Page 8 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2020 ASKS | FROM PAGE 3 to Cradles to Crayons and the food goes to a local food pantry. I always bring my food collections to the Saugus United Food Pantry in Cliftondale. This is still happening; I will just be collecting donations from people’s porches this year. Q: Project 351. For the benefit of people who have never heard of it, how would you describe it? A: I would describe it as an organization that promotes youth leadership – by bringing together all of the towns and cities in Massachusetts – and teaches and promotes leadership, service and good will. Being a good human is what it really boils down to. Q: I understand that you did a lot of planning for these drives – months ago – only to have those plans spoiled by the outbreak of the Coronavirus in the spring. A: Last fall [2019], I had planned to host the clothing drive, facilitated by P351, by having collection bins in each of the Saugus Schools. I have gotten pretty far in the planning process. Most of the elementary school principals were on board, and I was working with Saugus High’s Helping Hands Club to host the drive at SHS, too. Before I was able to do this, everything shut down because of COVID. Project 351 decided to cut the project early and just collect what has already been collected, so I was not really able to collect much, just from my family before COVID. That being said, I said I still wanted to help Cradles to Crayons because they are an amazing organization. A little bit about them from their website. “Our Mission: Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school and play. We supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities. Our Vision: One day every child will have the essentials they need to feel safe, warm, ready to learn and valued.” I applied and got accepted 781-321-7700 DISCOUNT FURNITURE COMPLETE LINE OF QUALITY FURNITURE AT LOW PRICES *BEDROOM SETS *DINING ROOM SETS *KITCHEN SETS ASHLEY SOFA $399.00 *SOFA / LOVE SEATS *TABLES & CHAIRS *COMPUTER DESKS ASHLEY BEDROOM SETS LAYAWAY PLANS AVAILABLE 42 Willow St., Malden, Ma. $895.95 to their Teen Leadership Corps program. Here they are having us host, document and collect for Cradles to Crayons. This is my collection of clothes and monetary donations. Q: Okay. What are the main things you want the people of Saugus to know about your upcoming food drive and clothing drive? A: The food drive is for Saugus United Parish Food Pantry in Cliftondale (at the Cliftondale Congregational Church). For the food drive, I am going to collect food in porch pickups on Nov. 21, Dec. 12 and Dec. 19. People need to text, email or call me, and I will pick up the food from the porch. All the food I collect will go to the food pantry here in Saugus. Q: And what can you tell me about the clothing drive? A: I will be doing collections for the clothing drive on Nov. 28 and Dec. 5. I am looking for any new or used clothes: adult size, medium, all the way down to baby clothes. I will also be collecting monetary donations. This will be to buy facial masks, socks and toothbrushes and those sorts of personal things that people need. How am I going to pick up the clothes? People can email, call or text me any time before those two dates. On those two dates, I will go and pick them up at the porch or on the front door. Q: I realize that this began as a school service project in the first year at the Belmonte Middle School and then you decided to do it another year when you got into Saugus High. A: On Project 351, I was chosen as an ambassador. After that year, you can choose to apply for leadership positions within your organizations. I applied and got in. Q: When was your obligation completed on this project? A: About January 2018; I am still involved with Project 351, but I am not obligated to do the drives at all. Q: Almost two years after fulfilling your obligation, you are still doing this. Why? A: I just like knowing that I am making an impact in my community, and it’s a really good way to bring people together. Doing things for other people is a good way to make yourself happier. It is just something I really enjoy doing and it’s important to help your community. And some day, I want to start my own nonprofit. Q: Has COVID-19 discouraged a lot of your peers from doing volunteer stuff like this? A: In some ways, yes, because you can’t meet in person, but in other ways it presents you new opportunities to do different kinds of projects. Q: This year you are doing it with very little contact with people. How does that make you feel? A: It’s hard because you can’t make contacts with people – being around doing things together – but then there’s technology, which allows us to overcome that. To plan this, we got on FaceTime and talked about it. Q: How many other students are working with you on this project? A: Mainly one other person is helping me, and there are two other people who said they are going to help me when they can. It’s completely understandable, because work and school and daily life take up a lot of time now, with the COVID. Q: As a junior at Saugus High, what are the biggest challenges you face that make it even more difficult to volunteer? A: Probably the workload for all of my classes; it’s kind of hard to keep my grades up while focusing on other things. Q: So Zoom or remote learning makes it more difficult than in person? A: Yes, it is hard to learn online. Q: How many hours of day does it take to be an online student vs. an in person student? A: The school days are a little shorter now because we have 15-minute breaks in between our classes; whereas in person learning, it’s class after class. It takes you longer to do your homework online because there is so much of it at once. Q: How many hours a day does online learning take? A: Some days, we are on call for four hours; other days, it’s like three hours, but I wind up doing homework for at least four hours a day. Q: So, when do you find the time to volunteer? A: Whenever I can. If there is a good opportunity to volunteer, I try to get my work done earlier. Q: About how many hours a week do you volunteer? A: It depends what is happening that week. This week I am going to put nine hours in for a food drive. For instance, this week I was on FaceTime until 2 a.m. to make a template to put on social media to get the word out. Q: What are the most volunteer hours you put in during a week? A: Maybe 12 hours. With Project 351, I put in 15 hours in one day. Q: Do you have any specific goals for both drives? A: Not really; I don’t want to set my goals too high in case I don’t make them, or too low because I don’t want the project to fizzle out. I want to go as high as I can, so I work to get as many donations as possible. Q: How do you plan to do this? A: My plan is to go join as many Saugus Facebook pages as I can to try to get the word out. Q: Do you plan to stick with this through your senior year? A: Yes, for sure. Q: What do you want to do when you graduate from Saugus High? A: I want to go to college for early childhood education because I want to be a teacher. But I also want to get a degree to help me with my nonprofit organization plans. Q: How has all of this volunteering helped you develop as a student and a person? A: I feel like, student-wise, having to put myself out there and talk to people has helped me on my writing abilities and public speaking abilities. As a person, you can learn a lot by learning from other people’s situations and their life experiences. When you learn about other people’s challenges, it makes you appreciate things more. Q: What sort of nonprofit would you run? A: I want to do something that involves education and theater. Q: Do you have a role model? Somebody you learned about in school? Or somebody who has been involved in your life? A: I think about three people come to mind: my mom, Kristine Swible, because she has such a great work ethic and respect for other people; and my second one would be my Middle School Community Service Club leader who is also a math teacher, Barbara Tenaglia. ASKS | SEE PAGE 9 STARTING AT
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