Dallastown High School offers students many chances to explore their hobbies and to improve skills in other interests they have through the various clubs offered either during Wildcat periods or after school.  One such avenue is a club that offers members a safe space to be creative and expressive with their words: the Creative Writing Club.

For students who want to hone their writing skills or want a place where they could share their creative works with like-minded peers, the Creative Writing Club is a welcoming space to any who want to join.

The club was re-established in February of 2020 by Grayson Lauer, who ran the club from the early winter months of 2020 until his graduation in 2022.  During most of the years Lauer held leadership of the club, he had to compete with COVID, and yet each year always saw an increase in membership.

For the 2022-2023 school year, the re-established Creative Writing Club saw a change in leadership for the first time under the  joint leadership of  seniors Alex Daudelin, Bryn Walker, and Janel Stump.  The club also gained a new advisor in the 2022-2023 school year in the new English and newspaper teacher, Ms. Williamson.

This year, the club met on every other day 3.  During meetings, club members had the opportunity to work on pieces of writing, sometimes based on prompts that were provided and other times created by club members themselves.  Individuals were provided the opportunity to share their ideas and what they wrote at the end of the meetings with their fellow club members.

Along with providing time to write based on random prompts, the club also held an in-house writing competition and frequently played writing-based games.

Near the end of every year, members have the opportunity to submit excerpts of pieces they’ve written during their time in the club, or during the year if they’ve actively participated in the club. These works are put together to create the Dallastown Review.

In the past, the Review had been a document where all the works submitted were placed together and shared just among the club members.  This year, the 2022-2023 Review is a Google Site that has this year’s submissions, and it will be shared out with the whole school.

“When you’re a creative person, you can get used to being creative by yourself, so it was really nice to get the chance to be creative with other people this year, even in the smallest amounts. Having the Review published is just as important; for writers, sharing their work can help build the confidence they have in their writing. I hope this sort of thing can continue in years to come!”  Daudelin commented.

The Creative Writing Club will be continuing next year under the leadership of freshman J.D. Prelich.  Active readers should be on the lookout for the 5th annual edition of the Dallastown Review coming in the 2023-2024 school year.

https://sites.google.com/dallastownsd.net/dallastown-review2023/home

Please feel free to click the link to visit the “Dallastown Review” site; however, only people with a Dallastown Google account will be able to access the site.