The Adventure Club has been active with events this school year. With a wilderness walk in the Fells on October 14th, a dodgeball tournament fundraiser on November 9th at MHS, and ice skating on January 6th at Flynn Rink Park, the club continues to plan exciting future adventures for students.
According to James Hill, an Adventure Club co-advisor and MHS history teacher, “Adventure Club is something that has been around for a few years,” but he believes that “because of Covid and the pandemic, it kind of died out temporarily in Malden.”
Hill also added, “This is actually my first year in Malden High School and prior to that, the Adventure Club had branches in Melrose and Medford. I ran the Melrose version for a few years so I’ve known Ms. Craven has been involved in this as well, so once I started here, it was something I wanted to be a part of and sort of bring back.”
The Adventure Club is considered very welcoming to any students who may want to participate in their events.
“I believe that it takes an initiative, it brings you outside. It’s not just like a regular school club where you stay after school for 30 or some minutes just in a boring classroom. It takes you outside and you’re able to bring your friends along on these fun adventures and not only that but it's not exclusive, it’s open to everybody. Half of these people I’ve never seen before but they’ve come here from word,” said Abdullah Khan, a junior student and Adventure Club member.
This ice skating event on Friday lasted from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM. It cost $5 to enter the park and $5 to rent a pair of skates. Inside the park are two ice rinks, a small rink and a bigger rink. Younger children and people who didn’t skate mostly stayed in the small rink while teens and adults mostly stayed in the bigger rink.
People from all grades attended and said they enjoyed this time together even if they had never ice skated before. MHS students and teachers had lots of fun, and the event was seen as a success.
“It was good, good to get out. Haven’t skated before but it was fun to come out, hang out with some friends and hang out with some classmates. It was fun… I didn’t fall, first time ice skating but I didn’t fall so I consider that an accomplishment,” said Junior, Saul Kruckenberg.
“It’s funny seeing your teachers skating along with you and struggling. It takes them out of this classroom environment on to ice skating or other adventures. It’s weird, but the funny kind of weird,” Khan said.
“Ice skating was fun. I can skate, but I haven't been skating in three, four, or five years so it took me a little while to get the feel back for it but I was moving along the end. Unfortunately, I did fall once but I think I’ll survive,” Hill said.
Though this event lasted over two hours, students lost track of time. “I was scared to come here at first [because] I don’t know how to ice skate at all, but it was fun. I think that’s the point of an Adventure Club so I’m glad I got to learn something new even if it was just with the helpers," said senior Asmae Sehkri.
“Then the time ran out and I got sad,” she added.
Sehkri continued, “I’ve been wanting to ice skate for a while, but I haven’t found anywhere that’s affordable. I know there won’t be that many people there [because] I don’t want people to laugh at me. Here, I knew that there would be a lot of Malden High students and stuff like that, especially my friends, so they made it easier to not be upset that I fell in the middle of the rink.”
When the clock hit nine, Sarah Jones, Adventure Club co-advisor and math teacher, handed out candy with invitations to the Adventure Club’s Google Classroom. Students quickly grew interested in joining the club after going on this ice skating adventure.
“I’ve definitely thought about it a lot, I’m definitely more interested now that I came to this event and we’ll see, maybe I will,” Kruckenberg said.
This is fantastic! I’m running an Outdoor Enablement Campaign focused on getting more Maldonians outside and recreating. I would love to offer some potential speakers as well as opportunities to get this group outside to try: rock climbing, hiking, bird watching in Malden. Part of the campaign also focuses on showing our youth what a career in the outdoors can look like, how can I get involved?