Sofia Rositani – Editor-in-Chief
Spring is here which means more students will be outdoors soaking in the sun and warm weather. With this there is a new student organization on campus, “The Outing Club.”
“I’ve always loved hiking, going outside, doing all sorts of activities, and I know Outing club is something that’s pretty big at other schools,” President, Connor Skarzynski, a junior said.
Skarzynski said they were approved by the Student Government Association and have written their constitution; they also have Instagram and Owl Connect where they will be posting more about upcoming events.
“A lot of the Spring for me I’ve been doing a lot of trails running and kind of exploring the area’s try to find good places to take a group on a hike,” Skarzynski said.
On April 2, they had their first group hike. They ended up going to West Rock and plan on more hikes in the future.
“We start off doing hikes but as soon as we have funding then we can start doing the kayaks or something else. Starting out with no money whatsoever there’s not much you can do. So, I think the hiking and the volunteering work is probably going to be the first step,” secretary, Brooke Keeney, a junior said.
They are considering doing fundraising such as a bake sale to raise money for their programs and events. They also plan on working with other organizations for events.
“Been, while creating bonds with other members through shared experiences. The outing club will also participate in volunteer work and fundraising events to give back to the community that provides and maintains nature. SCOC will complete 2 service events per semester, included in the outings,” the SCSU Outing Club Owl Connect stated.
Skarzynski said he would like to work with organizations like Habitat for Humanity and his honor society Zeta Deta Epsilon.
“The idea started last Fall, around August, I have been working on it since December. Three months, it’s very exciting to finally get going,” Skarzynski said.
With this they also want to make a change with their organization so while they do these events, they will also be cleaning up the area too.
“Around New Haven sometimes you’re hiking up West Rock, you will see cans and everything around so doing stuff like that I understand is not like one if the most pressing issues but any way we can help I figured as a positive way to make change,” Skarzynski said.
Skarzynski said he felt very relieved and excited when he found out that SGA approved the organization.
“It was a very long process in December, at the end of the first semester going into the workshop and then proposing my club. And then it was difficult because we’re nearing the end of our season in February and it was still snowing out, cold out. I gave my presentation to SGA, and I got unanimous approval, which was cool. That’s very exciting to see and ever since that, we got the Owl Connect page up and running. Once we got fully approved and we were able to operate fully,” Skarzynski said.
