By Jordan Weinstock
When talking about prominent clubs in our school, no bigger one comes to mind than our beloved FBLA, which stands for “Future Business Leaders of America.” After a very successful recruitment process at the Club Fair, which took place in September, the club wasted no time taking action. With their members totaling in the triple digits, a school record, they needed to raise money to fund their club. So, they arranged for a day long car wash in the JCHS parking lot. The car wash turned out to be a massive success, as the club was able to raise 100s of dollars for their future events. The car wash was able to gain many volunteers by capitalizing on the new service requirement for JCHS students, which requires them to get some volunteer hours in before the end of every semester. Being so local, and an easy job, many students ended up volunteering for the job to do things like spray the cars with water, collect cash, and scrub the car with soap.

Although this would be the lone event they ran in September, in October, they went with a new approach: A Town Wide Garage Sale. Basically, the club advisor, Mr. Harper set up a stand at the Caldwell Street Fair, where people who were looking to have a garage sale could come and give him their address. From there, he would post all of the addresses on a facebook post, letting all of the Caldwell residents know where to look for these sales in return for a little commission for the club. This idea, although being the first time executed, turned out to be brilliantly. The club was able to get double digit garage sales set up for one day.

Through some time in between events, the club held many donation drives, for things like food, clothes, gifts, etc. Although things like this don’t really help the club, that is not the main goal. FBLA is not just about helping people within the club and local community, they also want to spread positivity and generosity to people outside of Caldwell, and even to Essex county as a whole.
Their most recent gathering actually occurred at the movie theatre. The club decided to use some of that money gained from fundraising to have a club wide event at Cinemark, where they rented out a movie theatre to watch “Moana 2.” Although it is important for clubs to be striving towards gaining more members and raising money, gatherings like this are also vital, since it is always nice to reward members’ hard work, while also building connections inside the club.

FBLA plans to hold their next event on Friday 1/25, which is their annual dodgeball tournament. Students are encouraged to form teams with their friends and compete against each other to win a prize. The event typically attracts many people, and is known to be very funny. However, all of these events are just built up for FBLA’s main purpose: the State Leadership Conference. This statewide conference, held in Atlantic City every March, gives students the opportunity to learn more about specific business topics at certain events, meetings, or workshops. It is also known to be a great networking opportunity, as there are thousands of students in the hotel.
To make it to the three day event, club members are required to form a presentation, which they will present to a series of judges, or take a test, and place top 8 in their respective region. There are many topics to choose from, like advertising, Entrepreneurship, Insurance and Risk Management, etc. To conclude, FBLA is looking to have another successful year, and Mr. Harper, with his networking brilliance, and creativity, seems to be growing a special culture within his club, which is part of the reason why more and more members join every year. JCHS is very fortunate to have a dedicated teacher like him leading the club, because he inspires all the students to push for greatness in the Business Field.