By Justine Ha and Tina Low

On Sept. 21, the City of Cupertino hosted its annual Bobateeno event at the Civic Center Plaza, catered to students between the ages of 13 and 18. In hopes of helping students destress and spend time with their friends, the Cupertino Teen Commission (CTC) and Youth Activity Board (YBA) provided free boba and light snacks for attendees and hosted activities for students to engage in, including games and informational booths.

According to junior and former Vice-chair of the Youth Commission Board, Sarah Tan, the CTC and YBA are comprised of teen leaders who understand the importance of positive mental health in teens. Both CTC and YBA hosted an interactive booth offering mental health resources. Tan has organized Bobateeno for the last two years and used the growing trend of boba to rally students.

“We knew that boba is really popular, so that was a way to get teens [to come out to Bobateeno],” Tan said. “But then we also wanted to make sure there was some aspect of it that was also helpful to the for teen stress, so we got different booths to come so that teens can learn about them.”

In order for students to receive free boba, a passport system was implemented to encourage students to engage with a variety of booths set up by different organizations — every student needed to receive a total of five stamps from different booths in order to earn the free drinks.

The booths touched on a variety of subjects, including calligraphy, sexuality and mental health. Some booths were also promoting certain clubs from MVHS, such as the Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) and the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA).

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