Does a coloring club really belong in high school? The answer is yes. WCHS’ very own Coloring Club works to create a space for any WCHS student where they can feel welcome to come create art. While the Club certainly includes its fair share of coloring, as is its namesake, their real impact lies in the way they help others: creating coloring pages for local charities and organizations across Montgomery County.
“We started [the Coloring Club] with five of us. We were super stressed, and then one day we were all coloring together,” WCHS senior Evelyn Johns, the Creative Director of the Coloring Club, said. “We wanted to start a club that was coloring to de-stress, but also more about community, because it’s also creating a safe space.”
Once the idea for the Club blossomed, its popularity was impossible to ignore. However, something was still missing: a community service component. The Coloring Club aims to help WCHS students decompress and prioritize mental health throughout the year, then compiles the artwork at the end to create coloring books that are distributed all across Montgomery County to hospitals and libraries.
“I did an internship at the MCPS libraries through Summer Rise, and I was handling their donations,” WCHS senior Laney Mandov said. “I thought [it] would be great to donate [our coloring books] to the library. I got back in touch with the host from that program, and we donated a big box [of] 75 books. We have since donated to [more] libraries, and distributed [coloring books] to elementary schoolers throughout MCPS.”
The Club’s ability to create a tangible impact while drawing in new members has created a club experience that everyone wants to be a part of. The Club was also able to get funding directly from the PTSA to get their books professionally bound, a detail that makes the Club stand out against the backdrop of WCHS’ many clubs.
“The best thing is seeing in the meetings the actual effect the [Coloring] Club has on people,” Mandov said. “It used to just be our friends, but now it’s friends of a friend, or sometimes people that aren’t even connected to us [that] will come in [and] color. It’s just really nice to see how relaxed everyone is and [how] they’re having fun and laughing.”
The influence of the Coloring Club in the WCHS student body can be felt during its lunchtime meetings. An oasis in the school, the Coloring Club’s agenda invites anyone to join, striving for an inclusive space for anyone who wants to make art or a difference. Creating a space with room for everybody is a cornerstone of the Coloring Club’s ideology.
“It’s not even just our close friends. I remember getting asked by people I didn’t even know very well ‘when’s the next coloring club?’” Johns said. “People were coming to me saying, ‘we need snacks. We want to color.’”
The work that goes into keeping any club interesting and organized cannot be overstated. The Coloring Club is run by five WCHS senior officers, each with their own personal duties. Johns oversees creating the slides for each meeting, scanning and editing coloring pages, as well as running the Club’s Instagram account. Meanwhile, Mandov oversees the organizing and sending out of books as well as organizing events (which include bake sales and occasions of that nature), announcing meetings and even baking snacks for the meetings.
“I’m just glad that we created a space for people to come in and make art at the end of the week,” Johns said. “Then the best part is extending that community to elementary schools, nursing homes and other places just to give that peace of mind and relaxation to everyone, because everyone deserves it.”
