Join Us for the Montrose Pack-A-Thon June 7!
The CRUDEM Foundation is working with Haiti Health Promise to bring meals to the Haitian people.
Led by Class Representative Anna Hvidsten ’23, volunteers from the 10th grade have organized a day of service next Monday which will be held at Montrose after everyone’s last final exam. They call it the Montrose Pack-A-Thon!
Volunteers will be packaging meals for families in Haiti, where the chronic malnourishment rate among children is high. With the virus, it is even worse this year. The food comes in bulk to volunteer centers, and it is then organized into individual meals. Those are then sent to the CRUDEM Foundation and straight to the Feed Haiti organization in Haiti where the meals are distributed. Anna said: “During a normal year, CRUDEM works with [St Joseph’s Parish] to build homes in Haiti because of their need for housing, but because of COVID this year, the need for food has overcome the need for houses.”
The team has been planning this event for the past few weeks, making posters and flyers, sending out emails, recruiting me to write this article一anything to spread the word. One member of the planning committee, Theresa Marcucci ’23 said: “I am most excited to see everything in motion, and actually pack the meals. It’s such a big project, bigger than any service project I’ve ever done, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!”
Anna sets Montrose off with an ambitious goal of packing 20,000 meals for Haiti. Yes, you read that right. Putting this in perspective, five volunteers working for one hour can make up to 240 meals. So 50 volunteers working for a few hours should push out just under 10,000 meals. 100 volunteers would be just shy of 20,000 meals. As of the latest update, the Montrose Pack-A-Thon has 25 volunteers, so it needs your help!
“Everybody absolutely should join in, especially since this year we couldn’t do a day of service; we can end the year on a good note,” said Anna. Although Montrose hasn’t been able to do an all-school service day this year as in the past, each grade has been planning mini service projects. This final project with CRUDEM and Feed Haiti will be the final hurrah of the school year. Take this chance to give to a good cause.
And service is much more than the physical action of giving, or doing, or making. Anna said: “Service is giving what you have to help another, putting their needs above yours, putting them above you. On June 7th next week, we’ll be doing just that.”
I think Audrey Kelly ’23 said it best: “It’s so satisfying to help people, and we get to have fun doing it!” So join in! Lend a helping hand to the people of Haiti, even if it’s just for an hour. Sign up here!
Elyza Tuan ’23, Co-Assistant Editor in Chief
