Arcadia High School’s (AHS) Link Crew hosted a Pen Pal Exchange event for all WEB leaders of First Avenue Middle School, Dana Middle School, and Foothills Middle School at the AHS Rally Court on Feb. 22. 

On a very cloudy afternoon, Link Crew leaders started preparing for the event immediately after school ended as they waited for the WEB leaders to arrive. At approximately 3:25 p.m., the middle school students started arriving and gathered with their assigned Link Crew leaders, who held up signs for each group number. Every Link Crew leader was paired up with around two to three WEB leaders, forming many small groups. 

The event started off with some icebreaker questions. Link Crew leaders and WEB leaders began to get to know each other as they shared stories and played mini games. 

At 4 p.m., everyone gathered in front of S-Building to play a big group game involving each member of the two leadership crews. In this game, everybody walked around and spread out until the host announced a number, from one to eight. As a number was announced, students would randomly form a group consisting of that number of people and perform an “action.” Each specific action was associated with each number; for instance, if the number eight was announced, everyone would form a group of eight people and do a “washing machine action,” which required seven people to hold hands and spin around in a circle, while the remaining one person would spin individually in the middle of the circle. People who weren’t able to find a group would be out of the game, and the last people standing would win. The game concluded with three WEB leaders as winners, all originating from Dana Middle School. 

For the remainder of the time, the WEB leaders returned back to their Link Crew leaders to participate in one final game, a scavenger hunt. The small groups merged with one another to form a bigger group, working together to look for Link Crew leaders stationed at random parts of the campus. Each Link Crew leader held a decorative shoe box with a clue leading to the next destination. Stations were positioned at various locations of the school, such as the basketball courts, the library, and the Performing Arts Center. The purpose of this scavenger hunt was to familiarize the middle school students with the AHS campus.

“The purpose of this event is to connect with our WEB leaders at the lower campuses, introduce them to high school life, and just get them acquainted with the idea of becoming freshmen and how that’s going to be,” stated senior Link Crew leader Annika Bullock. “This gives them a chance to get used to the campus, learn what classes they want to take, and what clubs they want to join.” 

Due to the light rain and cold weather, the event was cut a little short, ending at around 4:50 p.m. Overall, the Pen Pal event was a creative way to familiarize the incoming high school students with AHS. On that note, we wish all our future freshmen good luck!

Photo courtesy of Arcadia DCI Intern Samantha Tran