Vernon Hills students donate to Luci Light Campaign
Through its recent Luci Light Campaign, the Vernon Hills High School community came together through its #vhgive movement to share the gift of light with its sister school, St. Jerome COVE School in Kapeeka, Uganda.
Classroom donations, staff donations, Variety Show ticket sales, and the Change for Change class competition raised a total of $4,286.81 to purchase solar-powered Luci Lights for every student, staff member, and woman in the literacy program at the school.
The cost of each light is $20, but with the generous help of MPOWERD, the creators of Luci Light, VHHS is able to purchase each light for only $10.
Learn more about the #vhgive movement at www.vhgive.org.
The additional $1,500 raised through the campaign will be used to purchase teacher resources, including books and curriculum, to help prepare the students in Uganda for the national test. Students at St. Jerome Cove primary school must score high enough on the national test to qualify to attend the public high school.
To draw attention to the campaign's progress, black circles were posted in the VHHS foyer to represent a student without electricity or light in their home. When a donation of $10 was collected, the black circle was flipped over to become a yellow circle, which symbolized a student receiving a Luci Light.
The yellow circle displayed the name of the student in Uganda and the name of the staff, student or class that made the donation.
VHHS junior Hannah Rabinowitz said she "thought the Luci Light campaign was a huge success because it got our whole school involved in our #vhgive slogan, 'give more take less.'"
VHHS promotes a positive school culture through #vhgive. Student ambassadors for #vhgive present multiple presentations a year encouraging students and staff to complete random acts of kindness and continue to "pay it forward."
The actions are shared on social media through the #vhgive campaign. Follow #vhgive on social media to stay connected with the campaign and random acts of kindness at VHHS.
The #vhgive executive board is Donalie Black, Jordyn Bunning, Kelsey Carido, Isabelle Chin, Frances Ferolo, Madeleine Fernandez Laris, Chris Hernandez, Brynn Lauman, Hannah Rabinowitz, Max Rattner and Jonathan Wallach.
Staff members for #vhgive Deborah Beagle, Amanda Carroll, Paul Friedrich, Monica Tolva and Deborah Lehman assisted in developing the campaign.