In their second meeting, GlamourGals, a new club at Parkway North, began practicing for meeting the elderly in Friendship Village, a retirement community in Sunset Hills, Missouri.

“GlamorGals is a national organization, and we just started a chapter here. It’s really student driven to be completely honest. Mel Park and Antara are the ones in charge of it,” science teacher and sponsor Erin Derenbecher said. “They’ve really just taken it and run with it.”

With over forty members, the students plan on meeting on Oct. 10. to paint nails and do base makeup for the elderly. 

“I’m excited. I think it’ll be really fun to know I’m making a difference and brightening someone’s day, even though I’m a little nervous about if I’ll do a good job or not,”  junior Anna Zwibelman said. 

As people’s age increases, so does the likelihood of issues regarding mental health. This organization was created to help relieve loneliness by connecting younger people with the elderly.

“We know that as people age and their loved ones start to pass that they’re not as active. With that comes a greater risk for depression and dementia and things like that,” Derenbecher said. The organization wants to combat that by providing an opportunity for high school students to go and visit with elderly citizens in assisted living homes and assisted living centers.

Club president junior Antara Panwar decided to start a branch of the organization here at Parkway North.

“I’ve been looking to start a club, and I’ve had some ideas like mindfulness and mental health, so when I saw this club through a friend, I instantly loved it because it’s helping older people feel included and ending senior isolation,” Panwar said.

The club will meet once a month to both plan out activities and set the date for meeting with the elderly. 

“I think it originally started as a makeover thing with painting nails,” Derenbecher said. “Then, it slowly evolved to things like bingo nights or gaming things and just really spending time with the elderly to help combat some of that loneliness.” 

Even with this only being the second meeting of the club, Panwar is excited about the amount of people involved.

“I really love everyone who has joined because I can see that they want to be there, and they’re really excited about the idea, and it just makes me happy,” Panwar said.

With the amount of involvement within the club, Panwar is already planning on continuing the club to the next year.

“I’m definitely planning on continuing this club next year. I think after we have more senior visits this year, people are going to want to start running next year when I leave because I’ll be a senior, so I think it might last the next four or five years too,” Panwar said.

For more information, look to @pnhglamourgals on instagram.