It’s 7:40 on a Tuesday in the SAO, and Girl’s Letter Club is busy planning for Turnabout. The air is filled with the scent of donuts and the excited and chaotic buzz that comes with planning a big event. Girls are signing up to help plan the dance, to put up decorations and set up everything so that the event runs smoothly.  

According to Club Co-sponsor Kim Kiraly, Girl’s Letter Club was created in response to Title IX, which allowed women to play sports just like men were, especially in schools.

“[Title IX] created a sense of equality for everyone in terms of extracurriculars and athletics, and Girl’s Letter Club was a place for Varsity female athletes to gather together and develop leadership skills and empowerment,” Kiraly said.

According to Kiraly, the club plans Gym Jam and a part of Spring Fling, and their main event is the Turnabout dance, which took place on Saturday, March 4.

“We’re organizing girls to go around and help with voting for Turnabout court, or we’re having them organize all of the decoration materials that transfer a dome gym into a dance space,” Kiraly said. “There’s a lot of work that goes into that behind the scenes that I don’t think students always see.”

Kiraly said that the club also plans a philanthropy project that they work on every year with the fall sports. This year it was a project called Replace the Lace, in which all the sports teams purchased yellow laces to wear in support of the project. According to Kiraly, the funds go to an organization called Compass to Care, which helps to provide transportation for children and their families to hospitals to receive cancer treatment.

“We think about cancer research and getting kids treatment, but the big missing piece is how do you get kids from point A to point B because many of them travel hundreds of thousands of miles to get to their treatments,” Kiraly said.

According to Tessa Cohen, Girl’s Letter Club vice president, this service project is important to everyone in the club.

“It was cool being able to get all of the fall Varsity sports on board,” Cohen said. “So that was important for us to do because that cause isn’t really something that gets a lot of attention.”

According to Club Secretary Stephanie Zenzola, Girl’s Letter Club is very important to her.

“Not only can I support other girls who are in varsity sports, but I can do service things and help raise awareness,” Zenzola said.

The other co-sponsor of Girl’s Letter Club, Courtney Middleton, is also passionate about sports, according to Middleton. Middleton said that she believes that it’s important for females to get equal representation in athletics.

“I like being able to be a role model for our varsity athletes,” Middleton said. “This sort of organization really just helps to raise awareness about the importance of female athletics and giving females equal opportunity in athletics here at GBS, which does a great job.”

Julia Wojtach-Rytel, communications chair of Girl’s Letter Club, also believes that female athletics is important.

“It’s a club that many schools might not have because it does focus on women that participate in varsity sports, so it’s really nice to have that,” Rytel said. “It’s really cool to get all the girls together.”

Girl’s Letter Club allows varsity athletes to take important leadership roles, Kiraly said, and build relationships with other athletes and sports teams.

“I think Ms. Middleton and I both saw and valued [leadership] when we were in high school, and then in return wanted to be able to create that experience for the students that we work with,” Kiraly said.