Have you ever found yourself walking the halls during lunch with nothing to do? Or did you just lose something you really loved? If it so happens to be a Tuesday, you’re in luck. Go to Laughter Club in Science Room 8 during the first 10 minutes of lunch and turn that frown upside down!

Laughter is a great way to release stress and is even good for your heart. “The old saying that ‘laughter is the best medicine,’ definitely appears to be true when it comes to protecting your heart,” according to Michael Miller, M.D., director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center on a healthy laughter website.

The Laughing Club was made at West because a teacher started to see a lot of students very depressed or just flat-out stressed. That teacher happened to be Mr. Kevin Lynch. He decided to design something that would put a smile on people’s faces. He figured he should at least give it a shot. “I started seeing a lot of students that were stressed out with school and being a biology teacher, I know that stress actually causes a lot of disease including depression.” So he adopted the idea of a Laughing Club.

There is a lot of evidence to support the theory that laughing is good for you and you can benefit from it. It may sound a little bit corny, but bear with me and continue reading and find out just how interesting the club is. One of the main things that laughing can do for you is reduce your stress level and in turn, can make you a happier person. “Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health,” claimed Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D. on a website about the benefits of laughing.

There is one main goal of the Laughing Club, but there are a couple side things that come with it. Mr. Lynch stated that the goal of the Laughing Club was to, “boost the health and welfare of the students that participate.’’

A ninth-grader named Jared Vitug said when asked what he thought the goal of the club was, Jared responded by saying, “I feel the goal is to kind of loosen up everybody, to give them a chance to laugh for no real reason and let go of all the stress in life.”

It is also a good place to meet new people and new friends. Mr. Lynch said that anywhere from ten to 60 people attend laughter club, although there are more students that attend in the beginning of the school year than in the end.

The background on the Laughing Club varies. First of all, laughing clubs were started by a doctor in India as a way to promote health, he thought of it as a form of yoga type of thing. Second, there is no process you have to go through to become a member you can just show up any time. Also there are not any fees, no attendance or anything like that so it is very open.

So that is the overall on the laughing club at West. It is just made to make people happy and have a better outlook on life. Not to mention that the club works like medicine, bringing your anxiety down. Also, in school it is very easy to get discouraged and down with all the homework and tests that are assigned. So a laughter club is a must for just about every high school.