Clubs & Extracurricular Activities
There’s a lot to learn outside the classroom! We encourage all our students to get involved in our various clubs and extracurricular activities. We’re honored to be able to offer many opportunities that allow our students to explore a wide range of interests.
Advisor: Carole Normandin
This club is open to students in grades 7–12. Our mission is to introduce students to the paddling sports; sports that they can enjoy their entire lives. Students will get to try out canoes, kayaks, SUP boards, and even rowing equipment.
Co-Advisors: Evelyn Cunha and Gerald Duguay
The fish and game club gives middle and high school students the opportunity to be involved with various outdoor activities ranging from fishing to hiking to shooting. In past years, middle and high school club members have traveled to the Big M.O.E. (Mass Outdoor Exposition), to Northfield Mountain, to the Windsor Dam and McLaughlin Hatchery, to Barton Cove, and to Mt. Sugarloaf for outdoor activities. They have also gone on a spring deep sea fishing trip, and members have participated in annual trap shoot and ice fishing derbies. Mr. Roche has given many hours to seeing that our middle and high school students have the opportunity to participate in outdoor activities and learn about the natural resources available in the North Quabbin area.
Bonjour et bienvenue ! ¡Hola y bienvenidos!
The International Travel Club encourages students to develop their cultural knowledge as they learn about French and Spanish language and culture. The goal of the International Travel Club is to provide students with the skills necessary to begin their journey as globally aware citizens through travel. Global travel requires independence, cooperation, and open-mindedness as students encounter diversity, multiculturalism, languages, and environments different from their own. Join us!
Advisor: Ian Bashaw
Our Japanese culture club is a group of students highly interested in Japanese culture. Such aspects include food, folklore, dress, history, language, entertainment, etc. The group meets every other Wednesday to plan school events, watch anime, eat snacks, and spend time with their peers in a safe and accepting environment. If you ever wondered about culture in other countries, check out JCC!
Co-Advisors: Barb Schulze and Angela Cote
Students interested in engineering meet twice a month from September through December and then weekly in January and February to prepare for a written competition in February. Each year there is a different theme. This year’s theme is “The Power of Engineering,” which includes investigating wind power, hydropower, and solar power. At meetings, we do hands-on activities as well as practice problem solving. This year, middle school students are welcome to join the fun, so this club is open to 7th–12th-grade students.
Co-Advisors: Pam Smith and Pennie Smith
Key club is an international service organization sponsored by Kiwanis clubs. KEY stands for Kiwanis Educates Youth. The Mahar Key Club is now sponsored by the Winchendon Kiwanis Club. Following international standards, the club does at least five school service projects and at least five community service projects per month. The club must file monthly and annual reports with the New England District Key Club and indicate all the service projects we’ve completed, the number of members who were involved, the total man hours involved in the project, and the money we spent and raised. The club must meet weekly and is graded on these reports. The Mahar Key Club is in the bronze division for clubs with 35 or fewer members.
Advisor: Karrie Hammond
The National Honor Society honors 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students who have demonstrated outstanding scholarship, leadership, service, and character. To be considered for induction into the National Honor Society, all students must meet the 90.0% average requirement for the four previous consecutive quarters to be considered for induction. Students can retain membership by maintaining a 90.0% average for each of our four quarters of the current academic year. No particular levels of course work are required.
The faculty council selects a student for membership based on the above criteria. Once selected, students must maintain these minimum standards and continue to demonstrate the four qualities for which they have been honored.
Membership is not automatic. Potential inductees must fill out an activities sheet, which the National Honor Society Faculty Council will consider for qualification into the NHS.
Advisor: Tammy Hunter-Marshall
The National Junior Honor Society recognizes 8th and 9th graders who have demonstrated exemplary scholarship, leadership, service, character, and citizenship. The academic requirement in addition to these five standards is an 85% average for each of the four quarters in the 7th and 8th grades to determine eligibility for induction in either 8th or 9th grade. Students maintain membership based on the five standards and not falling below 85% for more than one quarter after induction.
Membership is not automatic. Potential inductees must fill out an activities sheet, which the National Honor Society Faculty Council will consider for qualification into the NJHS.
Co-Advisors: Ian Bashaw and Matt Parsons
The Red & Blue Review is Mahar Regional School's official student newspaper. Released on a monthly basis, the newspaper covers stories happening in school, in the community, and all over the world. The newspaper club is open to students in grades 7–12 with most meetings taking place via the use of email. This club is perfect for students who like to write, debate, draw, cook, or anything else you can think of. If there is something that you are passionate about, and would like to write an article about, then the newspaper club is the club for you.
Advisor: Angela Cote
The Mahar robotics team is open to grades 7–12. Mahar joins schools all over the country in the annual VEX Robotics Competition in which each year students must build a robot from scratch to compete in a challenging field game. The Robotics season starts around January and ends sometime in May. We meet at varying times each week to accommodate students participating in other extracurricular activities. Construction of the robot involves not only hands-on engineering, but also learning basic computer programming. If you have any interest in robots or just like being a part of a great team, then Mahar’s Robotics Team is for you.
Advisor: Caitlyn Squires
The goal of Students Against Destructive Decisions is to provide students with the best prevention and intervention tools possible to deal with the issues of underage drinking, other drug use, impaired and distracted driving, and other destructive decisions.
Advisor: Jessica Sullivan
We accept all students into this club. Support Our Students, a GSA/diversity club, is a safe space for students to be themselves. We meet once a week to discuss current trends and issues happening in the school and throughout the world. We participate in the Youth Pride March in Boston in the spring.
Advisors: Robin Allain-Moody, Robin LaCroix, and Victoria Flood
Middle and high school student council members are 7th–12th-grade students who meet once or twice a month after school and once a month during the school day as well as attend numerous field trips throughout the year. Our school leaders help plan and implement events such as October's anti-bully awareness day, Halloween hall decorating, Thanksgiving pep rally, sock and mitten drive, and the spring Senator games. Our students truly enjoy spreading school spirit and getting involved in making the school year fun, exciting, and more memorable. Please contact Ms. Allain-Moody for more information.
Advisor: Cheri Hoyle
Peer mediation is a group of 8th–12th-grade students who have received 15 hours of training to become certified as peer mediators (training occurs every two years at Mahar with the help of Quabbin Mediation). The group meets once a month from 10:00 to 10:40 a.m. in the Charlotte Ryan Theater and makes themselves available throughout the school year, when needed, to serve as mediators to help pairs of students resolve their disputes.
TAB trainers are high school students who have completed 18 hours of Training Active Bystanders (TAB) curriculum. Student TAB trainers teach lessons in the 7th and 10th-grade classrooms about how to be active bystanders and stop doing harm. TAB trainers teach students to use their moral courage to intervene safely when other students are being harmed. Some of the strategies students learn are how and when to speak up, recruit others, and seek help. For more information, please visit Quabbin Mediation.
Advisor: Ashley Penna
The yearbook club is for grades 9th–12th graders. We develop and produce the school yearbook, the Toga. This group is a full year activity that starts in the fall and goes into the spring. Join the fun and help us make sure the school yearbook is a representation of the entire school population!