A new club has been formed in Wadsworth with a focus on educating students about Wadsworth’s history, called the Wadsworth Historical Society Jr. Club and run by Heather McCurry, and her daughter, Teaghan McCurry.
They wanted to start this club because of their interest in Wadsworth’s history. This is for kids from the ages of middle school level to the high school senior level.
Teaghan McCurry, who attended a Wadsworth elementary school in Grade 3, did not get the opportunity to walk around town and learn about the history of Wadsworth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With school shutting down during this time, it took away the ability to go on this field trip that the school offers to all Grade 3 students.
The goal of the Wadsworth Historical Society Jr. Club is to inform the students about the history of Wadsworth. This gives the students the chance to talk about their opinions on certain topics that students do not get the opportunity to cover in school.
It also offers to give seniors opportunities for volunteer hours through different activities around the community or extracurriculars to add to their college resumes. The club has already had multiple meetings and is on multiple social media platforms.
The way it is run is in a government-style format with the club having a president, vice president, and secretary. The president of the club, sophomore Nick Pike, has to be ready to set up for the club meetings and go in knowing what topics they are going to bring up to the club.
All someone needs to bring with them to the meetings is just themselves, unless they are the president, they have to bring anything they need to help them run the club meeting. The club tries to meet at least once a month at different locations around or near Wadsworth.
“The meeting time kinda depends on the availability,” Teaghan McCurry said. “Usually, during meetings, we discuss what happened at the last meeting, and we have tables set up and hold presentations held by the president of the club.”
Different historical topics are discussed at each meeting.
“Mostly fun facts and it depends on what topic we choose to discuss that night, like if a famous person tied their shoe in front of a building,” Teaghan McCurry said.
The McCurry’s want to give the power to the kids who are a part of the club rather than dictating it themselves.
“We want the students to drive the club, we want the students to tell us what they want out of the club, what the purpose will be for the club,” Heather McCurry said.
The club also travels a lot around Wadsworth and continues to do trips around Wadsworth to learn more about the history of Wadsworth.
For example, Eric England, a Social Studies teacher at Wadsworth Middle School, did a tour around Wadsworth for the club and the tour ended with the members of the club staying 45 minutes after the scheduled time to ask questions about Wadsworth and its history.
Heather McCurry is willing to go on any trips the students want to go on to learn more about Wadsworth’s history. As of recently, the group has found interest in possibly going to a cemetery and going on a cemetery tour.
The Wadsworth Historical Society Jr. Club is still growing. Anyone interested in joining the club can look on the Wadsworth Historical Society Jr. club Instagram page or contact the McCurry family via email at [email protected] or message them through Instagram with more questions.
The next meeting of the club is on March 24th at 7 p.m. in St. Mark’s Church on College Street.
