With a new year full of changes beginning, clubs are facing difficulties they didn’t have to face before scheduling issues, cut backs, and new sponsors. StuCo and Pep Club, two of the most influential clubs in the school, will not be an exception.

Because of the schedule change, StuCo plans to get rid of a few traditional events, such as the Charity Picnic and the Crazy Olympics. They also hoped to participate in the Unity Walk, but their plans fell short.

“We aren’t glad that we’re missing out on the fun, but we plan on replacing them with other fun stuff,” said Student Body President Jeremy Muller. “We want to try to get people involved with the new events we’re having, and hopefully they’ll like it.”

As for new events, StuCo has a lot in store that they’re hoping to add to the calendar. A few ideas they’re eager to bring into reality are student organized intramural sports, such as dodgeball and kickball, and more extracurricular events. They are trying to organize a way to work with the Special Olympics, and are participating in a doughnut contest against SM Northwest. Krispy Kreme is hosting the event by making the doughnuts in both schools’ colors, and whichever school purchases the most between Sept. 12 and Oct. 7 wins $750.

“Compared to other Shawnee Mission schools, we usually do less events,” Muller said. “We want to do more this year. We want to get people to do more for the school without being in school, and to get as many people involved as possible.”

They’re also looking to add two new charity events to the agenda, the Polar Plunge and Sleep in a Box. Sleep in a Box is a fundraiser that has students collect boxes and sleep inside of them overnight on a school night, to better understand the lives of those who are homeless. While this event is still pending due to financial reasons, the Polar Plunge has already been confirmed to take place during second semester. It is a Special Olympics fundraiser that involves teams of up to 20 students raising money to participate in the event. If they meet the minimum amount, the team will get to show up at Shawnee Mission Park to jump into the lake on Jan. 26.

“They’ve been doing this in Missouri for quite some time, mostly with high school students,” Muller said. “Kansas wanted to get high schools more involved, so we’re trying to get more schools involved for the cause.”

But StuCo isn’t the only club that’s switching up their traditions this year. Pep Club is facing similar alterations, along with a new sponsor.

“It’s very hectic right now because all the Homecoming things are coming up,” said Pep Club Sponsor Heather Bledsoe. “There’s such a great and classy tradition by how it’s run, and I don’t want to mess it up. But we’ve got a lot of student involvement this year, and if we keep it up, everything will be great.”

Pep Club also has a new method when it comes to their officer system. Instead of four constant officers, consisting of the president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, there was only a president elected. Each season, the president will choose  three new committee heads to take care of the rest of the work, giving more students the chance to be in charge.

“I didn’t expect it to work that way when I ran for the position,” said Pep Club President Tucker Love. “I don’t mind it. It’s like having officers, but I guess it’s different because I pick them, instead of others having any input in it. I’m fine with it, but I don’t want to upset anyone.”

Pep Club and StuCo will be handling assemblies differently as well. Because of the reduced amount of seminars in the year, they will be cutting back the number of assemblies by getting rid of some and combining others.

“This year, it’s kind of like the assemblies are cut in half,” Love said. “We’ll be putting the Homecoming assembly with the fall sports assembly, and the Northman one with the winter sports assembly. It’ll work a little differently, since the winter sports assembly will have to be moved back a month or so, and we won’t have the same amount of time as we usually do, but I think we can make it work.”

Despite the changes both clubs are making, they hope to keep things running smoothly and effectively throughout the year.