Article by Joaquin Mayo
Here at ISM, students are given a range opportunities to give back to their community through different clubs and organizations. Among these is the National Honor Society (NHS), composed of high-achieving students, which organizes service events throughout the school year.
This year, as a replacement for Senior Auction, NHS has decided to partner up with Operation Smile to introduce Smile Week. Operation Smile is a nonprofit medical organization whose main advocacy involves the surgery of cleft lip and palate sufferers. Aptly named, Smile Week aims to give hope to these people through various fundraising efforts held from the week of March 27th until the 31st.
Each day of the week is dedicated to a unique theme with the goal of raising as much money as possible. Some of these events include the sale of Operation Smile merchandise, Smile-a-grams, and even an NHS-led bake sale. Interested individuals also have the chance to sponsor the surgery of one child as a donation of ₱15 000 is enough to cover this procedure.
When asked about the inspiration behind Smile Week, Senior and NHS President Angelica C., had this to say: “Due to the discontinuation of one of our primary events, the council and I had to think of new ways to raise funds for our service partner Operation Smile. We wanted to include all of our members in brainstorming for a new event or fundraising activity. I asked everyone to submit ideas and one member, Elise put in a suggestion to start a “Smile Day.” With that we thought, why not make it a whole week? Thus, Smile Week was born!”
Along with the rest of the NHS, Angelica has big plans for the future of Smile Week, commenting: “I hope the tradition continues with more activities that can involve the whole ISM community. It’s something we tried this year as well -involve the MS- and we hope to continue doing. At the same time, our primary goal is to raise awareness and donations for Operation Smile. Hopefully, our service partner can become more established in ISM and possibly even become an iCare site.”
Clearly, service remains an essential aspect of the Bearcat experience due to the community’s unwavering and steadfast support. This year’s Smile Week proves this fact and through the joint efforts of our community, we hopefully brought smiles to children in need.
For more information, please see the link below: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1teL-Q6eUPQaa74oF2nvpgFF2m5IUFKHK2D9AEqz_6Ks/edit#slide=id.g1f0675a489_0_0