Club Profile: REACH

Cherim Kang, Staff Writer

REACH, standing for “remember every action can help,” is a long standing community service club with the goal of helping people in the Kent community, especially focused on helping with local services. REACH is and currently led by Kent students Aay-Janae Taylor ’21, Anthony Zhang ’21, Zhalyn Kabyken ’20, Ranjana Balamurali ’20, Kelly Hooper ’21, Anna Jang ’22, Charlotte Andrews ’22, and Mariya Novosad ’22, under faculty advisor, Mrs. Sokolnicki.

The REACH club is working actively in the Kent community to provide help to as many people as possible. Some of REACH’s actions to help out the town include making meals for the soup kitchen, helping out our elder residents, making bag lunches, providing back to school supplies, and giving Christmas presents for kids when money is tight for their families. 

Besides being incredibly involved in the Kent community, REACH has also influenced the creation of a number of clubs on campus. The majority of Kent’s community service clubs, such as the Animal Rights Club and the Adopt-a-Grandparent Club, were grown from REACH.

Mrs. Sokolnicki, agrees, happy to say that “yes, we are very active in our community.” Regarding the impact of REACH across Kent, Mrs. Sokolnicki says, “REACH has been around in Kent longer than I have been in Kent, and I have been here for 20 years.”  

REACH also recently held its most well known event, the annual REACH Tag Sale.  All Tag Sale proceeds go towards providing back to school clothes and school supplies for kids in Kent and surrounding towns. Taylor, one of the leaders of the REACH club, says that she “is always very excited for the REACH Tag Sale, and helping out the community once again this year as a part of REACH.” The Tag Sale was very successful, and managed to raise over $5000 dollars this year. 

As they keep working to help the community, we encourage all Kent community members to continue to participate and give what they can!