Brace yourselves: we’re three fourths of the way through hurricane season and over six hurricanes have already occurred all around the world. Destruction has wreaked havoc in places such as Texas, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean. Recovery from these natural disasters is far from over, but just what is being done at the iSchool to help support those in need?

Since the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year, iCare has done a surplus of things to aid countries in need, all of which have taken place right in our very own school building. Due to the fact that iCare is the iSchool’s main source of community service efforts, they have taken responsibility for the majority of relief projects. Whether it be fundraisers for Texas, supply drives for Puerto Rico, or snack sales for Mexico, they’ve practically done it all.

“It’s amazing to me how much iCare has been able to do to help out countries in need in such a timely manner,” stated Wiktoria Zysk, a junior at the iSchool.

Right after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, iCare immediately organized a fundraiser to help those in need of resources. In order to collect funds for these resources, iCare put together a two-day snack sale where during lunch members of the club sold snacks outside of the school. The sale raised $284.04 in just two lunch periods.

However, a few weeks later, when a 4.4 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico, the fundraiser was extended out to raise money for both Texas and Mexico.

According to Ms. Colon, the head of iCare, “The money from the fundraiser was split in half so that $122.02 was donated to East Texas Food bank, and $122.02 was donated to Direct Relief who works with communities in Mexico affected by the recent earthquake.”

iCare has been trying to focus on providing aid for many different countries, not just the ones that the media focuses on. This is why the fundraiser was modified to support Texas and Mexico.

The relief efforts do not stop there. After the fundraising, iCare moved on to its next big project. According to Mollie Zoldan, a member of iCare, “We wanted to focus on providing support to people in Puerto Rico because even though it is part of the United States, the government doesn’t support them as such. They are oftentimes neglected, but they need just as much help, if not more.”

In order to provide support for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Irma, iCare designed a two-week school wide supply drive. The drive specifically asked for items such as diapers, feminine hygiene products, batteries, socks, baby food, bandaids, and more.

In terms of donations for this drive, the iSchool community donated so many supplies that iCare had to take two separate trips to deliver them. The supplies were delivered to a fire station on the Lower East Side, where they were then shipped straight to Puerto Rico.

As Taliyah Bradford, a junior and member of iCare said, “It’s an amazing feeling to be part of a school community where helping those in need all around the world is made a priority, especially to the degree that iCare does.”