Samantha Waked and Sarkis “Sammy” Gekchyan are both 17-year-old seniors at Glendale High School and co-presidents of the Color A Smile Club on our campus. Samantha enjoys dancing with the GHS dance team and hanging out with her friends. Sammy is also a dance team captain in her free time but loves watching Netflix and doing his homework. Sammy and Samantha founded the Color A Smile Club this year, but it has been an idea of theirs to start the club for a few years now.
The Color A Smile Club is dedicated to the nonprofit organization, Color A Smile. If they were to describe the club, they would say that it is happy, positive, and very fun. The club’s main purpose is to send coloring pages to overseas troops, people in hospitals, and the elderly.
Sammy said, “We also want to provide a nice space at school for people that can come and peacefully color with snacks and everything.” They also provide community service from those coloring pages.
During club meetings, people come in and color with the supplies offered by the club. The coloring pages they usually have are based on the seasons and events that go along with each month. Samantha and Sammy prepare for these meetings by printing out the preferred coloring pages from a website. They then take these pages to Señora Yong’s room, 2234, where all of their meetings are held.
Then, Samantha and Sammy set up the pages in a nice corner of the room, along with their coloring supplies, such as markers, crayons, and colored pencils. They also have a snack area as well.
People can walk in at any time during lunchtime and take a plate of snacks to eat while coloring. After these sessions, Samantha and Sammy collect these colored pages and mail them out to the Color A Smile organization for distribution.
Both Samantha and Sammy agree that the most difficult part of working with the club is when they have to schedule meetings. This is because their schedule is so busy with other plans, so they have a difficult time planning a schedule for the club members to meet. But their members still come to the meetings and support them, even if they have to change their schedule.
Samantha’s favorite part of the club is seeing all of the members happily coloring. “It’s really a positive environment, and everyone there is just so happy,” Samantha said. “They’re enjoying what they’re doing, so we’re happy to see them having a space where they can release their emotions.”
Sammy said that the easiest part of being a president is working with their club advisor, Señora Yong. She is always really flexible, always has a smile on her face, and makes it super easy to run the club.
Samantha and Sammy both agree that their favorite memory was when they attended their first club meeting. At first, they weren’t sure that people were going to come, because they hadn’t held this club before on our campus. But then, they were both surprised that they saw more and more people coming to meetings, and it got to the point that the classroom was almost full of people!
Samantha and Sammy’s future goals for this year are to continue spreading positivity around their school and campus. They also hope to make Señora Yong’s classroom and space safe for everyone. In the future, they also want to start partnering with the Glen Wellness Center, where they hope to display their colored pages as well.
You can join the Color A Smile Club by joining the Remind app, and use the code: usinglorasm. Samantha and Sammy will let you know when the meetings will start, and everyone is welcome! You can also follow them on Instagram: @ghscolorasmile!
