Congressional Award

By Alissa Rothman
Word count: 327

An unusual event occurred Wednesday after school in room 132 at West High School. The Congressional Award Club was meeting.
“We don’t meet very often,” said Molly Parsons ’10, one of the three co-founders and co-presidents of the club. “This club is very individualistic.”
The Congressional Awards Club is a club that focuses on helping members earn the Congressional Award. This award is very prestigious and internationally recognized. It is given by Congress to students aged 14-24 years who complete a set number of hours volunteering, engaging in physical fitness, participating in a personal interest and undertaking a wilderness or venture experience. It is spilt up into different medal and certificate awards, allowing students with busy schedules to participate in the award. Students can register at any time to start trying for the awards.
The club is one of the newest being created only a year ago by three freshmen; Parsons, Darin Lee (’10) and Sophie Donta (’10). Now sophomores, they became interested in the award through Parsons older sister, who did the international award in Thailand.
“We talked to Mr. Breitbach (West High counselor) about the idea of the club and he loved it,” said Parsons.
“When we first started doing the award it was just the three of us,” said Lee. “But when we told our friends about it a lot of them wanted to get involved, and we thought it would be a good idea to have a group to support each other.”
The Congressional Award currently includes 20 registered members, with 27 others that are interested in joining. However, due to other activities, some can not actively participate in the club for this year.
The club focuses on setting goals and working toward them, but they also do fun trips such as the expeditions which are group camping trips and participating in Ragbrai.
“Doing activities as a group is fun and it feels good to work towards something with your friends,” said Parsons.