Milk is known to help strengthen bones and muscles, but for Elon sophomore Jacob Bradshaw, it has also helped him build a strong humor-filled bond with his classmates.
It all started at Elon’s 2024 fall organization fair where Bradshaw jokingly walked around with a piece of notebook paper asking people if they wanted to join a then-nonexistent milk club. He walked away with 70 signatures.
From those 70 signatures, milk club has grown from its joke state to a legitimate organization. The Milk Soirée held Feb. 7, a recent gala-type event hosted by the club, featured food, games and trivia had nearly 300 attendees, Bradshaw said.
Founded on philosophy and humor, milk club came about when Bradshaw noticed he and his friends were all drinking milk during lunch one day in his first week of freshman year.
“I was thinking, ‘Why are we all drinking milk together?’” Bradshaw said. “I don’t think this happens very often, but it’s funny.”
In the more philosophical sense, Bradshaw said he saw the idea of milk club as a way to bring people together when the world is divided.
“It’s a way to bridge a gap between a divided people that can’t seem to agree on anything, but at least if we start talking about our differences, and we practice talking about our differences through the lens of milk,” Bradshaw said. “We can all talk seriously about it, and we can also laugh about it.”
After having people sign up on his paper at the fall organization fair, Bradshaw said he realized he had to make his joke into reality.
Professor of education Marna Winter was one of Bradshaw’s professors that semester, and said that when she asked her class of freshmen what they thought of the organization fair, she said she remembers Bradshaw bringing up that Elon did not have a milk club. Bradshaw later asked her to be the faculty adviser for the club.
“If you had told me that I was going to get interviewed about this because of the power of one of the leaders, I would have not quite foreseen that,” Winter said. “I think it’s a great, awesome thing, and I think it’s important for students to have a space and have that community and that sense of belonging.”
After securing his faculty adviser, Bradshaw went through the steps needed to get a new club approved, including writing a proposal and the club’s constitution and bylaws, as well as getting approval from Vice President for Student Life Jon Dooley. The milk club debuted at the spring organization fair of 2024 with Bradshaw as the first president, becoming one of around 318 clubs and organizations found on Elon’s Phoenix Connect organization platform.
From the beginning, Bradshaw had his freshman year roommate and friend, Jonathan Loeb, who currently serves as the club’s treasurer, alongside him. Loeb said he has been a backbone supporter of the club since Bradshaw explained it to him.
“Nobody wants to be boring and just do normal things. Why not make a milk club?” Loeb said. “It’s fun and it’s creative, and people will enjoy it because it’s like, ‘I’m going to the milk club.’ That sounds like fun, right?”
Last spring, in the club’s first semester, it held a trivia night, a milk-themed scavenger hunt and a trip to Ran-Lew Dairy, the farm that supplies the milk served in Elon’s dining halls. Bradshaw said trips to the dairy farm will happen each semester with the club’s close connection to farm owner Randy Lewis.
“He really loves the club,” Bradshaw said. “He appreciates having us, and he shows us cool stuff on the farm.”
This school year, the club has hosted many more events including repeating favorites such as the trips to farm and trivia, while incorporating new events such as movie nights and a milk-themed mindfulness event hosted by Winter during finals in December. The most recent events hosted by the club were the Milk Soirée on Feb. 7 and a trip to Ran-Lew Dairy on March 9.
The Milk Soirée, hosted in collaboration with Late Night Elon, was a chance for people to dress up in formal clothing, drink milk and participate in themed games, activities and trivia. The event was a major moment for Bradshaw.
“Just the fact that I could look around and my idea of having a community that just enjoyed milk had sort of come into fruition at that point in time,” Bradshaw said. “There were up to maybe 150 people at one specific time or another in the same room, just drinking milk and just hanging out and doing milk-related activities.”
As for the rest of this semester, Bradshaw said the milk club plans to host another movie night and another scavenger hunt. He also plans to have t-shirts made for the club.
In the long term, Bradshaw said he hopes milk club continues to be an “udder success” beyond his years at Elon, milking every opportunity to potentially grow large enough for the club to take residence in one of the seven student organizations on the first floor of the Moseley Center.
While this is a big goal for him, he said his lifelong goal is to see two people find love through the club.
“If one couple meets at the milk club, and then they get married and they can still remember how they met when they got married, I would love to be invited to your wedding for stuff, and I will die a happy man if I created something that got you two married,” Bradshaw said.