Interview with Founder of Restoring Rainbows at QHSS, Sarah Sachdeva

Q: So can you tell me what is the name of your non-profit and what do you guys do?

Sarah S: We’re Restoring Rainbows and basically what we do is we take gently used supplies that people don’t really use anymore or they just like throw away in their house and we take it and refurbish it and donate it to people in need in New York, especially places that have schools with lower incomes.

Q: How did you get inspired to start Restoring Rainbows? What is the idea driving this project?

Sarah S: I think it was in the beginning of junior year and I was looking for opportunities and I couldn’t really find one that aligned with my goals because most of the programs were more clinical or science-based, which wasn’t what I was interested in. But then I found a few people that did take gently used supplies or gently used items and I thought this would be like a great thing to do to give back to the community.

Q:So how did it go from idea to action? How did you get the ball rolling  for this project?

Sarah S: I worked with my lovely friend, Jerome.He is my amazing co-founder, although I do have to say that I do most of the leg work. Basically, I signed up to start a branch as I saw it on TikTok and thought it would be something fun and easy to do with my friends. But, It’s actually a lot of work because it took me a while to find someone who would accept the donations because most people didn’t even respond to my emails and to get school approval as well.

Q:How many branches are there of Restoring Rainbows? Do you know? Have you met anyone on the other side that’s not at QHSS?

Sarah S: Each person makes it their own but we have a group chat with like all of the Restoring Rainbows and I’ve seen the ones from Chicago and we collaborated on a reel together. Yeah it was created by two high schoolers. These two friends in high school created this because they noticed in their community that there were so many supplies that could actually be used, going in the trash because people simply didn’t want it anymore. So they decided why not clean them up a little and then start donating them to local schools. So that’s how they started it and then they asked their friends if they wanted to open a branch somewhere else. This was a way they could further their opportunities. That’s how I found it because they were posting opportunities for board members.

Q: How was the work to establish a chapter at QHSS? Were there any challenges or obstacles that you faced when creating this nonprofit and how were you able to overcome them?

Sarah S: The biggest one was Mr. Diaz because he told us in the beginning of December,no, the end of November, that we could start it like in December. So he said sure, we can do it before then. But it ended up getting delayed all the way to the start of February because he would never like talk to Ms. DeJesus about it and they never actually had a formal meeting until I like asked him every single day until he finally talked to Ms. DeJesus and Ms. Faucher  and then we created it.Then another obstacle was it was just a lot of paperwork to find  this organization that we partnered with, Donate NYC, because we contacted so many schools, but none of them actually responded that they wanted the school supplies or that they wanted us to hold drives there. So it took us a while to find a partner.

Q: What is this program, Donate NYC? How do they tie into your work?

Sarah S: So basically, it’s more like a business for donations. For example, there’s a part for contractors where you could donate cabinets, TVs, benches, large things like that. But anyone can make an account and you put your organization on the platform. Once you do that, you can set up an announcement that “whoever needs something can pick it up from you”. Those people who see that they are partners with the official organization. So they’ll send it out to communities in need and whoever wants it will apply to it and first come first serve, they get it. And then once we put the announcement up there, schools can actually click it and apply to get our materials that we gathered.

Q: So have you ever had a moment yet where you realized this project is making a difference? Like have you gotten any bit of that feeling?

Sarah S: I felt like that when Mr. Curly came up to me and Navika because Navika is our creative designer and she makes all the flyers. We were walking after lunch and Mr. Curly comes up to us and he congratulates us on getting more donations than he expected. .. The boxes are full to the top and we were surprised because we thought we would get no donations.  We were expecting like the bare minimum like maybe just our friends donating and then we saw all of our boxes were overflowing. A lot of people who donated were like juniors and freshmen, I mean not juniors, were freshmen and sophomores who didn’t even need volunteer hours yet  And they just donated out of the kindness of their heart, which really impacted me.

Q: So what’s next for Restoring Rainbows? Do you have any plans in mind or anything on the horizon that you’re looking forward to?

Sarah S :So once we finish giving out these supplies, we want to do a fundraiser to buy fresh new supplies and donate it to Jerome’s Middle School, which is a very under-funded school.The students don’t get as many resources as normal middle schools would. So we’re hoping to hold a fundraiser in this school for them.  We are also considering something fun like a bake sale or something that would actually attract people to join our cause.

Q:So if you had another student who is interested in doing something similar or in a similar position to you,  what would be your best advice for them? And where would you kind of tell them to get started?

Sarah S:  Definitely do it with a friend because I definitely couldn’t have done it alone. There was a lot of paperwork. So, it’s harder to start your own nonprofit rather than join a branch because when I joined a branch I only had to do half the paperwork. They just had to do background checks, which took out the need for government approval. Another piece of advice is definitely find someone who’s really outgoing to help you with it. I did the announcements myself, but it would have helped if I had someone else who was good with outreach.

Q: Do you have any tips for recruiting people or finding nonprofits to join?

Sarah S: I was researching for a few hours on good nonprofits, but most of them were inactive. But I found this one that was actually doing things and the team was willing to guide me. And it was aligned with what I’m doing, which is like law. So, I wanted to help people around me, especially communities in need. So I would say go on TikTok because many like-minded teens use that platform to promote their organization.

 So are there any final thoughts or words of advice that you would want to share or anything in general that you’d like to say? I think this was a fun experience.

Sarah S: Some people should definitely do it more. And it’s not as hard as you think, because I thought it would be really hard to hold it in this school, but they were nice about letting us use the space.  Definitely be persistent and determined about these projects  or they’re just going to forget because they’re really busy. And this is not the most important thing for them as it is to you. And definitely find teachers who are interested as well as they can be helpful with fundraising. Mr. Curley, of course, helped us to officiate everything. And he would always congratulate us when we would like to get donations.

Q:So how many boxes of donations do you  have right now?

Sarah S: Well, it ended recently, so we have three boxes, which is way more than we expected. That’s very impressive.