By Julissa Marte Mendez | Observer Contributor
Photo by Benjamin Richard
Otaku United Club at Mount Wachusett Community College is opening the door for children’s education by holding a charity to give books to children in local schools. A “book for every child” allows a child to have a quality book for free.
The club gets together collecting donations to hold a silent auction. In April, participants put their bids on a piece of paper. Cohen said it is similar to eBay, but on paper, where the highest bidder is allowed to take the item home.
The profits gained from sales is used to purchase the children’s books at Scholastic. Their goal is to give two books per child starting from preschool up to second grade. The books are distributed in local elementary schools, for example, Waterford Elementary School and Hobomock Elementary School, according to Cohen.
The Otaku United Club also helps the students learn the Japanese culture. They learned about anime, a short-term for animation. They learn Japanese by sharing a word of the day each meeting and given each members the word to study until the next meeting and a member is able to win a prize, said Cohen.
The club has about 35 members, according to Cohen. Many different students attend this club with different majors. Some have a business major, early education, or film study, said Cohen, who is a business major. Some students, for example, MWCC student Sarah Payson, has a popular YouTube page making anime videos with about 66k followers.
The club has been raising funds to attend a Boston Anime convention by selling baked good in the South Café, according to Cohen. This convention is the largest northeastern anime convention held once a year. It has over 35 thousand attendees where they often dress in costumes.
Cohen said they have different panels, such as teaching about the history and culture of Japan, their traditions, and even their clothing. They teach the history of anime and where it originated. Some panels display art shows and others play video games.
Comments are closed.