Project 1
It was September 8th, 2016 when the principal of my high school came onto the intercom and announced devastating news to my high school, J.P. Taravella. I was in first period, exhausted, barely able to keep my eyes open without my coffee, when I heard the news that two of our alumni have passed away the night before due to a drunk driving accident. In that moment, I swear the entire school went silent. My eyes widened, and my heart sank to my stomach. I was in such disbelief that this could happen to people I knew. I couldn’t fathom that people lost their lives due to a person being irresponsible and driving under the influence. The rest of that day I thought about the two victims, Morgan Carr and Vincenzo Libio, and how their lives came to a very quick, unfortunate close. I figured that no one would go behind the wheel drunk because that is what my parents strictly enforced. That night, I went back and started to do research on ways that I could help my community and school learn more about drunk driving. I soon found an organization called MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and I immediately knew that I needed to make a stand, so I made MADD the central goal of our mission statement for SHAPE, a club I president of. I knew I had to do this for Morgan, Vincenzo, and their families.
SHAPE stands for Students Helping Achieve Philanthropic Excellence. Each new school year, a different mission statement is created as a theme for what we work towards. For example, a mission statement from my sophomore year was about helping children who were taken out of their homes due to domestic abuse. In order to complete our mission statement, we as a club would fundraise money for a specific organization that correlates with the goal of the mission statement. Some of the fundraisers that we took part in was selling candy bars, hosting restaurant nights, selling candy grams, and many other types of typical high school fundraisers. These would continue all year round in hopes of raising a great amount of money for the organization that is chosen with the mission statement.
Going into high school, I never thought I would find a club that would change my life. I was just like the average student, joining clubs and taking leadership positions only because it looked good on my resume. I was involved with so many different organizations at my school it was almost difficult to keep track of. This trend of joining many clubs was popular because you could put it on your resume for college applications. My journey in SHAPE started when one of my closest friends, who was a senior at the time, was part SHAPE. When she mentioned it to me, I was only a freshman at the time, I was clueless as to what organizations were at my high school so I had no idea what she was referring to. She consistently badgered me to join but I thought it would be a waste of time, so I politely declined each time. As she kept asking and I realized that I was desperate to find my place in the world of high school, so I decided to join just for my freshman year to try it out. Little did I know, that club would change my life.
As my high school career moved forward, I kept climbing to the top of the ladder in leadership for SHAPE. After my freshman year in the club, I realized that SHAPE was more than just a club to me. It related to my morals and made me get into touch with my compassionate side. Because of my new-found interest, my sophomore year I was part of the committee that dealt with the community service aspect of our club. Then my junior year, I became the secretary of the SHAPE. Throughout my junior year, I took a lot of time to reflect how I felt about SHAPE and other clubs I was a part of. I held leadership roles in other clubs but after giving it more thought, I realized I was only passionate about one club, SHAPE. I loved how much good I was able to do for my community and I became very close friends with all of my colleagues. I looked forward to the meetings and enjoyed being with this caring group of people rather than dreading my after-school meetings for my other clubs like Science Honor Society. These feelings motivated me to run for President my senior year. Although I was going up against some difficult candidates, I was overjoyed when the sponsor of the club called me into her office and told me I received the position. After hearing this news at the end of junior year, I spent part of my summer working on how to make the next year of SHAPE the most successful one yet. After hearing the news about Morgan and Vincenzo, the executive board and I felt that a mission statement on drunk driving would be the only appropriate statement for our last year in SHAPE.
My senior year proved to be more difficult than others because I had many more problems to face in the club. Many people, came to me about fundraising ideas and issues they were having when I didn't even have time to make sure I could do my share. After pushing lots of fundraising and a difficult year, I finally made it to the end of the year celebration. This event was where we commemorated our hard work for the year and most importantly, gave the organization the money we raised throughout the year. It was a pretty small gathering because the club was not that large. The representatives of MADD joined us this year so we could give them a donation. Since I was on the executive board, I knew how much we had raised in advance, but I was still very excited despite the fact that I was nervous about giving a small speech and handing over the check that was too big for me to carry alone. At last, it was the time for me to make my speech and give MADD the check. I spoke about how much I admired MADD’s cause because it was very significant to our school and how it was such and an honor to work with them this year. Then I revealed to MADD that SHAPE raised over $2,000 for them and the organization went crazy. Everyone was so excited, and I felt so accomplished and proud to be a part of something so great. Being in charge of SHAPE made me very stressed at times but in the end, it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my high school career. I learned new leadership skills and most importantly how to do something for others without expecting anything in return. The joy I felt by doing something selfless has impacted my life and made me want to keep doing more good for people in my community. I cannot even imagine what my life would have been like if my friend had not told me to join SHAPE.
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