By Taylor Monje-Rodriguez and Annette Guerrero
Staff Writers
It’s not cold outside, those students are freezing for goodness.
This was the kickoff event late last year for the new group, the Christian Leadership Council, which started taking shape during summer as Mr. Chris DeVera and Ms. Christine Shaw began to recruit students “who showed leadership” skills.
The CLC, as this group is known, is attempting to spread the ideas and values it has to offer and are planning to make an impact on the students and faculty of Bishop Amat, where students can come closer together as a community and family.
The different types of tasks the group completes range from lunchtime skits to simple tasks such as trying to put smiles on people’s faces.
“We make birthday cards, banners and perform skits,” said senior Bret Rexius. “We think of ways to make school a more fun place for students and faculty.”
The members were each nominated by a faculty member last year due to their leadership qualities represented throughout the classroom and campus.
“CLC is a friendly committee that only requires about two meetings a month,” Rexius said. “If you get nominated you should definitely join.”
In class, it is a new sight to see birthday cards being delivered to students who are celebrating birthdays.
The members also take part in special activities, which are meant to be shared and viewed by all of Bishop Amat.
Earlier in the year, the group put together “The Freeze for Goodness,” which they said was an activity in order to bring the Amat Family together and show them that God is present.
During this event, each member of the CLC froze as they performed certain acts of kindness.
They drew attention to themselves by kneeling and praying, helping a fallen student get back to his feet or by simply giving a big group hug to show friends they care.
The members then gathered into a huge group and held hands. Students not involved in CLC could not help themselves and decided to join in the circle.
As the huge circle of students gathered to join hands, Mr. De Vera invited everyone to pray an “Our Father,” a “Hail Mary” and a “Glory Be.”
He ended the prayer and shouted, “What time is it?” to the students, who responded, “Lord’s time!”
“The Freeze for Goodness was to encourage kindness to everyone throughout the campus and to let them know God is here,” junior Nick Montoya said.
Students outside of CLC wanted to join in and be a part of spreading goodness.
“My friend Chad asked me to help out with promoting goodness, by being part of the lunchtime activity,” junior Ryan Cardenas said. “It was fun catching people’s attention. Being part of the activity made me wish that I was a member of CLC.”
Teachers hope that the group is able to reach its goal of spreading goodness throughout Amat.
“It is the council’s message that being ‘good’ is a daily blessing and can be both practiced and recognized quite easily,” Ms. Shaw wrote in her e-mail to the school faculty.
Last Wednesday, the group again held another activity during lunch to bring the Amat family together to help and share goodness.
The junior members of the group held games, performed a skit, and showed a video for all students to show the importance of coming and working together in a peaceful way.
The games consisted of The Bucket Brigade and a volleyball water balloon game, each requiring students to work together in order to beat the other team.
After the games, the group put on a skit for the students and faculty, demonstrating the need to accept everyone despite their differences.
“In the skit, we’re showing the importance of accepting everyone no matter how different they are,” said junior Christine Quinones. “It’s important that we are giving this message because we want everyone to see that people should always be respected, even if they aren’t like us.”
All the events ended with a video put on by Amat students, telling of what it means to accept and work with different kinds of people and how they should be respected.
Many students took much enjoyment over the activities and were able to also enjoy themselves in cooperating in them.
Junior Arsenio De La Rocha was one of the many students who was able to be apart of the games and activities.
“Everything seemed fun and I wanted to beat the sophomores in the water balloon volleyball game,” said De La Rocha. “The video was pretty cool because it taught what it takes to work with different people and accept them.”
The next day, seniors threw the same event, with different types of games and activities all leading to the same message.
The group members say that they will be doing other interactions with the student body.
They are currently brainstorming ideas to help keep the statue of Jesus by the main office free of snail infestation.
They are also fundraising for future projects.
