Students start their own fundraisers

With the holiday season just around the corner, students are starting their own fundraisers at school to give back to their community and help those in need.

In support of the victims of the freak storm in the Philippines, senior Rajan Panchal started up a donation box in the office on Nov. 13 asking for canned food, clothing and toiletries to benefit the survivors of the storm. 

Panchal was inspired to do this after he saw an interview of a San Jose State student who started a similar drive, and he thought it would be a good idea if Saratoga stepped up to help as well.

“The problem is that most people aren’t getting any aid over there, so I’m doing my small part to make sure something gets done, no matter how small or how big,” Panchal said.

Panchal put in reminders in the morning announcements and set up boxes in a Hindu temple and Muslim mosque in Milpitas.

“[The fundraiser] was completed over Thanksgiving break, and I packed everything up and sent it out to the shipping company,” Panchal said.

Another student who has taken initiative in starting a drive is freshman Grace Chang. Chang started a winter clothes drive for the homeless in San Jose.

“Sometimes I’m really cold because I’m not wearing enough so I thought, ‘Oh, what about the people who are on the streets who don’t have clothes, who are freezing and wearing rags,’” Chang said. “We should help them because we’re really fortunate and we don’t know what it’s like to be out begging in the streets.”

However, doing a fundraiser without the support of a club can be difficult, Chang said. 

“It’s really hard [without a club] because you’re doing it all by yourself and you don’t get [much] support from other people,” Chang said. 

Sophomore Meghan Shah also has decided to help those less fortunate overseas by starting up a book drive that provides books and learning materials to schools in Africa.

“It’s a book drive to build a small library in Africa where they have teachers and students who want to learn, but they don’t have enough materials or books to teach their students,” Shah said. “If we can [gather] at least 1,450 books, the organization will go and they will build a library for the students there.”

Shah had been searching for something to do to give back since last summer, and just last month her book drive was assigned to the village of Lesotho by the African Library Project.

“I’ve always loved reading. It’s something I’ve been doing ever since I can remember and I know how important it is,” Shah said. “I take a lot of my inspiration for life from books, so I just want other people to have the availability to books because  reading changes your life.”