Lettuce Club

Senior Caleb Martinez looked around science teacher Sarah Schmidt’s classroom at the dozens of students who had attended the first meeting of the Lettuce Club, Aug. 31. All he could hear was the sound of munching lettuce.

“The first meeting surpassed my expectations. It was packed and very chaotic,” Martinez said. “Some people came out of curiosity, others came because they thought it was a vegan club.”

“There was probably around 60 people there,” junior Shelby Maddox said.

Since creating the club, Martinez had convinced around 140 students to become members. Schmidt had agreed to sponsor the club.

“I made Lettuce Club just because I wanted to have fun,” Martinez said. “My goal was to help people make social bonds and break barriers while eating lettuce together.”

“I think the club is popular because of the enthusiasm of its members,” Schmidt said. “Their excitement is contagious.”

With the club’s popularity came multiple controversies.

“The biggest obstacle I anticipated was getting the approval of Student Council,” Martinez said. “So I just decided to go around Student Council.”

One of STUCO’s functions is to vote on and approve school clubs. Martinez instead took his idea for the club straight to activities director Sean Erwin, who approved the idea.

Afterwards, a different issue ensued.

“Someone went to the administrators and told them that the lettuce we ate had been poisoned with cyanide,” Martinez said. “That was obviously not true.”

“We have no idea who it was but the administrators said they would talk to them,” Martinez said.

The club has held only two meetings at this point in time.

“The second meeting was much smaller than the first,” Martinez said. “I wanted the meetings to be savored more, so I switched the meetings from once every two weeks to once a quarter. The club is still alive though.”