The annual Activities Fair, which showcases West’s many clubs and organizations, will be held on Friday, Sept. 1 during all lunch periods. Booths for all participating clubs will extend from the athletics office all the way past the cafeteria, and students will be able to browse all that West has to offer.

The event allows students to advocate for their club, provide other students with an opportunity to see why their peers are getting involved, and hopefully gain new members.

“The benefit is to check out what we have to offer. It’s really the students promoting their own clubs. So they get to see that it’s not just a teacher talking to them. They get to see why students are joining and why they should join as well.”

Unlike previous years, this year’s fair will last for only one day instead of an entire week. This change was made in an attempt to make the fair more organized.

“It’s supposed to be this Friday, so it’s not going to be a whole week,” student activities director Katie Odell said. “We used to do a week in the hallways. There were tables every day; it was hard to remember when clubs were going to meet or not, so we centralized it to one day.”

Many students who joined the clubs they saw during Activities Fair their freshmen year are still a part of them this day.

“I found Chess club and Korean club, and all the current clubs that I still work with were found during the activity fair,” senior Phong Lai said.

Although all are welcome to check out what clubs West has to offer, Odell believes that underclassmen can benefit most from the fair.

“I would encourage the freshmen and sophomores [to come to the event] the most,” Odell said. “Juniors and seniors already have a good idea of what’s going around the building, so I’ll definitely encourage the freshmen and sophomores. And actually, more so the sophomores because freshmen already get so much exposure when they start, and then sophomore year starts and it’s kind of a weird lull.”

According to senior Zoha Ullah, students should take advantage of the fair so they can get accustomed to the clubs and not feel uncomfortable when attending their first meetings.

“During the school year, students are going to be more hesitant to put themselves out there and join those clubs. It’s easier for them to walk around as a large group and see what each club has to offer and make that connection then and there, so when they go to a meeting it’s not awkward.”

Although the plan initially was to have the entire event held in the courtyard, there is an impeding wasp problem that is proving to be difficult.

“The problem is that we have a lot of wasps out there,” Odell said. “We [were] waiting to hear on Rigby for the clearance.”

Although the issue is soon to be resolved, the fair will have to be held inside this year. Be sure to check out the diverse clubs we have here at West this Friday.