Athletes at CHS have often had trouble finding people to identify with in terms of sports. Since Community has no sports teams (other than Ultimate Frisbee), those who participate in sports at either Huron, Skyline, or Pioneer don’t have the same benefits as those at the larger schools — classmates on the same team, natural and easy ways to make friends, and people who are easy to find to discuss a specific sport with. Fortunately for these athletes, CHAT has helped to correct this problem.
The Community High Athletic Tribe, or CHAT, was founded last year by Robbie Stapleton, a personal fitness and health teacher at Community. Stapleton wanted the purpose of the group to be “just a school club, where kids can come together with common interests.” The interest, in this case, is athletics.
Cal Kirchen, a member of the “Tribe”, participated in CHAT last year as well as this year. Said Kirchen of the club, “It’s important, because as athletes at Community, we don’t really get recognition a lot of the time, except with other athletes.” CHAT is a place where these athletes can come together, with the purposes of discussing sports and eating pizza.
Last year, however, the club was able to do much more than just hang out. CHAT helped with the Strong Kids Campaign by raising money for underprivileged kids, through the YMCA. The campaign provides these kids with an opportunity to attend YMCA camps that can help to show kids their potential while also reinforcing positive behaviors.
Kyle Aaronson, Michael Savage, Julia Kortberg, and Eliza Stein are the student leaders of CHAT. They run the meetings on every other Wednesday while also helping to organize events for the club.
“We’re hoping to help out in the community more this year,” said Savage. “There’s not much that is planned yet, but the four of us are starting to think about it… The club is mostly run by the four of us [Aaronson, Kortberg, Stein, and Savage], so we still have to figure out what we’re going to do differently from last year.”
Stapleton believes that this is a good way to promote student leadership, in this kind of lunchtime club. She thinks that students running the meetings will provide a less uptight, more cohesive group, and that her role is to just sit back and watch athletes come together.
“I’m just a facilitator. I just provide the pizza,” said Stapleton with a laugh. “I mean really, I want it to be about student leadership.”
