Under New Leadership: Makayla Atwood takes over as president of Anime Club
“Midoriya is a bean.”
Walk into North Santiam Hall 206 on your average Thursday afternoon, you’ll come upon a merry band of friends, sitting around a table, their piercing laughter easily audible in the NSH Gallery.
“If we were to basically do a host club, could we base it off of ‘Ouran High School’?”
After one member makes this suggestion, the entire group bursts into laughter.
“I’ll be Tamaki!” one member shouts.
However, looking from across the table, Makayla Atwood shouts, “Hey! I am the president. I have the right to be Tamaki.”
Atwood, the new president of the Anime Club on campus took over recently when their previous president could no longer attend classes at LBCC.
The Anime Club has been a club at LBCC for many years. Their primary focus has been discussion of Japanese animation.
“I’m happy to be taking over because I feel like I can start directing us towards better things,” Atwood said, before fellow club member Kyree Vergara added, “You were always the more organized one.”
The conversation went many places, from “scrublords” to pledges to cthulhu, but in all, the discussion still managed to find its way back to the subject at hand, the direction the club would be going in the near future.
Atwood gave her three priorities for the club; getting the club more organized, increasing the club membership, and organizing events.
The club is also hoping to do some fundraising.
“If we really hustle our butts and work on it, we could possibly get enough money to go to anime expo, which is in California.”
The club is also hoping to sponsor a campus wide “Cosplay Day” in the near future, an idea that club member Shae Speedling, who describes themselves as a human/calculator hybrid, hopes will come soon, before they leave for their internship at Disney.
On the anime front, the club is hoping to choose something shorter to screen in the hopes that it can provide interesting discussion while also staying away from more popular anime franchises.
“Next week we will be watching an anime episode and begin setting up the watch schedule. This week we need to figure out which one.”
In the end however, Speedling provides a summary of the club.
“We are a big group of nerds. We enjoy anime. We all are very friendly. We are all very welcoming,” Speedling said.
“If people are worried that our club is a club that is super strict or not accepting of people, that is the complete opposite. We are a very friendly group of people that is accepting of everyone. We don’t care about anything. As long as you aren’t an asshole, you’re welcome here,” Atwood added.
However, on a final note, Speedling blurted, “It’s never the end! You should know this by now. Once you’re sucked into the anime club you’re stuck forever.”
Additional Information:
What: Anime Club
When/Where: Meets weekly at 3 p.m. Thursdays in North Santiam Hall, room 206.
Officers: President Makayla Atwood
Contact Info: Makayla.I.Atwood@gmail.com
Next meeting: May 3 at 3 p.m.
