Clubs come and go at Park, but this year a new one is being introduced. Seniors Tony Kruse and Luke Tomback are coming together to start the Harry Potter Club. The club hasn’t officially begun yet, but students are eager to join. The founders of the club hope to share their love of Harry Potter from the books and movies.
Tomback said he endears the series and how he uses it as an escape from the real world. He said he loves the characters of the story, such as Professor Snape.
“I just feel like I get sucked into that world and I like to have an escape from this terrible world and into a more magical one,” Tomback said. “I think my favorite character is probably Snape, I think his redemption arc in the last couple of books is really just beautiful.”
Kruse said he enjoys the series, and specifically the character of Hermione Granger.
“I just love how it brings magic to life and the story jumps off the page or screen as you’re reading or watching,” Kruse said. “My favorite character is Hermione because she’s really smart.”
According to Tomback, the reasoning for the creation of the club was to share the beauty of it with others while also creating a safe space with students who are already fans.
“We just wanted to spread our love. We know that Harry Potter isn’t super popular these days, and we thought it was too beautiful of a thing to not be popular, so we wanted to bring it back to the forefront,” Tomback said. “We really just want to have a space for people to chill out, sit back after their long day of school and just appreciate some great art.”
Junior Adam Rosvold, another avid Harry Potter fan who plans on joining the club, said he thinks this will be a great way for people to get together and connect over it.
“It’s a fun story line and it’s something that would be really fun to bring people together over,” Rosvold said. “I hope it offers a fun spot to talk and watch the movies. Just a fun place to connect with people who also love Harry Potter. It’s such a cool story that I’d love to learn more about.”
According to Kruse, there isn’t any existing place at Park for Harry Potter enthusiasts to go and be themselves, despite there being a lot of fans. He said he welcomes anyone into the club, whether they know the series or not.
“There’s a lot of fans in the school, like my friends are fans of Harry Potter but there’s not a big community where you feel safe and you can be a kid again and talk about it,” Kruse said. “We welcome new fans if they want to get into it, we basically just accept everyone. It’ll be a good time.”
Rosvold said he believes the founders of the club are both positive and friendly people who will help make the club a great place.
“I think they will make great leaders,” Rosvold said. “They are guys that people look up to, they are very outgoing guys and they’d be super fun to lead a club like that. I feel like they just know how to lift the whole room up.”
The club hasn’t started meeting yet, but they hope to begin sometime during the spring of 2024.
