New column every Monday: Students raise $300,000 for Darfur
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Boca high school club raises $300,000 to help Darfur poor
By Stephanie Horvath
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
12:40 AM EDT, May 6, 2008
When five students started the For Darfur club at St. Andrew's School in Boca Raton last year, they just wanted to raise awareness for the suffering African region.Sixteen months later, they've raised $300,000, assembled an advisory board of nonprofit movers and shakers, and hired a New York public relations rep.
Tonight they're conducting a fundraiser at Kanye West's concert in Miami. West is donating $1 from every ticket sold to For Darfur. With 11,000 seats and the strong possibility of selling out, For Darfur is looking at a potential blockbuster."I don't think we expected it to happen that quickly," said Gabriel Schillinger, the group's president and a senior at St. Andrew's. "A year ago we were barely an organization, and look where we've come. It shows when teenagers put their minds together momentum starts to grow."
For Darfur might be an example of extreme success, but high school students across South Florida — some not even old enough to vote — are trying to make a difference on a global scale. Kids are canvassing for Barack Obama, raising money for food relief in Haiti and starting recycling programs.While Both Palm Beach and Broward counties require their students to complete a certain number of hours of community service, these teenagers are doing much more."They're not satisfied with making a small difference. They want to take a big plunge," said Carlos Barroso, a St. Andrew's spokesman.That's certainly happening at St. Andrew's. In addition to the huge success of For Darfur, the school's chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society raised $17,000 in its first fundraising event, just two months after the club started. Samantha Leder, 16, started the club, because her uncle died of leukemia. She was able to recruit 40 other students and get her dad's company to match what they raised.
It's not just at St. Andrew's, though. At the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, students organized letter writing campaigns and awareness concerts to support Amnesty International."
We've been raised to think we can do anything and since you can do anything, you should. People feel a pressure to live up to something but in this case it's a good thing," said senior Sabina Ibarrola, the chapter's president. "It leads us to give more of ourselves."
Melissa Oppenheim, 18, cared about community service and wanted to make it easier for her peers to participate. So as a freshman at the Pine Crest Preparatory School in Fort Lauderdale she started www.opp-guide.com, a Web site for rating community service groups, so students could find a good match."
There's a lot of causes right now," said Oppenheim, who also canvassed for Obama in Texas over Spring Break. "Just through the media, teens are more aware of the social and political problems in the world, like the energy crisis and the global food pandemic. There's more ways to get information and more ways to do things because of the Internet."
One group at Boca Raton Community High School has raised $5,000 to help children in Uganda. A class studying the Holocaust started a program to raise money for Darfur by selling $1 triangles commemorating Holocaust victims. The idea: donors can't help the Holocaust victims, but they can help people in Darfur from suffering a similar fate."I know here it's definitely been the most active year I've seen," said Geoff McKee, Boca Raton High's principal.
"I'm not sure why. I think it's partly how smart they are and aware they are." The school has sold $12,000 worth of triangles and given the money to the Save Darfur coalition and the Genocide Intervention Network." There's no more space in the school, they're in every window, on every wall," said Sharona Kay, the group's adviser.
"My students are making a difference. It's wonderful."Danny Bricknell, 17, started out overwhelmed by the idea of protecting the environment. He set up a recycling program at Boca Raton High this year and recruited 60 students."
We needed to go green and the way to start that was with recycling," said Bricknell, a junior. "This is the planet we need to live on. If what we all do will help stop future problems, we have to take charge of that." And even though students are in the throes of exams this week, Bricknell is taking the time to raise money for another cause: sending food packages to starving people in Haiti. But For Darfur has had explosive success. In addition to the Kanye West concert, the group held a fundraiser in November with Palm Beach designer Lilly Pulitzer that raised $100,000. That donation to Doctors Without Borders was the largest raised at a single event that year, said Jennifer Tierney, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit." We have adults who haven't raised this amount of money," she said.
For Darfur now has 150 members that include local high school students and far-off college students, and about seven other chapters have formed across the country. As their group has exploded, so have their responsibilities. Schillinger carries a cell phone just for the organization and they've hired a public relations representative. On Monday, they'll be featured in a Time magazine story about kids and philanthropy. The kids have had some help. Their advisory board includes Jack Healy, former president of Amnesty International; Mark Sunshine, the president of First Capital and the father of one of the founders, and the Rev. George Andrews II, the former headmaster of their school. But Schillinger said they provide encouragement and not much more." We're the ones making all the decisions. It's kind of scary sometimes," Schillinger said. "It's really teaching us and others involved in social consciousness causes that one day we'll be the generation in charge of the world." Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek and Staff Writer Marc Freeman contributed to this story. Stephanie Horvath can be reached at smhorvath@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6643.
Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Boca high school club raises $300,000 to help Darfur poor
By Stephanie Horvath
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
12:40 AM EDT, May 6, 2008
When five students started the For Darfur club at St. Andrew's School in Boca Raton last year, they just wanted to raise awareness for the suffering African region.Sixteen months later, they've raised $300,000, assembled an advisory board of nonprofit movers and shakers, and hired a New York public relations rep.
Tonight they're conducting a fundraiser at Kanye West's concert in Miami. West is donating $1 from every ticket sold to For Darfur. With 11,000 seats and the strong possibility of selling out, For Darfur is looking at a potential blockbuster."I don't think we expected it to happen that quickly," said Gabriel Schillinger, the group's president and a senior at St. Andrew's. "A year ago we were barely an organization, and look where we've come. It shows when teenagers put their minds together momentum starts to grow."
For Darfur might be an example of extreme success, but high school students across South Florida — some not even old enough to vote — are trying to make a difference on a global scale. Kids are canvassing for Barack Obama, raising money for food relief in Haiti and starting recycling programs.While Both Palm Beach and Broward counties require their students to complete a certain number of hours of community service, these teenagers are doing much more."They're not satisfied with making a small difference. They want to take a big plunge," said Carlos Barroso, a St. Andrew's spokesman.That's certainly happening at St. Andrew's. In addition to the huge success of For Darfur, the school's chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society raised $17,000 in its first fundraising event, just two months after the club started. Samantha Leder, 16, started the club, because her uncle died of leukemia. She was able to recruit 40 other students and get her dad's company to match what they raised.
It's not just at St. Andrew's, though. At the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, students organized letter writing campaigns and awareness concerts to support Amnesty International."
We've been raised to think we can do anything and since you can do anything, you should. People feel a pressure to live up to something but in this case it's a good thing," said senior Sabina Ibarrola, the chapter's president. "It leads us to give more of ourselves."
Melissa Oppenheim, 18, cared about community service and wanted to make it easier for her peers to participate. So as a freshman at the Pine Crest Preparatory School in Fort Lauderdale she started www.opp-guide.com, a Web site for rating community service groups, so students could find a good match."
There's a lot of causes right now," said Oppenheim, who also canvassed for Obama in Texas over Spring Break. "Just through the media, teens are more aware of the social and political problems in the world, like the energy crisis and the global food pandemic. There's more ways to get information and more ways to do things because of the Internet."
One group at Boca Raton Community High School has raised $5,000 to help children in Uganda. A class studying the Holocaust started a program to raise money for Darfur by selling $1 triangles commemorating Holocaust victims. The idea: donors can't help the Holocaust victims, but they can help people in Darfur from suffering a similar fate."I know here it's definitely been the most active year I've seen," said Geoff McKee, Boca Raton High's principal.
"I'm not sure why. I think it's partly how smart they are and aware they are." The school has sold $12,000 worth of triangles and given the money to the Save Darfur coalition and the Genocide Intervention Network." There's no more space in the school, they're in every window, on every wall," said Sharona Kay, the group's adviser.
"My students are making a difference. It's wonderful."Danny Bricknell, 17, started out overwhelmed by the idea of protecting the environment. He set up a recycling program at Boca Raton High this year and recruited 60 students."
We needed to go green and the way to start that was with recycling," said Bricknell, a junior. "This is the planet we need to live on. If what we all do will help stop future problems, we have to take charge of that." And even though students are in the throes of exams this week, Bricknell is taking the time to raise money for another cause: sending food packages to starving people in Haiti. But For Darfur has had explosive success. In addition to the Kanye West concert, the group held a fundraiser in November with Palm Beach designer Lilly Pulitzer that raised $100,000. That donation to Doctors Without Borders was the largest raised at a single event that year, said Jennifer Tierney, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit." We have adults who haven't raised this amount of money," she said.
For Darfur now has 150 members that include local high school students and far-off college students, and about seven other chapters have formed across the country. As their group has exploded, so have their responsibilities. Schillinger carries a cell phone just for the organization and they've hired a public relations representative. On Monday, they'll be featured in a Time magazine story about kids and philanthropy. The kids have had some help. Their advisory board includes Jack Healy, former president of Amnesty International; Mark Sunshine, the president of First Capital and the father of one of the founders, and the Rev. George Andrews II, the former headmaster of their school. But Schillinger said they provide encouragement and not much more." We're the ones making all the decisions. It's kind of scary sometimes," Schillinger said. "It's really teaching us and others involved in social consciousness causes that one day we'll be the generation in charge of the world." Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek and Staff Writer Marc Freeman contributed to this story. Stephanie Horvath can be reached at smhorvath@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6643.
Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
posted by Dr. Stephen L. Goldstein at 5:10 PM
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