Student council plans fundraiser for hurricane victims across United States

Selin+Sayiner+%2812%29+purchases+a+Valentine+Gram+from+student+councils+February+fundraiser+for+the+previous+school+year.+Student+council+plans+to+hold+another+fundraiser+for+hurricane+victims+in+late+October.

Jenna Sadhu

Selin Sayiner (12) purchases a Valentine Gram from student council’s February fundraiser for the previous school year. Student council plans to hold another fundraiser for hurricane victims in late October.

by Nina Gee, Reporter

The ASB and class councils will hold a series of fundraisers in late October as an effort to support the victims of the recent hurricanes.

The fundraisers will be held in addition to upper school theater teacher Jeffrey Draper’s Fall Play fundraiser.

“The plan is that each council was going to take a day to have a fundraiser, and we’re all going to work together to raise money,” ASB treasurer Megan Huynh (12) said.

The councils voted on Oct. 2 to go through with the plan, initially proposed by sophomore Radhika Jain, who worked with her father to create an online donation pool to support the victims of Hurricane Harvey.

“I really wanted to raise awareness for them and raise money and send money over to [the victims],” Radhika said. “We can come together and do something great for a cause.”

Boba and pizookies, along with tickets for the Fall Play, will be sold on alternating days in the weeks leading up to the Fall Play. Sales will be facilitated by the ASB and class councils, as well as people participating in the Fall Play and Radhika herself, and conducted in a similar manner to the joint homecoming ticket sales and junior Dippin’ Dots fundraiser from earlier this year.

“The sophomore class and other classes get to choose what they want to do to fundraise money,” sophomore council president Avi Gulati said. “We haven’t chosen as a council yet, but it ranges anywhere from boba to monetary donations.”

All funds will be going to Habitat for Humanity, a global non-profit organization which builds homes for underprivileged communities and disaster areas.

“Basically, it has one conjoined donation fund for both Harvey and Irma, and I was like this is perfect, since before my idea was to send [the funds for] Hurricane Harvey to one separate charity and [the funds for] Irma to a different charity, but then once I found this conglomerate fund I thought okay, this is perfect to send it all to one place and to their respective areas,” Radhika said.

Radhika’s donation page for Hurricane Harvey is currently still up, and she is looking for other possible suggestions for the types of fundraisers she can do.

“My main goal is to help these families come together and go back to their normal way of living, which I know is probably not going to be completely normal, but as close to normal as possible,” Radhika said.

The sophomore council is considering holding an additional dance this year in order to raise funds for the sophomore class.

This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on October 12, 2017.