By Sarah Shafaeen
Last Thursday, the PHHS Special Education students attended a luncheon in the PHHS library organized by ARK (Acts of Random Kindness), Interact and Business Minds.
The event is highly anticipated by the Special Education students and ARK members because it is an opportunity to get to know each other.
“The luncheon is very nice because it is an opportunity to mingle and have our kids interact with the general education kids,” said Nonglak Prasopsook, Special Education teacher.
It is difficult to organize an event this big, so ARK usually teams up with other clubs and tries to choose easy themes. This year they decided to hold a Hawaiian-themed pizza party luncheon because it’s a cute tropical theme and pizza is easy for the members to prepare and work with.
“ARK came up with this idea about 3 years ago, when we collaborated with Bloomers Club. ARK has been organizing this event ever since 2016, but we did not hold the event last year because of conflicting schedules. Business Minds reached out to Interact and ARK who typically organizes this event every year. This is ARK’s first year collaborating with Interact and Business Minds for this event,” informs ARK President and Interact YouthAct Coordinator Janeene Yeh.
The ARK students worked hard to host the luncheon and were rewarded by the joy it brought all of the students.
“Our main message in ARK is to spread kindness and positivity to high school students and staff. A big part of the student population is the Special Ed students so we thought this luncheon would be a great way to show our appreciation to them and let them know that they have a friend in us,” reveals ARK Historian Anamika Bisen.
With all the planning, preparing and execution of the luncheon ARK determines the success of the event based on the response they receive from the club members and students.
“Our club expectations are making sure that each of the 30 Special Ed students are paired up with an Interact or ARK member/officer and that we all have a good time together,” states Janeene.
The luncheon is something ARK wanted to make an annual event and has been working towards making that vision a reality.
“We definitely are trying to make this an annual thing. Last year, with work to rule we were unable to completely plan out the event so it was cancelled but this year we are back and ready to make this event a successful one!” exclaims Anamika.
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