The Celebrate My Drive and Fight For Hunger campaigns were recently introduced to Menlo-Atherton, spreading the need to become informed about driving safety and global hunger to the student body. In addition to the large banners hanging in Pride Hall promoting the campaigns, teachers, leadership class members, and the leadership advisers encourage their students to go online and vote to support M-A. The leadership class is also dedicating large amounts of their time spreading the campaigns to the students, creating Facebook pages and mentioning them on M-A Today video broadcasts.
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Celebrate My Drive intends to promote safe driving by having students pledge via Facebook to drive carefully. According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, teen drivers age sixteen to nineteen have the highest percentage of car accident involvements, and their first year of driving is always the most dangerous. Despite this unfortunate statistic, Celebrate My Drive’s goal is to celebrate the freedoms that come with the ability to drive in addition to promoting safe driving. According to Mike Amoroso, one of the leadership advisers, many students are aware of the dangers of texting or talking while driving, but having “more awareness is better than turning a blind eye.” Senior Amara Trabosh concurs, saying the campaign is all about “reach[ing] out to enough of the student body to make some sort of difference in their driving practices.
Celebrate My Drive is not the only campaign that leadership has endorsed this year. The Fight For Hunger campaign was also developed to educate teens, but about the hunger crisis instead of driving practices. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 805 million people were undernourished from 2012 to 2014; today, malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause more than 50 percent of deaths worldwide. With this specific campaign, student volunteers raise money through different fundraising activities while thousands of meals are delivered to hungry children and adults in more than 40 different countries. Although this is the first year M-A has introduced Fight For Hunger to the student body, the campaign correlates well with the annual Canned Food Drive. “By participating in the Fight Against Hunger, we as a school have impacted the lives of people right here in our local community,” stated Amoroso. This is true, as hunger is a timeless concern in the United States, even in our own community. However, with the introduction of this specific campaign a greater awareness of the hunger crisis will stretch to the students, and by voting, a child or adult in need will benefit greatly.
The debut of these two campaigns stresses the concept of increasing student awareness of topical issues. M-A is known for its great involvement in a variety of fundraisers and campaigns, and by embracing the Celebrate My Drive and Fight For Hunger campaigns, not only will the student body become more aware of what is happening in the world, but it will be helping those in need. The purpose of these campaigns is to become more involved, whether through voting or spreading the word of the campaigns. By becoming a part of them the student body is, in the words of Trabosh, embracing the fact that “these [campaigns] are about helping people.”
