Hoping to bring a new community to the school, sophomore Giancarlo Valdez has created a space for students to socialize and have fun through Card Club.

“I just started this club so that I could see people having smiles and getting to know each other like how I did in my old card club,” said Valdez, who was inspired to start the club from his previous middle school experience. 

At George K. Porter Middle School, Valdez found an opportunity to try something new when his school opened up its own Card Club. At the time, he had little experience with playing cards. However, Valdez gave it a shot anyway and was introduced to a whole new community of people who loved playing card games. 

“Until I joined that club, I didn’t realize that there’s a community out there that loved playing card games and I just wanted to bring that community here,” Valdez said. 

Using his previous experience as inspiration, Valdez founded Card Club here at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School (DPMHS) this year so students can meet to play a variety of card games such as UNO, Solitaire, Pokémon and more. The club is sponsored by librarian Alain Cruz who provides the space of the library for them to meet at lunch every Wednesday. 

“Students who come to Card Club often find fun playing various types of games and just having the opportunity to do something different outside of other types of things going on at lunch,” Cruz said. “It just provides more opportunity for fun things to happen and I think that’s just something important for the school for students to have.” 

Thus far, the club has maintained a safe and friendly environment with Valdez acknowledging its potential to become competitive. Members such as freshman Alexa Franco enjoy the club for its fun atmosphere. 

“Card Club is really entertaining,” Franco said. “You can hang out with your friends and have a lot of fun.”