This Saturday, students and faculty participated in Sophie’s Walk, which benefits Sophie’s Farm, which is a community based farm owned by the RSCJ. Some students have previously partaken in a school trip to the Philippines, where they visited Sophie’s Farm and completed service activities there.
“Sophie’s Walk was a fundraiser that took place to raise money for Sophie’s Farm in Northern Samar, Philippines,” sophomore Franchesqa Landicho said. “The area was recently hit with a typhoon that wiped out their crops, which are their main source of income, so we wanted to help them recuperate,”
This fundraiser also aligns with previous events that have been hosted this year, such as bake sales and donation events. Donations have gone to helping feed the people living on the farm, as well as in buying Christmas gifts for the children living there.
“We try to get as many opportunities and events as possible to raise money for Sophie’s Farm, as it has become a very focal point in our school’s Ethics program,” Religion, Theology and Spirituality teacher Clint Hackenburg said. “We work with SIA, UNICEF and the Filipino Culture Club to get people involved,”
Students taking part in the walk met at the Broadway campus in the morning to walk towards the Presidio. Students earned 3 service hours for attending the event, and $20 donations were suggested for all, according to Hackenburg.
“I don’t think many people know that we actually occupied the Philippines, so going to the Presidio which was the place where we launched our involvement in the Philippines is a good place to think about where the meeting area of American Filipino history started,” Hackenburg said. “Next year, we hope [the turnout] gets bigger and bigger so we can pull in more funds— and I want more people to get interested in going on the trip to the Philippines,”
Student-led fundraisers like these provide for great opportunities to develop leadership and organization skills, as well as add to the overall sense of community involvement of service based activities within the school, according to Landicho.
“Filipino Culture Club was really made to be an affinity space for the Filo community and to celebrate Filipino culture– this year we really focused on Sophie’s Farm, as they are located in one of the poorer provinces in the Philippines so we wanted to be able to support them however we can,” Landicho said. “Fundraisers like this are extremely important because it helps target communities that actually need them instead of blindly donating and our school does a great job of making their students aware of things not only happening in Sacred Heart schools, not only in the US but around the world.”