By Adna Tabich, Staff Writer

Clear your schedules on Thursdays at 6p.m., Behrend students! A brand-new Skill Toys Club has emerged for anyone interested; all are welcome to meet the club in Erie Hall weekly. For those of you who have an interest in skill toys, this is definitely a club you will want to check out. Or you may have no prior knowledge to what a skill toy is, like me.

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Javan Kalmar, a junior student in his second year of Computer Engineering Technology, also happens to be the president of the Skill Toys Club. Javan explained that a skill toy is an object you play with, and do tricks with, which you eventually perfect over time. These are more common than you might expect - yoyo’s and Rubik’s cubes fall under this category.

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Kalmar actually was interested in skill toys before the club. His old friend at the Kensington branch of Penn State saw him yo-yoing and came up with the idea, so when Kalmar transferred to Behrend he implemented it. He actually met his now vice president when he saw him yo-yoing and told him the idea. The two of them created this club for students like them to socialize and do what they love.

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Now that the club is off and running, they let students come in whenever they want and get involved with the toys. The main toys that the club uses are yoyo’s, Rubik’s cubes, diablos (Chinese yoyo’s), tops, kendamas, devil sticks, and juggling balls which are actually mostly donated by YoyoSam, a skill toys store in Fairview. As for how the club functions, anyone can pick up any toy they want to practice and play with for the day. They will usually have the yoyo’s and diablo players in the middle of the room standing, with the Rubik’s cube solvers sitting off to the side. This encourages the players to communicate and help each other who are working with the same toys. After a full meeting of learning and participating, the club will get together to discuss business such as what more they want to do or making shirts.

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Overall, this club is a unique way to meet people who like to interact with these toys because that’s often not the first thing you lead with in a conversation. However, you don’t need to be a professional by any means when coming in. Kalmar says, “Skill Toys Club is about getting people interested and active with skill toys. I've noticed over my relatively short time with yoyos that everyone has heard of a yoyo and most people have tried yo-yoing at some point, but hardly anyone really gets into it.” He goes on to say that people often give the answer of “I don’t have the skill,” rather than not having the time to practice.

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“The point of this club is to spread the interest of this cool pastime and give students a community to develop their skills,” according to Kalmar. Currently, the club is mostly people who have just started with the toy so there is no competition or rush to succeed. Everyone is at a different skill level and many of the higher skilled players will help the less skilled. However, there can be small rivalries. Javan says, “I've, personally, been having a small rivalry outside the club with getting a faster cube time in which I am .02 sec faster at 33.64.” (No wonder he is the president). So, if you’re interested in this type of club, or even just want to check out, I highly encourage you to do so!