The Ski and Snowboarding Club is a brand-new club at East that is very uncommon around our area due to the minimal access to resorts in the state. The desire to have this club has been there for a decent amount of time but no one ever truly took a lead with it until now. We luckily had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Fortkamp, who was willing to sponsor the club and put together a couple of day trips throughout the second semester for the kids interested in joining. Over 100 kids showed up to the very first meeting, and the club turned out to be a huge hit. It didn’t matter whether you had no experience whatsoever or if you’ve gone skiing/snowboarding a million times. From my time in the club as a senior, everyone was supportive and welcoming. There were two different day trips to Wisconsin resorts, and one trip that was planned so that students would have the opportunity to ski at night here in Illinois. Personally, that is the one I went on and after a lot of planning and organizing of the trip by Ms. Fortkamp, we left right after school on a Friday afternoon in February. It was a relatively short bus ride, and it was a smooth process getting gear and lift tickets. It was my first time experiencing this whole procedure, and I was fairly nervous but after making some new friends to join my small group we were all excited. I took a snowboarding lesson with a few other kids, and everyone got the hang of things quickly. After that, we all happily skied and snowboarded down the mountain all night, went back to the lodge to eat food, then shortly after, headed back to the bus with no injuries. Overall, it was an incredibly fun experience and I’m glad I got to be a part of the beginning of such an interesting club.