German Club One of Many Featured at Club Fair

German Club One of Many Featured at Club Fair

Abby Wittler, Staff Writer, Journalism I

Jennifer Laaksonen, or as she is more commonly known, Frau, has been a teacher at Notre Dame for 20 years and has been running the German Club since she was hired.

When she first started teaching here, the German Club was a small and little-known program but it has since blossomed into a much-loved part of the Notre Dame community with an average of 85 members every year.

“We have done everything from Christmas Markets to Grilled Cheese and Games to Mario Kart tournaments,” said Frau.

The German Club also has a significant role in De La Baie fest every year. They have a brat fry where they sell around 600 brats to students attending the festival. The club also started the dodgeball tournament that is held annually.

It wasn’t always this way and what started this is one of Frau’s favorite memories with the club. Eighteen years ago De La Baie fest was going to be canceled because of lack of student participation, but Frau and her German Club members had another plan.

They decided to order and cook up 32 brats and see if that would draw students to stay for the festival. It worked like a charm, the brats sold out within five minutes, and still do the same thing (on a much bigger scale) to this day.

NDA senior Lilly Schumacher, a leader of German Club, said that her favorite thing about it is getting to know people from every grade and the kind and welcoming people that are members.

Another leader and senior, Lily Brada, said her favorite part of the club is how much fun it is and the fact that it is more like hanging out with friends than anything.

“We don’t operate like a normal club,” said Brada.

Both seniors said it is amazing and rewarding to be a leader of the club and they are very grateful for the opportunity to do so.

“I think this is a club for everyone,” said Brada. All of the people in the club are just there to have a good time, so there is absolutely nothing to be worried or anxious about. There is a small amount of German featured in the club but in no way do you need to speak the language to be in the club.

Another bonus to being in German Club is the yearly shirt. Leaders such as Schumacher design the shirt and it is always a big hit all around school.

German Club is one of the many NDA clubs that will be featured at the club fair this year and anyone who is looking to be in a club that is more of a community than anything else should consider joining.