Edsel Ford High School students raise more than $20k for Doctors Without Borders – Yemen
The 2nd annual charity week at Edsel Ford High School students filled their school gym on Friday, February 16th at 1 pm for their second annual charity week celebration.
By Adel Mozip
The Yemeni American News
The gym didn’t fit the students so some students (Freshmen class) had to watch the event via live streaming from the auditorium. The charity week event started at Athens High School in Troy a few years, and publisher of the former School News publication, Raad Alawan brought the idea to Edsel Ford students and staff last year.
This year, Edsel Ford High School voted on 6 different proposals from helping the homeless to needy children. They were all deserving causes but Yemen’s cause was more popular with students because there are many students at the school who are well connected with the cause since they have relatives living under the terrible conditions in Yemen.
I met with some of the organizers at the celebration event. Nicole Murray tells me about how the idea came to be about,”two of our students, Fatmah Mohamed and Manall Saeed were passionate about the cause; and the charity week committee overwhelmingly voted for the proposal” Gadi Bzeih, one of the students and organizers tells me, “Charity Week comprised of various fun events raising funds for our chosen cause such as pancake breakfast, basketball, dodgeball against staff, bake sales and many others.” Hamzah Ahmed another student added some other events the students initiated such as Lunch Dabkah where students had fun and donated at the same time. Another student chimed into the conversation Maddy Kozakowski saying “We talked to students to other schools; community businesses donated food that we sold. Even Fordson gave us $500 toward the cause as well!” The students tell me that their goal was to raise $10,000.
Manall Saeed, one of the initiators of the fundraiser tells Adel right before announcing the numbers “Social media shows how bad it is in Yemen, unlike mainstream media, seeing how bad things were getting, Fatmah and I decided to make the proposal for Charity Week. We thought of many organizations and came across one very internationally recognized organization for their work, Doctors without Borders. It was chosen to receive the funds, and it’s an incredible feeling to see that we’re making a difference and I’m so happy everyone joined and helped.” Fatmah agrees with her colleague and tells me that they did their research on which organization to fundraise for and Yemen’s need and lack of coverage in the media made it the best cause to donate to.
“It’s ranked as the worst humanitarian crisis, and that’s shocking considering how many countries are suffering all over the world, and it’s sad, not many people know what’s going on. I want to thank everyone who supported our cause, not only did we surpass our 10k goal, we doubled it. A big thanks to our staff, the students, and everyone else that didn’t hesitate to donate and spread the word. I especially want to recognize our most generous donor Vernor Urgent Care; thank you to Dr. Sameer Al-Huraibi and Medical Director Alqardaie Mussad.”
The celebration marked the end of the festivities and different fundraisers the students organized throughout the week. It began with the national anthem and a song by the school’s band followed by cheerleaders performance for the crowd. There was even a powerful freestyle rap performance by one of the students Esa Mohamed who in his song detailed the suffrage of the Yemeni people and received lots of cheers from the audience. The students then watched a video that captured the events organized by the students throughout the week for the cause, and at the end was a countdown to reveal the number that students raised. The students also had large posters of the number which revealed to be $19,161 with huge cheers from the student body while the organizers hugging each other in tears. Donations kept coming in the week after and the students raised more than $20,000.
Tara Haddad, one of the staff organizers for the event spoke to me after the students revealed the number saying “It’s awesome, this is great; this has been a unifier, a beautiful event for a beautiful cause. The parents, businesses, staff, and the students collaborated together to raise this much, doubling the set goal.”
Mr. Scott Casebolt, principal of Edsel says to the Yemeni American News, “There is so much energy here, the break for them is secondary. It’s been a unifying week and today wrapping it up with this celebrations. The students donated through many creative ways through events and gathered many hand donations. Some donations were even donating $100 bills!”
Major sponsors of the event included Malek-al Kabab, Nasser Pharmacy, Yogurtopia, Potbelly, Capri-Baker, Biggby, Cyclebar, La-Pita, and Brome Modern Eatery.
