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Overcast ‘Hope Project’ takes off at Calhoun High
Students lead effort to benefit Haiti
For some students at Sanford H. Calhoun High School in Merrick, giving back to those in need is what it’s all about.
The Racial Equity Club, which was established at the school in the fall of 2020, has since expanded greatly, working with other groups and the greater Bellmore-Merrick community to spread a message of equality and inclusion. The club is in the midst of a fundraising project that will benefit the people of Haiti, a country ravaged by natural disasters and political unrest in recent decades.
“We’re a club that aims to change the culture in our community by education, discussion and activism,” Calhoun junior Nickolas Mascary said. “Our goal is to eradicate racism and intolerance — we are a student-led club that creates and participates in many events in order to help others in our community. We hope to be an outlet for minority voices.”
Mascary, 16, who is Haitian, joined the club during its inaugural year. His twin sister, Ayana, is also a member.
The club doesn’t operate with a president and vice president, he explained. Instead, there are a number of officers. Mascary is the event and social media chair, and also helps lead meetings. It was his idea to start The Hope Project to benefit Haiti.
He said his ideas began as a “shower thought,” and he brought them to a club meeting in April. “I have visited Haiti a few times during the span of my childhood to now,” Muscary said, “and the last time was freshman year, 2020, the first year of the Racial Equity Club,” he said. “I saw how sad it was, and how unfortunate conditions were.
“But I also saw how resilient the country is at the same time,” he added, “because they bounced back from these situations, and they still manage to have a really cool, amazing culture.”
The club was receptive to his ideas, and members brainstormed ways to raise funds. “It was planned to be October to January,” he said, “because we wanted it to be a long fundraiser, so nobody could miss an opportunity to donate or contribute to our project.”
The club received approval from Calhoun Principal Nicole Hollings, Mascary said, to go ahead with its idea, and last month, the project began. During Colt Fest, the fair that took place before Homecoming on Sept. 17, the club sold raffles and bracelets at a booth in support of the cause.
The club hopes to not only raise money, but also to educate its members about Haiti’s struggles. They had the opportunity to meet on Zoom with Skyler Badenoch, the CEO of Hope for Haiti, a nonprofit that seeks to improve the lives of Haitians. The club’s fundraising will benefit the nonprofit.
The club is also seeking to expand its reach, Mascary said, and is now cooperating with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Club at John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, so students there can fundraise as well. Mascary said they are working to connect with a group at Wellington C. Mepham High School, also in Bellmore, and will be visiting middle schools and elementary schools in Bellmore and Merrick to educate younger students.
There’s more in store for the project too, which will officially conclude in January. Members are planning a candy-bag delivery fundraiser around Halloween, in which a student can buy a bag of candy and have it delivered to a friend during ninth-period classes. And on Dec. 1, the club will meet with Jerry Greenfield, a cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, who grew up in Merrick, to learn about his activism.
Beth Finneran, a social studies teacher at Calhoun and the club’s adviser, said she was impressed by her students’ commitment to, and passion for, the initiative. “It’s extremely obvious that our officers and our members are so motivated and determined to spread awareness and accomplish goals just by looking at this project,” Finneran said. “I am so grateful and happy to be an adviser to this club, and help the students whenever they need and be their guide.
“Although the club is student-led,” she added, “I love helping the students reach their goals.”
And for some of the club’s founding members, like Joan Mesy, 19, who graduated from Calhoun in 2021, it’s great to see her successors lead The Hope Project.
“As cofounder of the Racial Equity Club, and especially as a Haitian women,” Mesy said, “it (was) truly a dream come true to start a club on ideas I am so passionate about, and to see it take off on auto-pilot.”
The response from the school and its students has been great, Mascary said, and club members are looking forward to continuing their work. “To be a leader of this project and to think of what we are doing sometimes gets me emotional a bit, because this project is going to be helping a lot of people in significant ways,” he said. “In a way, extreme poverty brings out extreme privilege.
“We have multiple goals with this project, where we want people to understand the struggle of others given our privilege compared to other countries,” he added. “We want people to have a habit of continuing to donate and contribute to charities and causes.”
For more on the project and to learn how to contribute, go to CHSRacialEquity.weebly.com.
