“We were really looking forward to the event,” Parrish said. “The FBLA members put a lot of thought into it. Personally, I made it into a project for my class. Not many people know much about cancer unless they have been touched by it directly. I tried to turn it into a learning experience for my students,” she added.
The walk was a huge success. In order to participate in the walk – which was held on the school track during clubs time – students had to donate at least $1.
“I wanted to use the breast cancer foundation as our service project again this year and I also wanted to use this as a learning opportunity for my students. So I had them research breast cancer and produce a flyer promoting the walk. Students had to include facts about breast cancer on the flyer. This led to students sharing facts with the class and sharing stories about people they know who had, or are going through, this horrible disease,” Parrish said.
The group sold 128 tickets “There were many [students] who made donations that went beyond the $1 donation,” Parrish said. Because of the generosity of the students, FBLA was able to give the Komen Foundation a total of $228.
“It was fun,” said Sasha Morgan, one of Parrish’s students. “Everyone got to walk around the track, spend time with friends and raise money for a good cause.”
Despite the good outcome, Parrish felt that the walk could have been even bigger. “We could have sold more tickets if we were in school on Monday and Tuesday [the days that school was canceled due to Hurricane Sandy].”
Parrish and the FBLA club look forward to next year. “We might send the money to UVa’s Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center or to Martha Jefferson to keep things closer to home,” Parrish said.
