Bastian Elementary School’s administrators want to provide a variety of extracurricular enrichment opportunities for their students.

“It would be nice to have a wide variety of clubs that the kids could participate in, rather than just the standard, typical ones,” Principal Jessica Stowe said.

So when Herriman High School’s JROTC Sergeant Conrad Wilson proposed a cup stacking club run by his cadets, it fit with their vision.

“They talk about team building and how you have to work with others to accomplish goals, and that’s kind of the backbone for what they do, but it’s done through cup stacking,” Assistant Principal Kasey Dahl said.

About 15-25 students attend the afterschool cup stacking club. The high school students teach the younger students how to make basic and complex formations out of plastic cups. They memorize the sequence of steps to set them up and take them down and then practice to increase their efficiency and speed.

Students participate in individual and team cup stacking challenges. One of their favorites is when two kids team up to build a formation, each working one-handed.

“You stand next to each other and you can’t use your inside hand,” Wilson said. “And so I have to use my outside hand and he would use his outside hand and you have to do the same thing that you’re used to doing by yourself.”

Many kids attend the afterschool activity to have fun with their friends. Others come for the competition. One fifth-grade student said, “I mostly do it because I have, like, really bad ADHD, and I have to be moving, and if I’m at my house, I don’t have anything to do, so I just come here and do this.”

Stowe said the activity does help students develop focus and determination.

“There’s lots of mistakes to be made because the cups tumble so many times, but it’s really helped them with that no-quit attitude,” Stowe said.

Participation has even helped improve some students’ behavior.

“We have kids who sometimes have behavioral challenges in class, but they come to cup stacking, and they love it,” she said. “They’re highly engaged. It’s a creative outlet for them. It’s been neat to see some of them grow through that experience.”

Wilson said cup stacking develops eye-hand coordination, left brain/right brain communication, sequencing, sportsmanship and teamwork and is a good physical and social outlet.

“It’s a learning event where we’re having fun, we’re competing, but we’re still being good sports about it and everything,” Wilson said. “The kids love it and it gets them active, and for some of them it’s the first time they’re like, ‘Oh, I’m good at something.’”

The club is open to all students in grades 1-6 and doesn’t cost the school any money since it is run exclusively by the high school students who provide the equipment and the instruction.

Wilson hopes to expand the program to other schools so that they can organize a cup stacking competition. He promotes the program as a learning opportunity for both the elementary and the high school students.

“I use it as leadership development because the cadets have to plan everything and so they use their skills of planning and organization and management, which are the things that they’re learning as cadets,” he said. 

Running the cup stacking club is just one of the community outreach activities the JROTC cadets offer. They also provide a color guard for school assemblies and teach flag etiquette classes to students who are responsible for flag duty at their school. Each year, cadets also plan and execute a community-wide service project.

Their project this year will take place on the evening of Feb. 11. Cadets will be out in the community, handing out valentines and educating community members about how to recycle batteries appropriately.

“It gives them an opportunity to learn that they can make a change and do something to make a difference in the community,” Wilson said. “So they learn that empowerment, but they also learn all the steps that they have to do— it’s not just something that magically happens.”λ