Featured Club: West Broward High School

We believe young people + kicking apathy’s ass go together like chocolate and peanut butter. (Think Reese’s. Yum.) And Dosomething.org member Annabelle Juin is a perfect example of this. The now West Broward High School senior first got involved  when her middle school ran a Teens for Jeans drive – collecting over 1,500 pairs of jeans. Baller!

Juin went on to create a DoSomething club that’s 90 people strong at her Pembroke Pines, FL high school. We LOVE this. West Broward High is our featured club of the week. Check out the interview below.

Why start a DS club?

This was the ideal club because I had previously worked with the organization in 8th grade, was focused on teenagers, and was a great way to involve the school in more service projects.

What was the MOST awesome sauce campaign or project you ever completed?

We have had three major projects and they have all been HUGE:

1. Last year, we held a Food Packing Event (our first!) where the club raised over $5,000 and gained support of about 450 volunteers in order to pack 20,000 meals for kids in Haiti.
   
   
   • On February 4th, 2012, the Do Something Club along with the 400+ volunteers assembled in the school cafeteria and packed these 20,000 meals in less than two hours!


2. We also held a "Summer of Fun Food Drive" where we collect kid friendly food products for families who were needy that went to the school. In 3 weeks, we collected over 5,000 canned goods ranging from Ramon noodles and Mac-and-cheese to cereal and canned vegetables. We were able to feed 20 families for the entire summer.


3. This year we led a shoe drive to collect shoes for the local homeless to distribute on Thanksgiving and we reached our goal of 1,000 pairs of shoes!

Tell us about a challenge you faced and how you overcame it?

One of the biggest challenges I have is getting people to support my club and to motivate them to give back. So many people point fingers and criticize our country and the problems our society faces. It is easy for them to say "Why don't you help the people in our own backyard?" or "What about the animals?" but yet they fail to actually 'do something' about it. It was definitely a challenge to push them to do something for another because it is so much easier to complain than help. If you lead a revolution- I learned most people will follow!

Any advice for other students looking to start (or join) a DS club?

Just do it. I was criticized, made fun of, and put down by a lot of people who didn't believe in me or my goals. However, in the end, I proved them wrong because despite their negative comments, I proved that I can do anything I put my mind to. Chase your dreams, work hard, and never give up. For every 5 people that don’t believe in you, there is one who does.

Start a DoSomething Club at your school. GO