Looking for pure adventure? Excitement? Interested in exploring nature with your peers and teachers? It just so happens that you can. Many years ago, a club called the Pirate Adventure Club was started. With the goal of releasing students’ inner explorers, the club began to plan many activities. The members would attend hikes, rock climbing, and many fun activities that they could only imagine. Being focused on using the ideas of members, the club was able to generate a huge number of adventurers. South and Central America was frequently visited by the club in the past years. This amazing club in the school was reaching its peak, with international hiking trips and many interested students learning and understanding so much about nature and the world we live in. But everything must come to end, or does it?

Covid-19 hit the world like nothing has in our lifetimes. The economy, travel, and overall, every aspect of human life was affected. And as you can probably tell, the Pirate Adventure Club as well. It was one of the clubs that took the biggest hits in the school. The club was completely cancelled, and students even forgot it had even existed. Devastated, the leaders had no choice but to hold off the activities of this club until the world got better. This news was the worst for the club, and it basically was never heard of again until years later.

As I sat in my freshman theology class, Father Bogumil started to tell us about this club. While my classmates seemed to not be paying attention, I started to think about how much potential this club has. We were told how the club couldn’t operate in the past couple of years because of virtual school, restricted travel, and lack of budget. When we were told that we were going to have a hike coming up soon, I had to attend.

My friends and I attended the hike, not expecting much more than what we were told. We start to converse about the club in the past, and how many opportunities it had.

Myself, I’ve always enjoyed travelling, and think everyone in the world should experience it. With restrictions being lifted, I realized that all of this could be possible again. I began meeting with teachers who were past leaders and getting my classmates to join us. I learned about how exciting the club used to be, and how huge numbers of students joined the activities. I was surprised by all this information, realizing that I really wanted to help the club grow again.

After attending a few hikes and planning future events, I became one of the leaders of the newly restored Pirate Adventure Club. When the activities fair came around, I took it as my chance to interest new members and explain to them how much fun and adventurous it really is. The other leader and I set up a table and made a slideshow with information, expecting only a few students to sign up. However, we were extremely surprised with the outcome. The club currently has over 150 members. We ran out of our original 25 flyers and had a line of students waiting to sign up. With many freshmen writing their name down, I started to envision the bright future of the Pirate Adventure Club. This day made me realize that the club was saved. At our first event planning meeting, the classroom did not have nearly enough seats for everyone to be seated.

With this good news, trips and activities were beginning to be planned. Hiking is one of the current most popular activities that members enjoy, as well as mountain biking and rock climbing. A popular destination for hiking is local reservations, such as the South Mountain and Watchung reservations. Going to upstate New York for greater hikes will always be an option, if members would show interest in doing so. The club always welcomes new ideas from members, and anything that one would like to do should always be told to a leader. The club tries to listen to everyone’s ideas and will never turn down anyone’s idea. A trip that is currently in the planning stage for this year is an international week-long hiking trip to Costa Rica.

If anyone would like to join the Pirate Adventure Club, please do not hesitate to reach out to Father Bogumil ’08, Mr. Metelsky, or any of the student leaders such as me. We thank everyone who has supported this club and have shown interest in our activities.