As seen in the March 7 print edition
Audrey Park, staff writer
Service Learning will visit the Ronald McDonald house in mid-March to cook for and give gifts to families and children.The Ronald McDonald houses are designed to provide a home-away-from-home for families who travel to receive medical treatment for their children.
A committee of 10 Service Learning students led by senior Michelle Abramov, senior Daphne Levy and junior Camellia Sayani are assigned to plan meals to cook, fundraise money for goody-bags and write cards.
“Service Learning does a lot within the school and local community. But a lot of the time we don’t get to interact with the people who are receiving our help,” President Leora Hakim said. “The Ronald McDonald visit gives us the chance to physically interact with these people. A few hours sitting down, talking and laughing with these families goes a long way.”
Beverly has visited the Ronald McDonald house in previous years, but could not attend last year due to scheduling conflicts. However, this year, Service Learning made sure to leave space open in their schedule so that they could participate in this event.
“We couldn’t go last year because we were swarmed with other events at around the same time,” Abramov said. “I’m excited to be able to take part in this event because we’re usually used to helping kids with a ton of fundraisers, such as Answer for Cancer which was specifically for pediatrics, but this time we’re working with adults at Ronald McDonald.”
In the spirit of Easter, according to Levy, Service Learning decided to create Easter-themed goody-bags to distribute out at the event as well.
“We’re making the goody-bags to give to the children at the Ronald McDonald house,” Levy said. “I decided to be a part of this event to see the reaction of the people we’re helping.”
Because Service Learning had not participated in the Ronald McDonald event last year, Hakim is thrilled to have the opportunity to take part in it before she graduates this May.
“I’ve actually never been there, and I heard from the class two years ago about how much fun it is to go,” Hakim said. “I’m expecting great things from this visit and hopefully, this will become one of our yearly projects.”
Service Learning director Michelle Halimi is proud of her students for choosing to use their personal time to help others.
“It’s great that our students are taking the time to not just raise money but also make a difference in peoples lives by giving up their time to prepare the lunches and create the easter baskets,” Halimi said.
Service Learning is still in the early stages for planning the event; the specific date has yet to be decided.