education Clubs of America)” Pham stated. The name Glamour Pals rooted from the organization they decided to work with called Glamor Gals. Pham mentioned they changed the name to be more inclusive to those who wanted to join the club.” It’s the first time it’s been here at this high school, but like, overall, like they have, I think, 600 chapters with other high schools and colleges” Pham mentions.
Vice president Helen Xie mentions her hopes for the impact of the club.” I hope we can build a better community, not only within our club, but also with the senior centers that we end up going to and being able to build a connection with the people there” Xie stated. Pham has high hopes for the future of the club as well, as they continue to bring in many members.” I hope we can build a better community, not only within our club, but also with the senior centers that we end up going to and being able to build a connection with the people there.”
Xie mentions how others can resonate with the club, with it being common for many people to have grandparents who are in senior centers. “I’m sure a lot of us can resonate with, you know, having maybe like grandparents that are in senior centers, and maybe they might not be able to visit a lot. And I think that’s also another reason to be able to help others as well”.
To the member’s surprise, the club was a big hit with many participants joining the first week. Many students joined within the first meeting with many others joining following the weeks passing. I was expecting, like, maybe 10 people, but like, we had like, what twenty, twenty-five ish” Pham mentions.
The Glamor Pals continue to strive as they bring new events to the table every week. Look for the Glamour Pals every Thursday in room H302. “I think like, our community within our club has been, very positive so far, even just meeting new people every time to get along.”