![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/DSC01658-1-1024x721.jpg\")
Ruby Watson and Morgan Matheny carried their red megaphones ready to participate in the Fort Worth Yell Club on Oct. 11, 2026. (Mica Magday | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\nThe warm afternoon sun beamed on the Trinity River as around 200 Tarrant County residents gathered at the Streams & Valleys Plaza in west Fort Worth. Adults and kids mingled as they waited in line for a matcha latte from a local coffee truck, danced to will.i.am and Britney Spears singing \u201cScream and Shout\u201d on the speaker, or passed a tennis ball to each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These people were awaiting the first scream of the Fort Worth Yell Club, which took place on Sunday, Oct. 11. The club is part of an ongoing trend of people using social media to gather with others in a city to belt out their joys and frustrations together. There are no rules on what words or sounds they let out \u2014 as long as they release all their emotion. Shiloh Bellinghausen, Fort Worth Yell Club\u2019s organizer, used social media to host a Dallas Yell Club two weeks prior.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two of those excited people were 17-year-olds Ruby Watson and Morgan Matheny, who were ready to go with big red megaphones in hand.<\/p>\n
Ruby Watson and Morgan Matheny carried their red megaphones ready to participate in the Fort Worth Yell Club on Oct. 11, 2026. (Mica Magday | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really felt like community,\u201d said Watson. \u201cYesterday, I really didn\u2019t wanna go to work. And I\u2019m like, \u2018OK, but you know what? I got Yell Club.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Similar to Dallas, Sunday\u2019s event had about 200 local residents screaming into the Trinity River right toward the Fort Worth downtown skyline. The turnout of both events was bigger than Bellinghausen and his wife imagined.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a blessing,\u201d said Kirsten Bellinghausen, who helps her husband organize the events and outreach. \u201cWe\u2019re just grateful that we\u2019re able to do something like this for the community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shiloh Bellinghausen said he\u2019d had the idea for a yell club for a while, but only decided to act on it when he lost his mother this past summer and was laid off from his job of five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, all right, I wanna yell,\u201d Bellinghausen said, reflecting on that feeling. \u201cI (thought) that would be such a funny but also serious idea \u2014 to create a group of people just yelling outside of the city together.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 2:15 p.m., a crowd lined up along the hill facing the Trinity River. Bellinghausen stood in front of the group, holding a megaphone and counting the crowd down for each of the three yells.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each yell was louder and longer than the last.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Afterwards, residents stuck around to get coffee, chat with their new friends or hand out snacks and drinks they brought. Others went to speak with the Bellinghausens to thank them for the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing. Just seeing all ages, all types of people, everybody\u2019s different backgrounds and stories,\u201d Shiloh said.<\/p>\n
One of those people was elementary student Tommy Gilliland, who came with his parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His mother, Suezanne Gilliland, was unexpectedly in tears after releasing built-up tension from a hard few weeks for her and her son.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just felt like it was really good for him to get a lot of things out. The kids aren\u2019t allowed to just run around screaming, you know?\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really beautiful, everybody can come together. All walks of life, no agenda.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/DSC01664-1024x683.jpg\")
\u00a0Chris Gaddis, dressed as a \u2018YELL-ow\u2019 pirate puts his all into the last yell with the Fort Worth Yell Club event on Oct. 11, 2026. (Mica Magday | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/DSC01600-1024x683.jpg\")
Tommy Gilliland, right, yells with Tarrant County residents during the Fort Worth Yell Club event on Oct. 11, 2026. (Mica Magday | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n
Matheny mirrored this sentiment. With pent-up stress over the college application process, she and Watson were grateful to have an outlet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to make it more socially acceptable to just yell,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel ready to conquer the day after letting out this emotion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pair are already thinking of who to invite for the next Fort Worth Yell Club event on Sunday, Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. For this YELL-OWEEN, there will be a costume contest and more coffee from The Brown Thumb.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Bellinghausens are looking forward to growing their North Texas yell clubs, and are happy to be able to hold an event that resonates so much with the community and brings them together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes simplicity really is where you find the most joy and community,\u201d Kirsten said. \u201cThe odds (are that), coming to one of these places, you\u2019ll leave with something good as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mica Magday is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mica.magday@fortworthreport.org.\u00a0<\/p>\n