TOMS Club co-president Aicha Fall with students at the clubs recent event at the Miami Rescue Mission. All Photo's Courtesy Of AICHA FALL
BY STACEY PASTERNAK
TOMS campus programs are starting to pop up all over the country, and seniors Aicha Fall and Ashley Saul have brought the program to our very own Cooper City High School this year to raise awareness of the TOMS movement and get kids at CCHS involved in community service.
As TOMS shoe sales grow amongst high school and college students, so too does their awareness of the cause. It all started in 2006, when Blake Myoskie visited Argentina. While he was there he noticed that the Argentinian children he met had no shoes to protect their feet from the harsh terrain of South America. He came back to the United States wanting to help and thus TOMS and the companies “One for One Movement” was born. The “One for One Movement” means donating one pair of shoes to kids in need per one pair of TOMS shoes bought. In the past six years, Myoskie and the rest of the TOMS staff have given shoes to over 1 million kids in 25 different countries. With the CCHS TOMS club their goal is to extend that spirit of service and giving on a local level.
“We decided to start the club towards the end of the last school year,” Saul said. “I knew it was a big project to take on, so (Fall) and I started planning right away and we were able to get it approved.”
The co-presidents have high expectations for their club. Since there are over two thousand students at CCHS, Fall and Saul hope to get at least a thousand to participate in different community projects inside and outside of school so everyone can understand the need to get involved.
“Our main goal is to have the school work towards one common community service theme every month,” Fall said.
The TOMS Club officers at the Miami Rescue Mission.
Fall and Saul are looking forward to a year of leading this club in various activities. The club, which meets in Mrs. Jernigan’s room (3429), is structured on a month-to month basis. They meet on Mondays and work toward a different project or event each month. Their first project in October was Hope for the Homeless month at the Miami Rescue Mission.
“The Miami Rescue Mission is a huge homeless shelter that the Miami Heat does charity work for, so it was an honor for Aicha and I to get our club to help out this organization,” Saul said. “They have over 180 students who stay there Monday through Friday and they provide all different services from housing to getting them to school to feeding them. We brought food for the 140 students that were there the day we come in.”
Since most of the people at the shelter never get to celebrate Halloween, the TOMS club also brought pumpkins for everyone to decorate along with pizza.
“It’s important for people to realize that participating in community service projects isn’t just to have something to put on your resume, and its not just something to get service hours for,” Saul said. “We need to look for what needs to be changed and try to make an impact.”
Jenny Jernigan, CCHS teacher, cheerleading coach, and now TOMS club sponsor greatly supports the efforts that the club will be striving to achieve.
“I think it’s important for people to know that there are people in need in the surrounding community and not only worldwide as the basis of TOMS club is to make sure that we’re helping people in our own backyard as well as helping people in other countries,” Jernigan said.
The club’s current project is a school wide paper drive.
“We will collect all kinds of paper for the school,” Fall said. “Lined paper is going to go in the front office so all students can use it if they need it, colored paper will go to the art department and computer paper will be turned in to Ms. Doll so she can distribute it to all the teachers for their printers.”
Since Fall and Saul are seniors, they have high hopes for the club to continue after they leave.
“I hope when I graduate that Ashley and I will be able to pass on the club to our current officers that will be seniors next year,” Fall said.
Saul’s hopes are along the same path.
“I hope we can come back next year and participate in events and know that our club is truly making a difference,” Saul said.
