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Mostly Cloudy High school students come together to support Global Volunteers
Sanford H. Calhoun High School’s Racial Equity Club is once again taking on an ambitious project this school year. On the heels of last year’s Hope Project, which raised $3,800 for the nonprofit Hope for Haiti, the club is back at it this year, now collecting money for Global Volunteers.
As its name implies, Global Volunteers is an international program that encourages and enables volunteers to work with and learn from people in communities around the world. On short mission trips, volunteers have helped countless people in a wide range of countries for over 30 years.
At Calhoun, Global Volunteers was chosen as the focus of the Racial Equity Club’s campaign because club member Grace Miller, a senior at Calhoun, had a personal connection to the program.
“In the summer of 2018, I traveled to Africa through the organization Global Volunteers,” she told the Herald. “While I was there, I helped teach children English. I worked through the Reaching Children’s Potential program, which aims to eliminate hunger, enhance cognition, and just improve the overall health of children. It especially focuses on preventing stunting, which can happen through pregnancy, or through the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.”
Miller, who traveled to Tanzania, said that when she returned home, she realized how important it is to support organizations like Global Volunteers.
“Not everyone can travel to Africa and really help firsthand,” she said. “I thought it would be beneficial to start the fundraiser here, so we could still help Global Volunteers and make an impact.”
Miller’s trip to Tanzania five years ago wasn’t her first one with Global Volunteers. “My mom and I had been on two other trips — I had gone to Montana and Peru beforehand,” she said. “And two summers ago, I went to Italy. My mom just really wanted a chance for my sisters and I to see other parts of the world, and to recognize that we’re fortunate enough to do this, and we should use that to help others.”
Calhoun social studies teacher Beth Finneran, the club’s adviser, said she was impressed by Miller’s efforts.
“I was so impressed to learn that Grace had volunteered in Tanzania at such a young age,” Finneran said, “and even more impressed by her passion to share her experience with us so we could support her, and children in Tanzania.”
Nickolas Mascary, another Calhoun senior who is the club’s event and social media chair — and whose idea last year sparked the Hope Project — said he saw similarities between the charities the club chose to help. The reason why members decided to help Haiti last year, Mascary said, was simple: He is of Haitian ancestry, and had visited the country and seen the need for help.
“The project kind of hit home and kind of gave people more motivation to fundraise,” he said. “And that’s what happened here with Grace. Grace went to Africa, brought back her experience. Equity is literally in our name. To have equity not just for people within our nation, but people from other nations across the world, aligns with our message. That’s a great lesson we kind of learned from the whole project.”
“Having firsthand experiences definitely really helps, because it’s hard to say, oh, look at what’s happening across the world, in a life that’s so different from yours,” Miller added. “But when you have firsthand experiences and real pictures and real stories about what happens, it really hits home, and hits the heart of the people that you’re trying to bring in. I feel like it really brings us together, and makes people more passionate, which is really what drives the project.”
The club began raising funds for Global Volunteers with a bake sale on Giving Tuesday, Nov. 28, a self-described “global generosity movement” at the start of the holiday season. The club’s goal this year is to raise $800, and so far it has collected just under $300. All of the money raised will go to the Volunteers’ Reaching Children’s Potential program.
The organization will decide how to distribute the funds, Miller explained. Some of the money may be dedicated to efforts in Tanzania, but also to other efforts around the globe.
Coming up, Mascary said, the club plans to sell T-shirts and other merchandise, and will soon have a direct link set up on its website, CHSRacialEquity.weebly.com, for online donations. To follow its upcoming fundraising efforts, check the website or the club’s Instagram page, @CHSRacialEquity.
Miller said she was impressed by the club’s efforts last year, and hopes its members maintain that energy. “I was just totally amazed by the amount of money that we raised for Hope for Haiti,” she said. “Just seeing our community come together was really inspiring. That also inspired me to start this project. I didn’t even know it was possible to raise that much money, in just our little club in school.”
