Students Donate to Fix Damage Done in Puerto Rico Hurricane

Hurricane Fiona caused extreme damage the land of Puerto Rico, and SHA students raised several hundred dollars to help.

Blanca Amaya, a senior teacher’s assistant at SHA, felt the need to start a fundraiser for the damage done in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Fiona. Teachers along with students supported the idea as they felt it was good to raise awareness about what happened in Puerto Rico, especially during Hispanic Heritage month. 

After the initial research was done for the fundraiser, it became a community service club project. The whole project became official the day Amaya and Ms. Santaniello, the teacher Amaya had been assisting, emailed Ms. Monte, the student life director, about their idea. All that was left to do was to set up more details like organizing and packaging the goods, which the Community Service Club handled. 

“The Community Service club split up into sections of how they wanted to get things done,” said Amaya. “They put the numerical points for each thing being donated, made flyers, [and] counted the goods…” 

Amaya felt it was necessary to speak on the subject because she used to live in Puerto Rico a few years back, and when Hurricane Maria hit five years ago, she had to move back to Springfield. She said that their mom and them  would be sending goods over to her family in Puerto Rico, similar to when they had received packages from family members when they were there. 

“I lived there around 5 years ago,” said Amaya, “when Hurricane Maria hit [I] had to come back. That is why hurricane Fiona hit hard to me.” 

The principal of SHA, Ms. Cooper also mentions how SHA’s goal is to always help students give back to those who need support. She includes how proud she is of her students and how supportive she is of their ideas when they want to help others through good deeds and generosity.  

“I am always 100% in support of my students when they want to serve others through donation, generosity, and deed,” said Cooper. “It’s never difficult to get SHA students to serve and lead. And I am proud of that.”

There were many contributors to the whole fundraiser, of course. Those who donated, those who spread the word about the project, and those who helped with the whole idea. Santaniello, says that SHA was able to raise several hundred dollars. There were also some monetary donations from the SHA community and a $200 donation from a friend of Santaniello’s.

“I definitely feel very proud of our school community, as it lived up to our motto ‘Be your best for the world,’” said Santaniello. “These little things that we do really make a difference in the world, making one person’s life easier for at least a moment during times of extreme hardship.”

Santaniello adds how impressed she was with Amaya’s ability to connect aspects of her personal life, to her school life. She hopes to see students bring in more ideas like this one, and be able to persevere like we were able to do for Puerto Rico. 

Due to Amaya’s kindness, and the kindness of many others, SHA was able to gather a considerable amount of donations for Puerto Rico. The Community Service club has counted all the belongings donated and shipped them out around November 4!