Edgewater – About two dozen Jefferson High School students can’t stop clowning around, and school officials are actually encouraging them.
Three times a week after school, members of the Jefferson clown club apply makeup, stick on bulbous noses and pad around in oversized shoes. They conquer how to twist balloons into shapes, master the “chicken dance” and learn a little magic along with confidence.
Mostly, though, they smile.
“This is where I laugh,” said Ana Castrejon, 16, a junior, whose clown name is Chubbies.
Sophomore Elisha Konkler said the club helps her keep her mind off other things and gives her a chance to mess around and be silly.
Edward Camargo, 15, and John-Mark Gladstone, 18, practice a robotic skit with stoic faces while clad in black, from hats and sunglasses to gloves and clothes.
“One of my friends, she was telling me it was cool,” Camargo said of the clown club. “I love it. I’m learning new things. I’m kind of a clown anyway.”
Without the club, and guidance of sponsor Tim Martinez, the students said they’d watch TV, hang around somewhere and be bored.
In charge of campus security, Martinez dispenses love and tough love at Jefferson, and uses the clown club – now in its third year – as a way to touch teens and keep them in school.
He took up clowning seven years ago, although he had no experience. Since then, he has learned more about his craft.
He bought supplies with his own money, though he now uses a grant from 21st Century Community Learning Center, a part of the No Child Left Behind law.
“What a blessing for me. I hope that by doing this they are not involved in drugs and gangs and other stuff,” Martinez said.
No matter what the school day brings, the students spend two hours every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday learning how to make other people laugh.
“I tell them: ‘The shortest distance between two people is a smile. If you smile at someone, they will smile back,”‘ Martinez said.
Clown club has given the students a broader worldview. When the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus was in town, a friend of Martinez arranged for them to see a show and talk one-on-one with professional clowns. Most had never been to the circus.
The students perform at school assemblies, rallies, community events such as Cinco de Mayo, nursing homes and birthday parties.
A club clown contingent took the first-place people’s choice award at this summer’s Edgewater Days Parade. They will earn money for an after-prom party by working a day in greasepaint at Six Flags Elitch Gardens’ Halloween event.
“This gives them a sense of celebrity,” said principal Jose Martinez. “I wonder if we didn’t have this program, what some of these kids would do. It just connects them.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
