WHS, EBIS students participate in scavenger hunt

Zaina AbouEid shared what she enjoyed most about wellness day’s scavenger hunt on May 8.

“The smile on people’s faces and the laughs I heard,” said the Class of 2026 salutatorian and president of the high school culture and climate club. “I’m graduating this year. It’s going to be hard to not be a part of this anymore. It was very special to me that Ms. Martin invited me to the club and we created such amazing things for the school.”

Wellness day, organized by the culture and climate club’s at Webutuck High School and Eugene Brooks Intermediate School, had students team up to compete for points by participating in activities or winning challenges with other teams. Staff members served as team captains for the event sponsored by the Webutuck PTA.

The goal of the culture and climate club is to create activities or do things on campus to create a better atmosphere for students. Wellness day was held during Mental Health Awareness Month as another way to give students a break from the daily grind of a school day.

“I think it’s very important to have a day like this,” said AbouEid. “We’re still young, so having a day like this, I think is very important for our well-being, and doing something out of the ordinary that is not related to school is more fun.”

Sarah Martin, one of the event organizers and adviser for the high school culture and climate club, served as a team captain for seniors Angel Camargo Vazquez, James Singleton, Violet Aufdenberg and Maddy Rowe.

“My group was so fun. They were really into it, and they made some funny pictures and had some creative ideas,” said Martin.

“It was a good break and it was nice to be with students in a different forum, have fun with them and see some of their other talents. The students were very enthusiastic and made it a lot of fun.”

Juniors Jayden Avery and Jayden Jaya were members of the winning team, captained by high school history teacher Kevin Kleespies.

“It was nice that we won, but it was fun overall. Everybody had a blast,” said Avery.

Jaya added, “ I had a lot of fun. I’ll remember the suspense building up to winning.”

Caroline Eschbach and Yamen Gadalla are sixth graders who placed second with a team from EBIS, captained by their teacher Taylor Bradshaw.

“We had so much fun,” said Eschbach. “We got to hang out with our friends and we got to do all these fun activities.”

Gadalla was wearing his lucky sock with a four-leaf clover that he received as a prize.

“This is fun because you have to think more and be more out of the box to get more points,” he said.

“I absolutely want to do it again.”