‘Tis the season. Whether you celebrate Christmas or any other holiday around a certain religion or the winter season, there’s a certain presence in the air; one of joy and giving to others. It’s also that time of year for traditions, and Minarets High School highlights this well with their third annual Community Day. It’s a typical experience for high school students towards the end of their winter break to have finals in each of their classes, but Community Day, created by Dr. Ching, the principle of Minarets High School, gives its students the last day before the break to pair up with any of the teachers who have their own act of volunteering and give to the community.
I had the privilege of covering Therese Righter’s, advisor for Minarets Key Club, Community Day activity called “No Mas Niños Descalsos”, or “No More Barefoot Children”. Originally started last year by one of our own students, freshman Erica Hafkey, she has been doing this for a while now. The purpose of the event is to receive shoe donations from anyone who has unwanted shoes that are still in good, wearable quality, and cleaning them up before taking them to her hometown in Mexico so that the people there may have shoes to wear. When people think of community they might think more local, but this allowed people all over the school district (and even beyond) to give their shoes to be gifted to others who are in need of them in another country even. To have a positive impact from one community to another is what made this particular event enjoyable to be a part of.
Over 150 shoes were graciously donated and each cleaned up and given new shoelaces (if needed) before being boxed up so that they may be taken by freshman Erica Hafkey and her family back to Mexico. “I was super excited to bring this project to the board and to actually have it approved was even better. All the help was more than I could ever ask for and just the fact that they are all volunteers helped the most,” Erica told me when asked to comment on her thoughts about the occasion, “The kids will be so happy and I give a big thank you”. Many people volunteered to help, most students being members of our school’s Key Club. Other people, I interviewed as well had some equally positive reviews and feelings towards the good they each did.
Freshman Elise Stover: “It was a great experience to make better friends and to help out those in need of shoes. It was fun and good for the community, Erica was extremely kind for her and her family to do this”
Freshman Mikey King - “I had a great time today, preparing the shoes to be given to children in need. I love helping others in any way I can”
Freshman Brianna Taylor- “The experience that we had today was such a good thing that we did today. We ended up cleaning shoes for people in need and the fact that it helps the community it's just a win, win”
In short, Community Day was an exceptional experience that not only gave the students the last day of this semester to not stress about grades or assignments, but to also give to others and to have a good time. If anything, take senior Novena Valentine’s experience to how great it was: “You will never understand the pure joy of having your hands covered in the dirty soap that lathers a used shoe. You will never be able to feel the utter dryness of my hands, you will never see the things that I've seen and the shoes that I've cleaned. I want you to understand the best moment of my life was when I got to dip my hands in that over soaped bucket and rub my fingers together in the dirty film”.
