Ten Thousand Villages hosts benefit for Friends of McCallum

[wzslider]Ten Thousand Villages hosted a fundraiser for the Friends of McCallum on Thursday Dec. 1. A percentage of all sales during the evening went to the Friends, a group that works to meet the specific needs serves the very specific needs of students and families in the McCallum vertical team.

“Friends of McCallum Students is a parent group, a sub-committee of McCallum’s PTSA and was started about a year and a half ago.” school social worker Brooke Anderson said.

With complimentary drinks and desserts and live entertainment provided by the McCallum Chamber Quartet and the Maplewood Elementary Ukulele Choir, the event attracted families and others who came to shop, to listen to the live music and to support the work that the Friends of McCallum does. Fifteen percent of the profits made went to the families and students in need.

The Friends uses its funds to “get [Mac students and families in need] through the difficulty they’re going through, whatever it may be.”

Anderson said that the committee was started because the need for donations for bus passes and snacks was crucial. Together, she and some concerned McCallum parents formed this committee, which Anderson said has “really blown up and grown a lot” over the past year and a half.

“We help McCallum students and students who are in the vertical-teen schools who find themselves in particularly crisis situations or when they have life challenges,” said Tenley Aldredge, a member of the committee. “As students we want to make sure they have the same access to all the educational, social and cultural opportunities that McCallum offers.”

Mac students helped with the fundraiser in a variety of ways. The members of the McCallum Chamber Quartet, including Matthew Weinberg (‘17), Ciana Rosenblad (‘17), Adrian Jackson (‘18), and Mitchell Wright (‘17), performed during the benefit, and Key Club members volunteered by wrapping gifts and directing traffic in the parking lot.

Key Club junior Gabbie Jones said she has two motivation to help with this benefit.

“I think it’s really cool that most of the stuff made from this store is made by people in Third World countries, and ,,, from natural materials,” junior Gabbie Jones said. “I wanted to volunteer at this event because all of the profits made go towards students and families in need at McCallum, and I wanted to do anything to help.”