In high school, it’s normal to feel a little bit lost. Surrounded by change and a newfound maturity each year as life gets a little bit harder. It’s okay to outgrow your friends, or find distance where there was once an unbreakable bond. But that feeling of loneliness, or being alone and distant in a community full of people, doesn’t have to be your new normal.
Did you know at Palmer High school there are around 22 different clubs? 22 clubs full of different people who all have a common interest, and every club is free to join, and the majority provide all the materials you’d need. 22 chances to build new friendships, find or expand on a hobby, and enjoy your high school experience to the fullest.
At Palmer, You Matter is a new club, sponsored by Mrs. Clements and Austin, a mother and son pair, and is hosted in room 123.
It’s meant to be a support group, to help kids that have thoughts about self-harm or low self-worth. Although because not many people know about it, it’s hard to do that. The club meets on Tuesday and Wednesdays after school from 3:45 – 5:15, and Friday at lunch.
“The world is better with you in it,” says Austin Humphrey.
SAGA Club, which stands for Sexuality And Gender Alliance Club, is sponsored by the wonderful Ms. Gunter, a Palmer English teacher, in room 125 on Tuesdays at lunch. The club is meant to form an inclusive environment where any student, with any sexuality or gender orientation can feel welcome.
It’s been around for a long time, at least since the 90’s, back then the club used to be called GSA (gay straight alliance), but obviously those terms and meanings have changed now; however, the principles have always stayed the same. Palmer has always been well known as a very inclusive and welcoming school.
The community of the club is very warm. It’s also small, not a large group with only 6 regularly attending members, including a very awesome member of the community, Mrs. Bev, a long time teacher and substitute teacher for district 11, but also a trans woman in her 70s. During meetings, she shares her stories and experiences growing up in a time where she was not as welcomed and accepted as she would be in our day and age.
The club has very interesting, open minded conversations, often talking about modern day events, changes in district 11, and school events, as well as how everything affects one another and how to be involved in the school and local community.
Ms. Gunter says, “We love new friends, so please come check us out.”
Aviation Club, Card Club, and Painting Minis Club are all run by Stephen Spencer in room 238. Being in charge of three clubs sounds exhausting but Mr. Spencer, a Math teacher here at Palmer, describes it as relaxing and completely enjoyable.
“I’ve always been a club person,” he says.
Painting Minis was a student interest, he came to Mr. Spencer had an idea and now every Tuesday and Wednesday after school the two get together and paint warhammer 40k board game figures, anyone is free to come hangout and paint but this club is BYO where you can only paint what you bring yourself.
Card Club is the largest club Mr. Spencer runs, with about 4 loyal members. They play any and all card games every friday during lunch and are currently playing King of Tokyo. However, a couple years ago there was a game club in Mr. Spencer’s room. It started out as a chess club and branched out to whatever board games sounded interesting, once close to 20 people were showing up, but it slowly started dwindling down to just a main group of guys. That was their outlet, getting super good at even the longest or most complicated games to where multiple matches could be played after school before 6 o’clock.
Aviation Club was started out of Mr. Spencer’s personal interest, and all of the funding coming from his own pockets. It’s been around for about two years and the plan is to build a sit in flight it, where you can feel it, and fly it with a VR headset Mr. Spencer hopes to get through donations. He describes all of the clubs as equally cozy and a nice escape from the stress of school work, especially around finals week or the holiday season.
“I enjoy hanging with the students and letting them explore an interest outside of school work,” said Mr. Spencer.
Minecraft Club, sponsored by Mrs. Grieco, hasn’t started yet this year due to not enough interest. Hopefully it will be started by January. They join Minecraft Education monthly competitions as well as create personal own worlds while building communications skills, collaboration and teamwork.
The club just started this year when students showed interest in Minecraft. Wednesdays did not work well with student schedules, so Mrs. Grieco would love to know what day would work best for students.
“At my other school it was a very popular club, and I am hoping it will be popular here at Palmer too,” she said.
They are a community that enjoys doing tasks and creating unique worlds, while having fun, learning teamwork and communication skills. On an average club day, they come in and decide what to do, creating a world together and then we divide and conquer or work together on tasks.
If the club where to get donations of Legos or Minecraft legos they would use the club time to build them or play Minecraft board games as well. Just overall building the community through bonding and building.
The club would use a computer lab to play Minecraft on so students who wish to join do not need to bring any personal materials.
“Of course it could lead to game design, coding, cyber jobs,” said Mrs. Grieco
Palmer Chess Club that takes place in the library, is ran by Mr. Vankirk, a librarian, and Mr. Chamberlain, who also coaches speech and debate. Chess isn’t always a popular club, over the 20 years or so that it’s been an option here at school, there’s never been more than 20 students, but sometimes only as few as a group of 5 show up to play.
In the library, there are boards and clocks readily available, not only during the times of the club, but whenever a student wishes to practice or challenge friends, like at lunch. Most of the funding came from the alumni association. Tournaments would be hosted, up to 50 middle and high schoolers playing against each other for actual medals, but eventually only middle schoolers were showing up.
Potentially, chess just got less popular with high schoolers, or the need for physical meetings dwindled as technology gets better and kids can play online against a computer. The years around COVID changed the most, as the club never truly recovered.
“Chess is one of the oldest games, it doesn’t get boring because it’s a game you can never truly master. There’s always a chance to get better, or faster,” claims Mr. Vankirk.
There was one student, Logan Rodrick, who was probably the best player at the school. He was fast. Once he tried to play blindfolded, by memorizing the board and having someone else tell him what his opponent played.
“I remember one tournament he tried to play four or five matches at a time, and he won most if not all of them,” said Mr. Chamberlin.
Chess is a hobby that could lead to actual careers. Traveling the world to play against elite chess masters. It makes good money too. In the library, Mr. Vankirk and Mr. Chamberlain have tools and resources to teach someone from scratch how to play the game.
In the basement, Mrs. Diminik sponsors the Art/ Open studio club in room 7, Tuesdays and Thursdays during lunch. Crochet Club is sponsored by Mrs. Boon in room 4, on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school.
Our beloved Mr. Joiner, a math teacher and father at Palmer, is in charge of the Palmer Climbing Club. This club has been around for 15 years, the team meets at City rock down the street from school. Students need their own membership, but it’s heavily discounted for Palmer students due to the partnership between our school and the company.
The club starts right at the beginning of September and continues well into May meeting twice a week, on an average day about 25 to 30 kids meet, it’s always been pretty popular, some years getting as many as up to 40 kids. Even COVID couldn’t affect the strong climbing community.
You don’t have to compete in order to join, usually for practice Mr. Joiner provides a workout for the kids, comp kids typically do a more aggressive workout to push themselves as well as a suggested workout for other days, but the students who join purely for the fun of the sport don’t have to participate in these workouts.
“Its so nice that the club runs all year long because you can join in fall, do a winter sport, and come back for spring.”-Mr. Joiner
For competitions the team meets with all the other high schools in the area. Our region is called Southern Colorado, so meets could be anywhere from castle rock to Alamosa, with up to 40 different high schools joining with their own climbing teams.
Because climbing is a newer sport the district doesn’t recognize it, as well as the fact that the sport isn’t CHASA sanctioned; however this is on purpose because of the restrictions CHASA approved sports have to have. It wouldn’t be as fun and stress free if the team had to do grade checks every week.
“One of the things I like best about climbing is that it’s all about solving problems together, competing against the rock, kids working together to solve the problem on the wall instead of each other, it’s a very unique thing. Even on opposite teams you can stand next to the competition and help each other. It’s really cool, because it builds a strong community.”-Mr. Joiner
FCCLA, which stands for Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, co-hosted by Ms. Boon and Ms. Holm, meets Wednesdays at lunch in room 4.
Hispanidad is sponsored by Mrs. Pedrie in room 304, on Mondays and Wednesdays after school. Our English teachers Sarah Hook and Mrs. Green collaborate on called The Ink Society, which is hosted in room 127, on Tuesdays after school.
Interact Eco Club, sponsored by Mrs. Toby, is a service club. The students have raised money for groups involved in ocean conservation and for shelter boxes through bake sales and raking leaves.
“Some of our members attend RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Academy) every summer.”-Mrs. Toby
Sometimes the group meets with community members to learn about ways to make a difference for the environment. Throughout summer, the club volunteers at a Rotary golf tournament and some students get to drive the golf carts while others golf and others help fundraise.
Being a club at Palmer for 15 years, Interact Eco Club first formed because students were concerned about a picture they saw where women were doing laundry in the same water hole animals were drinking from, and other women were collecting drinking water. The students wanted to raise money to build a well in Africa.
“We learned that it would be very difficult so we switched to raising money for a well in Nicaragua. We raised over $10,000 in two years and eventually through partnering with Rotary we were able to build two wells in Nicaragua greatly improving the quality of life for several villages.”-Mrs. Toby
Since then the club has continued to be involved with various efforts, mostly environmental in nature. COVID was hard for club, a very small group of students meeting over WebEx is nobody’s favorite way to spend time.
There are all sorts of students involved in Eco Interact. They meet Fridays at lunch and have a working lunch. There is always food brought the fabulous Dr. Bach and Ms. Mamula (the Rotary Club liaisons), some business matters to attend to, and upcoming events to discuss. No special skills or abilities or talents are needed. Just a kind heart and a willingness to make a difference.
Eco Interact is great at getting out in the community and working on environmental issues. The Rotary Club is very supportive of their efforts and sponsors the Friday lunch food, sometimes inviting the group to attend lunch with them, and sending students to leadership camp, and in turn the club gives back as volunteers when possible at their events.
Being a part of the community and learning how adults help make the world a better place is part and parcel of what the club does. Many colleges of Rotaract Clubs that college students can join as a way of continuing to give service and continue involvement with Rotary.
Working towards a better environment is not only a benefit to the members, but everyone.
“There are so many ways students can and do help make a difference.”-Mrs. Toby
Key Club is designed to help give back to the Colorado Springs community. Each quarter, the student led club decides on small and large projects to provide aid either around Palmer or in the city. Sponsored by Ms Stroup in room 111 every other Wednesday during lunch.
“Key club has been around for at least a decade to my knowledge. I’ve been the sponsor for two years now, but it has stayed because students have a drive to help others around the community.” – Ms. Stroup
It is a fairly popular club. This year, the club is rebuilding due to many of the members graduating in May of 2025. They welcome everyone and hope to see more people join! COVID did more than likely have an effect on the club. Due to the process of getting together being interrupted by lockdown, students could not meet with each other in or outside of school to volunteer their time.
The community in Key club is described as welcoming, accepting, caring, loving, kind, and anything that is positive, the club embodies it!
Projects are usually the main topic that the students discuss. They also talk about how they will reach their end goal. It is a lot of planning and learning from what works best for future projects! No materials are needed. If there is any type of craft or project, it is all provided by the school or by Key Club’s budget from money fundraised over the years.
This club is amazing to attend because not only does it look good on transcripts or resumes, but it allows people to give back to those that need it. It teaches students empathy and to acknowledge that the world always needs more kindness.
“I do believe this club can spark some interest for future careers. Students that know they want to work with people or help them in some capacity, this is the club for you!” -Ms. Stroup
Masque & Sandal Drama Club is sponsored by Mr. Bunch in room 129, on Thursdays at lunch.
Mrs. Robertson is another teacher sponsoring more than one club: Palmer HOSA and Palmer MTB Team. HOAS is Thursdays during lunch in room 11, and MTB, our mountain biking team is hosted in various parks but only runs June through October.
MTB stands for mountain bike, Palmers mountain biking team that was often mentioned in the school announcements. MTB is hosted by Mrs. Roberson on Tuesdays, Thursdays after school, and Saturdays from 9-12, at various parks in the Springs Jun through October.
“Palmer mountain biking club is a great way to get outdoors and meet new people. Come join us!”-Emmett Frozley
Science Olympiad, for all of our science enthusiasts, is sponsored by Mrs. Sutela and Mr. Lohmann in room 21 every other Tuesday at lunch.
With all these clubs, and so many opportunities to learn something new as well as find a community here at school, nobody can ever say “I don’t belong,” when attending Palmer.
