Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, clubs at Mira Loma High School have continued doing community service while following social distancing protocol. One of the most popular community service activities is letter writing. These letters were sent to senior citizens, healthcare workers, hospitalized patients, and so on.
Kurt’s Army, a club that aims to spread awareness about leukemia after a former Mira Loma student named Kurt Lee passed away from cancer, has been writing online messages to patients in St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital throughout the school year. The club has also been sending e-cards to healthcare workers in the UCSF Medical Center and volunteers in a nonprofit volunteer organization called HandsOn Greater Phoenix. “We want to take people’s minds off the pandemic. We understand that workers and patients have it harder than we do and wish to support them as much as possible,” says Daniah Adnan ‘22, the treasurer of Kurt’s Army.
Another club on campus called Eunoia is a nonprofit organization that aims to provide aid and relief to underprivileged teens, while also simultaneously providing opportunities for teenagers to reach out to the community. Among other events, during the fall semester, the organization completed a project called “Quarantine Connections,” where members sent cards to foster kids, senior citizens, hospitalized patients, and veterans. “Coming up with safe ways to serve the community right now can be difficult. But writing handwritten cards and letters is a practical way to brighten up someone’s day. We actually got a response back from a staff member at a senior home saying that the positive messages in our letters really shone through. They asked if we could continue sending letters like it,” says Jianna Choi ‘22, the president of Eunoia.
There is also Mira Loma UNICEF, whose goal is to conduct fundraisers for UNICEF USA and spread awareness about issues involving children’s lives. The club has recently been doing small service projects within the Sacramento community, such as school donations and letter writing. In November, UNICEF collaborated with Key Club to write letters to firefighters to thank them for their services, especially with the various wildfires that have occurred a lot in 2020. In December, in addition to Key Club, UNICEF also collaborated with the National Art Honors Society and Chinese Culture Club to write 159 holiday letters to senior citizens in Aegis Living. “We’re all in awe at this feat because it means each resident was able to receive 3 different encouraging letters. We know this will be a very joyful year for them,” says Lauren Chang ‘21, the secretary of UNICEF.
Lastly is Mira Loma Key Club, a student-led high school community service organization. Besides the letter writing collaborations with UNICEF, the club has done some of their own letter writing projects as well. During November, Key Club members gathered together on Zoom to do a project called “Operation Gratitude,” where people wrote letters to veterans thanking and appreciating them for their service. In December, they did a service project on Zoom again called “Love for Our Elders,” in which members made encouraging letters to the elderly to show them some love during these tragic times.
In these unprecedented times, we are proud of the various clubs coming together to share love with others. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a substantial toll on many people throughout the world, especially in the United States. We are thankful that these clubs took the time and initiative to cheer up someone’s day through a letter full of love while staying in quarantine.
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