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Westmont, IL —
Students at Westmont High School have found a fun way to raise money for the Haiti relief effort — making handmade bracelets and selling them during the lunch hours.
For the next few weeks, members of the school’s Rotary Interact and Helping Other People Everywhere clubs will be selling homemade bracelets to support The Red Thread Promise, an organization that provides funding to orphanages in Haiti.
Amy Quattrone, Rotary Interact advisor and literacy coach for Community Unit School District 201, said her students and members of the HOPE club were looking for some way to raise funds for the Haitian relief effort.
“We had this idea to ask teachers and staff members in the district to donate yarn and other materials for this program,” Quattrone said. “The students and staff members after school got together to create them out of those donated items.”
Students began to sell them Monday, Feb. 1, and have more than 100 of them made so far. The goal is to make and sell 500 , she said.
HOPE sponsor and Westmont High School English teacher Jamie Mahmoud said the club is in its third year at the school, and is part of the Oprah Winfrey O Ambassadors program. About 17 students are members of HOPE, which has previously traveled to New Orleans to work with families, and also worked with Habitat for Humanity.
The program connects young people in North America with people around the world to create lasting change by working to address problems such as hunger, poverty and limited access to education.
Alexis Jawny, a junior who is a member of both clubs, was working to sell the bracelets during her lunch period.
She said she got involved in the project as a way to help raise money for people in Haiti.
“I am always looking for ways to help people in need, and I thought this would be a good way to do that,” Alexis said.
Quattrone said the program started just this week, but the students have had a pretty good response to it already.
“We sold about 10 or 15 bracelets during our first lunch period, which was real good for the first day of the sale,” she said.
The Red Thread Promise, which has a local office in Wilmette, has been working with orphanages in Haiti for years, and last year raised $3,000 for medical supplies for the Rivers of Hope orphanage in Manotha, Haiti.
Blair Bennett, a Westmont High School junior, said she has spent her free time looking for volunteer programs.
“I have been a member of Rotary since I was in Junior High, so this was something that I just wanted to do to help out,” she said.
Westmont High School is not the only school in the district conducting fundraising efforts for Haiti.
Manning Elementary School will be collecting for the American Red Cross during its Fun Fair and Raffle from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 19.
Manning School students and parents can donate a fun fair ticket, raffle ticket, or money to Haitian relief, said school Principal Diana Molby.
Students at Westmont High School have found a fun way to raise money for the Haiti relief effort — making handmade bracelets and selling them during the lunch hours.
For the next few weeks, members of the school’s Rotary Interact and Helping Other People Everywhere clubs will be selling homemade bracelets to support The Red Thread Promise, an organization that provides funding to orphanages in Haiti.
Amy Quattrone, Rotary Interact advisor and literacy coach for Community Unit School District 201, said her students and members of the HOPE club were looking for some way to raise funds for the Haitian relief effort.
“We had this idea to ask teachers and staff members in the district to donate yarn and other materials for this program,” Quattrone said. “The students and staff members after school got together to create them out of those donated items.”
Students began to sell them Monday, Feb. 1, and have more than 100 of them made so far. The goal is to make and sell 500 , she said.
HOPE sponsor and Westmont High School English teacher Jamie Mahmoud said the club is in its third year at the school, and is part of the Oprah Winfrey O Ambassadors program. About 17 students are members of HOPE, which has previously traveled to New Orleans to work with families, and also worked with Habitat for Humanity.
The program connects young people in North America with people around the world to create lasting change by working to address problems such as hunger, poverty and limited access to education.
Alexis Jawny, a junior who is a member of both clubs, was working to sell the bracelets during her lunch period.
She said she got involved in the project as a way to help raise money for people in Haiti.
“I am always looking for ways to help people in need, and I thought this would be a good way to do that,” Alexis said.
Quattrone said the program started just this week, but the students have had a pretty good response to it already.
“We sold about 10 or 15 bracelets during our first lunch period, which was real good for the first day of the sale,” she said.
The Red Thread Promise, which has a local office in Wilmette, has been working with orphanages in Haiti for years, and last year raised $3,000 for medical supplies for the Rivers of Hope orphanage in Manotha, Haiti.
Blair Bennett, a Westmont High School junior, said she has spent her free time looking for volunteer programs.
“I have been a member of Rotary since I was in Junior High, so this was something that I just wanted to do to help out,” she said.
Westmont High School is not the only school in the district conducting fundraising efforts for Haiti.
Manning Elementary School will be collecting for the American Red Cross during its Fun Fair and Raffle from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 19.
Manning School students and parents can donate a fun fair ticket, raffle ticket, or money to Haitian relief, said school Principal Diana Molby.
