Although many are unfamiliar with Carlmont’s new leadership class, the student body should however be familiar with an event that the class is working so hard to put on. This new and hopefully successful volunteering opportunity is the clothes drive.
Anytime during the week of Jan. 27 to Jan. 31 Carlmont leadership is collecting gently used clothes to aid victims of human trafficking. Students who are part of a club will turn in their clothes to their club, while students who are not part of a club can donate the clothes in the bins found around campus.
A major motive to donate is that the club who contributes the most will receive a $100 grant. The donated clothes will then go to local charities that are working to rehabilitate victims of human trafficking.
“Human trafficking is modern-day slavery, and there are hundreds of thousands of victims of human trafficking in California alone. They have been stripped of everything necessary to survive, and as the cold months come, we should do everything possible to help them out,” said Sage Shamsai, a student in the leadership class who stepped up to be one of the leaders for this fundraiser.
Either way, donating clothes that someone will most likely never wear again can benefit the club that you may belong to as well as local charities and people in need.
Ethan Miller, a student on the video committee in leadership class said, “The clothes donated by students will go to people who need them. In the Midwest and the East, temperatures are close to zero degrees and colder; it’s really important that we think about their struggle and donate for a good cause.”
The new leadership class that began this year is similar to ASB in that the students learn leadership skills from the activities director Jim Kelly. However, the classes have slightly different focuses.
The leadership class learns more about the actual art of leading people such as communication, leadership styles, etc. ASB on the other hand is more project based and the class has more responsibility for school wide events that take place.
Now that the leadership students have learned a fare share about how to put together and run an event, Natalie Stainton said, “We are putting on this event to put the skills that Mr. Kelly taught us to the test and to help people at the same time. There is no better feeling than helping those in need.”
The clothes drive is the leadership class’ first project of the year. Carlmont clubs and classes have tried organizing Clothes Drives in the past, however the school didn’t collect enough clothing to make it successful.
With all of the students help, the leadership class can say that they successfully put together and accomplished a clothes drive at Carlmont.
