Like the rest of Communications High School, the landscape of clubs has had to change and adapt with the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the largest clubs at CHS, The Cultural Communications Club (CCC), provides students with community-based volunteer opportunities in cooperation with different programs. Due to COVID-19, the CCC was unable to offer volunteer events last school year, and they did not meet their fundraising goals.

The CCC typically holds breakfast sales as a fundraiser, with Spanish teacher Sabina Campbell preparing different treats to sell
to students on Friday mornings. Though the club was unable to hold the sales last year, they managed to make a brief return.

Unfortunately, Breakfast sales were suspended shortly thereafter until further notice due to a spike in COVID-19 cases on Jan. 3, 2022.

“Breakfast sales have always been our main fundraiser and source of funding,” said CCC co-president, senior Dani McLaughlin of Tinton Falls. The reemergence of breakfast sales also helped the club gain notoriety among the younger student body.

“CCC is one of the largest clubs at CHS, along with Inkblot, and getting more people to know about the club is important. The more money we raise the more we can give to charity,” said CCC co-president, senior Lakshya Vegiraju of Marlboro.

Another club struggling financially is SkillsUSA, a technical and career-based club that sends students to a variety of state and national competitions. The club usually fundraises by both hosting an annual CHS dance and by selling advertisements to businesses during Career Day. SkillsUSA relies on this fundraising in order to offset competition fees, including transportation costs.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the competitions were virtual for the 2020-2021 season, and while this cut down on
expenses such as busing, the competitions still required entrance fees.

“We weren’t able to have any of our events that we normally use to fundraise, so we had to use money that we raised in previous years to pay the fees,” said junior and SkillsUSA vice president Danielle Lirov of Marlboro.

This year, SkillsUSA is on track to meet their fundraising goals, largely in part to the Halloween in December dance and the upcoming Career Day in February.

The Junior State of America (JSA) chapter at CHS is also struggling due to a lack of funds. JSA vice president, junior Lucy Battista of Tinton Falls, described how the club would typically sell merchandise in order to raise the funds to send students to conventions.

However, with a lack of fundraisers and a lack of interest, the club is not in operation.

“If we can find an advisor and get JSA back and running, we hope to fundraise again through merch sales,” Battista said.