On Dec.19, Miami Palmetto Senior High’s Greek club held their first meeting. The Greek club is currently running under the Philosophy club, started by seniors Sophia Ventouras, the club’s President, and Rebecca Panagakos, Vice President.
“We founded this club to spread Greek culture to the school. Our main mission is volunteering at the St. Andrew Miami Greek Festival. It was two weekends ago, and we had nine volunteers from the Greek club come, who were not already members of the church. We’re also participating in the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Dance Marathon, and our team has raised $250 in the two months our club has existed,” Panagakos said.
The club has currently been working on attracting more members and increasing awareness, while also working with several organizations celebrating Greek culture. They had their debut at the winter festival,promoting the club and putting their name out there in order to l get people interested.This was a huge success as shortly after they had their first club meeting, and had an amazing turnout.
“They want to bring more awareness to Greek culture, and they want to get big enough to talk about lots of things involving Greek culture. Apparently, there is a huge Greek presence at Palmetto Senior High. There is a fair share of culture clubs like Japanese Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, and French Honor Society. So, in their case… they want to talk about their own culture and spread awareness [about] certain issues of Greeks,” English teacher and club sponsor Ernesto Ferris said.
Panagakos and Ventouras saw that there was no representation of Greek culture at the school, and there were Greek students that longed for representation.
“I love my culture, and I saw how there were so many other clubs representing their cultures, I was inspired to spread Greek culture around,” Ventouras said.
Despite only existing for two months, the club has volunteered and involved students to participate in events surrounding Greek culture, opening them up to new outlets to explore their culture.
“I hope to see the Greek club grow, and I hope to see more Panthers coming out to the festival and loving Greek culture. When my cousin, Sophia, and I leave the school, my younger sisters will take over, and I know they’ll do a good job at leading the club,” Panagakos said.
The Greek club will continue to grow and bring new outlets for Greek and non-Greek students alike to further explore the culture.
