QHSS Gives Back: Raising Awareness for Pressing Issues

This year will be the first year that Charity week became an official event. From March 9th to the 13th, QHSS hosted Charity Week. This event inviteds clubs to acknowledge and advocate for various real-world issues.

The event originated from the National Association of Student Councils, encouraging Student government representatives to participate in more service projects. Then, it was proposed by one of QHSS’s assistant principals—Annabel Prince—where club fundraisers under Charity Week wouldinclude and be limited to the following themes: animal welfare, community support, education and literacy, hunger and homelessness, health and wellness, and environmental protection.

As the name suggests, this event gives students an opportunity to give back to their community.  SGO’s sophomore vice president, Roopjit Kaur, commented, “Seeing the wide range of possibilities of bakesales, clothing drives, and even creating informational, distributable pamphlets, I have many hopes for QHSS Gives Back week. I truly hope to see this event not as something that’s QHSS-oriented, but something that’s oriented toward our entire Queens community.”

According to the finalizations of how Charity Week would function, the events proposed by the clubs are separated into two different parts. On Wednesday, March 11th, various stalls from each club who proposed activities that could be done within campus would be held in the gymnasium. Students participated in these activities according to their gym periods. Some of these stalls offered opportunities to write cards to the elderly and children, one of them even offering candy as a reward for writing a card.

For the second part, particular events planned by other clubs were held outside of campus. For example, the South Asian Culture Club collaborated with QHSS’s Taalam club to hand out brochures for their Charity Miles event, supporting those who were hit with natural disasters. These events bring awareness to our community and encourage being kind and engaging in various charitable activities.

However, although Charity Week was hosted with good intentions, the event held on campus was slightly disappointing. As said by a sophomore from QHSS, they say that they and many others didn’t interact with any of the stalls at all. But this is understandable, considering that this is the first time that QHSS has ever hosted Charity Week. Thus, despite these results, it is still important to always give students an opportunity to give back to their communities, whether they are inside or outside of school.