School starts in 20 minutes and you are in a rush to get out the door. You are ready to go but have not had breakfast yet. You grab a candy bar to eat on the way to school. It is better than the day before, you figure, when you skipped breakfast altogether. This is exactly the kind of morning routine seniors Nora Landri, Abby Watkins and Pauline Zielinski are trying to change with their creation of Juice Club.

According to Landri, a co-president of Juice Club along with Watkins and Zielinski, the club wants people to start off their day with a healthy fruit juice, while also getting to know the other members of the club and having a good time.

“The club is mostly just for people to start off their day with a fun, friendly atmosphere with people who love juice,” Watkins said.

According to Landri and Zielinski, juicing fruit was an activity they participated in quite often, even before this club began.  Zielinski said that one day, she brought up the idea of starting a club in which they could juice fruit with others, and Landri and Watkins agreed it was a good idea.

Although Landri, Watkins and Zielinski were not originally serious about starting Juice Club, the support and interest they were receiving from others convinced them to go through with it.

Juice Club meets every Thursday at 7:20 a.m. in the foods and nutrition room and is open to anyone, “from freshmen, seniors, to teachers,” according to Watkins, and is sponsored by Dean Ronald Bean.

“For the first Juice Club meeting we provided store-bought juice and had people just hangout, hear about the club, mix some juices and test out flavors,” Watkins said.  “The second meeting we had a juicer and asked all the members to bring whatever fruit they had available to them at home to the meeting. During the meeting we put all the fruits into the juicer and enjoyed our homemade juice.”

Senior Natalie Holzkopf supports her friends in their creation of Juice Club and noted that at the first meeting almost 30 students, of all different grade levels, were present.  Holzkopf described the club meeting as a positive environment for kids to socialize and be healthy.

Watkins noted that each week Juice Club will brainstorm a new juice flavor idea and will play music to add energy to the meetings. According to Zielinski, it is important to make fresh juice, as they did in their second meeting and will continue to do so, rather than drinking store-bought juice.

“We are making all-natural juice,” Zielinski said. “So it’s a lot healthier. It has all the vitamins.”

According to Landri, news about Juice Club is spreading throughout the school through Facebook, posters and announcements on the intercom. Watkins attributed their success to their  use of catchy slogans, including “Come thirsty, leave juicy!”, “Thirsty Thursday is now juicy juiceday!”, and “Come to Juice Club! You look parched. It’ll be a Juicy time!”

Senior Jordan Synnestvedt heard about the club from Landri, Watkins and Zielinski, and was excited about supporting their idea.

“I joined Juice Club because I love juice!” Synnestvedt said. “It’s great to start your day with a fresh cup of juice, and it’s also fun to come up with yummy blends of different fruits.”

Synnestvedt hopes that Juice Club will be able to offer fresh-squeezed juice at many different school events. Landri and Zielinski also said that Juice Club hopes to do some sort of fundraiser, as well as go apple picking in the coming months and set up at different school events.

“We plan to make appearances at Gym Jam [and] Spring Fling; we hope to provide the juice for Homecoming, and we might have juice to hydrate the honors gym students during their end of the year triathlon,” Watkins said.

Landri, Watkins and Zielinski each expressed the hope that Juice Club will continue to gain members. They noted that the club is truly a “juicy time” and they hope students will continue to develop even more interest for the club.

“I hope the club’s success continues to grow,” Watkins said. “Tons of teachers and people around school have been raving about it if they came to the meeting or have been asking about it if they didn’t. I’ll be crossing my fingers, but I think it will continue to be a success because everyone has really enjoyed the club so far.”