Sharp Cookies. This nonsensical phrase is known by another name: the CHS Busking Club.  The Busking Club was started this year by junior Phoebe Yao after being submitted as a club idea last spring.

“At the end of last school year, I just felt there weren’t enough musical opportunities at Clayton High School,” Yao said.

Yao, who plays viola, felt that as a student musician, it was hard to find ways to get involved musically at CHS. “Currently, musical opportunities are spread out and it’s hard for students who are musicians to find them,” Yao said.

After convincing orchestra teacher Julie Hoffman to be the club sponsor, the Busking Club held its first meeting in which only five students showed up. However, the Busking Club is not a meeting-based club.

“We have some meetings, but those only come up for projects or to introduce new opportunities,” Yao said. “Nobody is required to come to meetings. If you want to participate in a certain project, then you choose to go to that meeting.”

So far, the club has completed two projects and is working on a third. The first project was at the Art Fair in downtown Clayton.

“People were performing on the street and it was a volunteer opportunity. They got volunteer hours and a free T-shirt,” Yao said. “It was a big project and we met with all these art fair directors. It turned out great and people got lots of experience performance wise.”

The second project was performing at Shakespeare in the Streets’ “Good in Everything.” That performance consisted of a much smaller group of musicians than the Art Fair.

The club is currently working on musical storytime at the library, where musicians will be playing music while a story is read to young children.

“The objective of the musical storytime is to introduce young children to music and musical instruments, and to promote the arts at Clayton,” Yao said.

These projects have taken a lot of work to coordinate, and have been arranged almost completely by students.

“These kids do everything by themselves,” sponsor Hoffman said. “They made their own officers and besides coordinating the ‘Shakespeare in the Streets,’ I haven’t really had to do much.”

The club and its officers stay on top of their duties by using a Facebook group, which has more than 50 members. Additionally, there are more musicians in the club who do not use Facebook.

All of these members are currently trying to get permits for street performing. It is the Busking Club, after all.

“We’re currently trying to get permits so that we can do a whole group buskathon on the Delmar Loop, where we will hopefully get some experience as well as some profit,” Yao said.

The group came up with the non-Clayton related name Sharp Cookies to put on their shirts.

Junior Matthew de la Paz, a member of the Busking Club explained, “The sharp is supposed to be like a hashtag, but sharp instead, since it’s music.”

Just as music makes the sharp a special hashtag, it makes the Busking Club a special club.

Yao said, “Music is something that helps people connect to each other, while personally connecting to music.”