The WRISE club, which stands for Woodbridge Respecting Identity and Sexuality in Education, has been meeting throughout the 2024-2025 school year in room 200 at WMS. The club hopes to “overcome stigmas regarding the lgbtq communtiy and to promote inclusiveness,”according to Mr. Catalano, the club advisor.
WRISE is one of the clubs at WMS not many notice or have joined although it is a very important club. It is a club that spreads awareness, inclusiveness, and is a safe space for a student to be themselves.
The club meets at least once a month and one of the first club meetings. Mr. Catalano and Ms. Cioffi, another advisor of the club, created a bulletin board with student volunteers to inform others around the school of the lgbtq community and made the club members research influential members of the community as well.
Mr. Catalano said, “It’s important to me because as someone who identifies as part of the community including other students in the school, I feel it’s important that all students have an outlet as well as the ability to become educated on different topics.”
The club is succeeding in not only educating a few students but also helping others outside of the school with their Italian Ice Fundraiser in June. With the fundraiser they hold in June they accumulate quite a bit of money to give to the Trevor Project established about 20 years ago.
The Trevor Project helps lgbtq youth with trying to identify themselves but also helps youths families who struggle with understanding their identification. They also try to give mental and social help all the while keeping them off the streets if their families can’t accept them for who they are.
The reason the club was created is because a student expressed interest in having one and both Mr. Catalano and Mrs. Cioffi took action to create that. Although, currently, not many students are in the club, they hope in the future many more students and faculty will join the club.
To get everyone involved brings more awareness to the lgtbq community. As Mr. Catalano said, “The more awareness that we have the better.”
