![At the bottom of the third inning, the Lions are still scoreless. Rowe stands at home plate, preparing to bat, while Vandenbrink stands off to the side as the next batter up. Despite having the bases loaded, the team was unable to score any runs. “It’s just the beginning of the season. We’re just going to be playing out best by June, [and] that’s where champions are,” Rowe said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_3077-1200x900.jpg)
![All smiles. The group poses for a photo with last year’s book, “This is Our House,” along with their award for third Best in Show. Meikle, who was an Editor-in-Chief for the yearbook last year as well, holds both and stands at the center of the group. “That was an amazing feeling, going and grabbing the third place award,” Meikle said. “All of it paid off. I cried so much over that book, being able to receive [the award] was one of the highlights of my high school career, it was like the coolest thing ever.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/8bookpose_philly-1200x800.jpg)
On Sept. 29, the Asian Pacific-Islander (API) Club held one of the first fundraisers of the 2023-2024 school year during lunch, selling boba to students passing through Student Street.
A large part of API Club’s goal is sharing their cultures through meetings and events like the Mid-Autumn Festival. Doing fundraisers makes cultural celebrations possible by funding the API Club money to buy snacks and decorations. Ayana Owen, senior, is one of the current co-presidents of the club.
“The money will go to the club, and from there the club can do a lot of different fun things,” Owen said. “Last year, we sold [Melona] ice cream bars, it took us basically a whole lunch period to sell 24, and we thought that 30 would be the perfect amount to sell everything, and then it turned into chaos and we sold out.”
Contrary to the API Club’s original expectations, the table was swarmed as soon as the bell rang, and they sold out completely in barely three minutes.
“[We chose to sell boba] because it is trending and is very captivating,” Owen said. “We saw other API clubs like Lake Oswego [High School] and Wilsonville [High School] all doing boba events.”
Compared to previous years, the API club has seen a large spike in students at their meetings.
“When I was a sophomore, the API club disbanded. And then [midway through] my junior year, Nicholas Lee, the co-president, and I got it back together,” Owen said. “The club was very small at that time. But at our first meeting this year, we had 50 members. It’s going a lot better and is much bigger this year, and hopefully we’ll be able to use that and create more events.”
API club is planning another fundraiser, selling more boba to the people who were unable to grab one in time. Expect to see the API club once again selling classic boba and more special flavors.
