Ocean Club may sound like it’s just about surfing, boogie boarding, or having fun at the beach. However, aside from organizing some fun activities near the sea, Ocean Club also focuses on supporting events and fundraisers for organizations that protect, help, and improve ocean life.
“We don’t do any fundraising to benefit our club itself,” says Liam Gunning, the president of Ocean Club. “We raise money for organizations to help them.”
For example, this year Ocean Club came up with various fundraising ideas that would also be fun for everyone.
“In the club meeting this week, we talked about ideas we had for fundraising. We had some pretty good ideas come up as someone suggested that we do a Paddle Out in the ocean which sounded really fun,” said sophomore Paris Sunkel.
Paddle Out is an event where people paddle out on surfboards to a designated spot in the ocean. It is a fun way for people to do an ocean activity and raise money at the same time.
Although the clubs aren’t allowed to raise money for organizations specifically, they can promote fundraising activities related to their club’s mission. However, if the money goes directly to the school for club activities, fundraising is allowed.
According to Club Adviser Joshua Engberg, “Technically our clubs are not suppose to raise money [for organizations orcharities]. We just promote related fundraising activities.”
Last year, Ocean Club ran numbers of events to help donate money for different causes. They also helped out the community by organizing beach cleanups.
Club members also support fundraising through other means. One way of doing this is by putting up a stand in front of stores and advocating the club’s mission.
“We sit in front of stores and talk to people about our ideas to protect the ocean and usually get a good amount of money,” said Gunning.
To involve others in their cause, club members send personalized letters to relatives and friends requesting donations for sponsoring ocean life-related events and organizations.
Ocean Club’s fundraising for these events raised over $1000 last year. These dollars went to organizations that were affected by storms and were in need of supplies.
This year, the club’s goal is to raise somewhere around $1300 for their supported events and organizations.
Ocean Club meets on the first and third Wednesdays of the month in room U23.
