By Stephanie Caron – Entertainment Editor 

Natural Helpers is flourishing with new members and new projects this school year. 

The club is creating new opportunities for students to get involved and to lend a helping hand. 

“This year, the Natural Helpers club has grown to a whopping 50 members,” Natural Helpers advisor Ms. Smuniewski said. “With such a high number of students, we are hoping to make Jonathan Law’s ‘internal helping network’ better than ever. The Natural Helpers are the kind of kids who people go to with they’re stressed out or in need of advice, the kind of kids who notice when their peers are feeling down, and the kind of kids who are interested in helping their classmates with the anxieties of being a teenager.” 

This year, Natural Helpers teamed up with Sandy Hook Promise in encouraging students to “start with a hello.” This is aimed to combat violence in schools. 

“Our plans for the school year is to create activities for everyone that helps people feel more included in our school community and feeling good about themselves,” senior Katie Linn said. 

Natural Helpers also plan to do their annual De-stress Fest which gives students the chance to relax and have some fun before finals. 

“The annual ‘De-stress Fest’ is a week-long event where each day presents a new de-stress event,” Smuniewski said. “Some ideas we have for this include mindfulness activities (like yoga, meditation, coloring), games and puzzles, an ice-cream truck or build your own sundae day, and bringing a ‘Farm on Wheels’ to the school -basically a small petting zoo for students to hold/pet animals – it’s kind of therapeutic.”

Some of the other events that the Natural Helpers planned are, “Hey-Day”, decorating the wellness wing, and collecting canned goods around Thanksgiving.

“Goals I have for Natural Helpers is that I want everyone to leave here feeling proud to be a Natural Helper,” Linn said. “To make new friends and be approachable. I want everyone to have a good experience and feeling confident on how to handle certain situations.”