School was out for the day, and Spectrum members started to meet up in the history wing common area. The first Spectrum meeting of the school year was just beginning. Co-Presidents Grace Deliberato and Ellie Price started off this year’s activities by having everyone introduce themselves with their preferred name, pronouns, and favorite TV show. Deliberato and Price each spoke about current events going on in the world. The presidents then gave the group a discussion question: “What is your favorite item of clothing?” Afterwards, the group played an ice breaker game. Snacks and soda were passed out to members. Everyone left this first meeting knowing their fellow Spectrum members a little better. 

 Deliberato is an active member of the Revere community, inside and outside of being a president of  Spectrum. Deliberato, who is a junior this year, explained the Spectrum club and its goals. 

 “Spectrum stands for the gay-straight alliance, and it’s a place for kids from Revere to come that is accepting. We also work on issues dealing with gender, religion, sexuality and we strive for inclusion,” Deliberato said. 

Spectrum began at Revere at least fifteen years ago. Kathy Harris, who recently retired, was the former adviser. 

Amy Fagnilli and Jason Milczewski are the new advisers of Spectrum this year. 

Fagnilli described Deliberato. 

“Grace is an amazing human being. [They are] extremely talented, brilliant, vivacious, full of enthusiasm and also really fun,” Fagnilli said. 

Fagnilli also explained working with Deliberato and Price. 

“The presidents of Spectrum are possibly the best student leaders I’ve worked with, and I’ve only been working with Spectrum for a month . . . I am so impressed because they basically handle everything . . . Honestly, I am just there to be an adult in the room,” Fagnilli said. 

Deliberato and Price started a chapter of Spectrum at Revere Middle School a few years ago. Price explained how they brought this safe space to kids at RMS. 

“[At] either the end of seventh grade or beginning of eighth grade, we started going to the high school because we wanted to go to the meetings there, and Grace and I [thought], ‘why don’t we just bring it down to the middle school so more people have access to it?’” Price said. 

Price described her friendship with Deliberato. 

“Grace has been my friend since we were five. We were on the same bus when we were little, and I think that’s kind of how we met. We just kind of clicked. I don’t think I could run Spectrum without them… [Being co-presidents] is definitely much easier than if we were doing it by ourselves,” Price said. 

Deliberato explained their duties as president of Spectrum. 

“I am in charge of planning when meetings are supposed to be, what kind of events we’re going to do, what we’re doing for each meeting, I also get to help decide what charities we donate to,” Deliberato said. 

Spectrum has donated to charities that support LGBTQ causes, such as Project Pack It Up, Glisten Northeast Ohio and the Ohio LGBTQ Center. They have raised money by selling candy and bracelets, ans Spectrum has also gotten donations. 

Over the summer, Deliberato and Price put together a presentation for the staff on gender-based issues and talked about why using a students’ preferred name and pronouns is important. Deliberato has been an activist for this cause ever since they were young. 

“The whole point of Spectrum is to strive for equality, and personally, I’ve been an activist for LGBTQ and POC rights since I was ten years old. I’ve been going to rallies since I was ten years old,” Deliberato said. 

On top of Spectrum and their activism, Deliberato partakes in theater, marching band, Restorative Social Justice Club and also has helped out with the mock crash. 

Deliberato has participated in theater for about seven years, both community theater and Revere Players. In the 2021 fall play, Radium Girls, Deliberato will be playing the lead. 

Radium Girls is a dark comedy play about women in the workforce in the 1920s who were in close contact with radium, and falling ill due to exposure. 

Deliberato also plays trombone in the Revere Marching Band. 

Restorative Social Justice club was a new club at Revere last year. The goal of this club is to acknowledge, educate and appreciate differences and talk about important issues, which Deliberato took part in. 

Every other year, Revere puts together a mock crash scenario around Senior Prom. The goal of mock crash is to show students the possible tragic effects of driving while under the influence. Deliberato has helped with the special FX makeup. 

Deliberato is an attribute to Revere, both inside and outside of campus. The school year is still just beginning, and they have already done lots of work with more to come.