Students Honored for Volunteer Efforts to Aid Hispanic Community

Thursday’s was marked by a special presentation honoring the volunteer efforts of the Spanish Honor Society and Salsa Club, as well as Honor Society advisors, Daniela Davidzon and Marie Concepcion, and Salsa Club advisor, Mary Ferrante. The presentation was given by Randy Schaeffer, Vice Chair of El Centro Hispanoamericano.

“El Centro Hispanamericano is a nonprofit organization located in Plainfield. Our purpose is to provide humanitarian aid to recent immigrants. We help them with their English language proficiency, we run a small emergency food pantry, and we help people get on the road to citizenship and become residents of our community,” Schaeffer explained.

Schaeffer came to the BOE meeting to honor the students and advisors who volunteered for the organization during the holiday season to help support disadvantaged immigrant children in the community. A Certificate of Appreciation was also awarded to the district.

Daniela Davidzon, who initially approached El Centro, looking for an opportunity for her students to volunteer, expressed that she was “extremely proud of the effort and time” the students took to help the Hispanic community.  

“The help that we received from the Scotch Plains-Fanwood community is absolutely heartwarming, Randy Schaeffer said. “I cannot find the words to describe the wonderful sense of compassion, community spirit and dedication – you should be very, very proud of these kids. You have done a great job steering them in the right direction,” he said.

Student volunteers were given the opportunity to develop their Spanish language skills by engaging with Hispanic families. Shortly before Thanksgiving, students collected over 500 pounds of food that was distributed to families in need by 19 student volunteers. 52 student volunteers worked in shifts to help with a Holiday festival on December 17 while other volunteers collected toy donations, wrapped presents, and made Christmas decorations.

Several student representatives spoke about their experiences volunteering for El Centro.

“For me, it was a great experience because I love being with children. It was a great opportunity for me to use my Spanish outside of the classroom,” Tara, a junior and Salsa Club member explained.

“I was one of the 52 students who helped out at the Christmas party. When Santa came out, a lot of the kids began to cry because they were so happy and so excited. I really enjoyed bringing happiness to the underprivileged children. I hope that we can participate in more events with El Centro in the future,” David, a junior and Spanish Honor Society member said.

“We may not have been speaking Spanish in full paragraphs, but we could ask the kids if they wanted to play a game or what they wanted to eat. I also enjoyed participating in the toy drive because it put a face to who we were helping. It is one thing to donate a toy, but it’s another to be able to see who we were helping. It was really rewarding,” George, a junior, said.

“My experience was overwhelming, in a good way. It was a different perspective on life; there was one woman who couldn’t write or speak in English at all. I had to use my ability to speak and understand Spanish so that I could take down her information for the Thanksgiving food drive,” Samantha Diaz, a senior explained.

“During the Christmas event, I got the honor to be Santa Clause. I was very excited, because I am a big fan,” Anthony, a Senior and member of the honor society said as the room erupted in laughter. “It was great to make all of the kids happy and see them smile.”

After the students spoke, Schaeffer noted that the experience El Centro had working with these volunteers was so wonderful, that they created an opportunity for the students to return to work with El Centro.

“Primarily because we know that we have this wonderful group of volunteers, we are going to do a health fair in April and May to offer a full array of health services to the community that might otherwise not have access to these services. There will be plenty of opportunity for the kids to help set up, interact with those coming to the health fair and guide them to the proper services they are seeking. We are looking forward to continuing a wonderful working relationship with the district,” Schaeffer said.