Broward County Library

11 - Student Organizations Community

Keeping Warm

Junior Rachel Bean starts blanket drive for children in foster care J unior Rachel Bean has started a blanket drive at MSD, unofficially known as the rainbow blanket project. This project aims to provide children who are new to foster homes with a blanket to call their own through a time of intense change.

“Fundamentally, someone who is being introduced into foster care, no matter what age, is being taken from everything that they’ve ever known and being thrown into a world that makes them very confused and scared, so it’s really important that they have something that they can keep hold of,” Bean said. “This gives them reassurance that their whole life is changing, but there is still something that can make them human and reminds them of who they are.”

The blankets collected from the drive will be donated to Project Linus, an organization that aims to provide children who are in homeless shelters or foster care with new blankets.

Its national headquarters are located in Bloomington, Illinois; although there are Project Linues locations all over the United States. The organization donates an average of 350 blankets every month to children in need.

Several other high schools in the area, including Coral Glades and Cypress Bay, have also begun collecting blankets and have received generous donations from local Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs. Donations can also be made independently to Project Linus at their drop-off centers located throughout Broward County.

“We live in Parkland, so a lot of us don’t really realize that there is a world outside of the one that we live in, and there are kids who are just like us who don’t have anything to call their own, besides a blanket,” Bean said. “I feel like it’s really important to make those community connections that can bring us fundamentally closer to people even if we are not talking to them directly.”Story by Amit Dadon and Gillian Marton; photo courtesy of Rachel Bean

For Feminism

Realizing that MSD had no proper outlet for discussing gender roles, last year alumni Lindsay Wright and senior Jessie Sinitch began their own club focusing on feminism. They named it Women Out of the Kitchen. Feminism, advocating for social, economic and political equality for women, has found an upswing in both popularity and importance during a time of rising awareness regarding social issues.

“Once I found out what feminism is, I was set on creating a club that would push conversation on women’s issues in both our community and around the world,” Sinitch said. “The thought of creating such a space excited me.”

In the U.S. alone, there is a 25 percent chance that a woman will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime and a 55 percent chance that it will go unreported. Gender inequality also exists within the workforce, where, on average, women are paid only 79 cents to a man’s dollar, a gap that only widens when broken down by race. The U.S. is also one of the few countries that does not provide paid maternity leave, forcing women to use their sick and vacation days to stay home with their newborn children.

“In countries around the world, women still are legally oppressed. In some places, they are forbidden to drive and are only allowed to dress in certain ways,” Sinitch said. “Severe problems with infanticide still exist around the world, and many countries continue to restrict women to the household and strip them of their rights.”

Women Out of the Kitchen meets twice each month, once to make items to sell, in order to raise money for the Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services, and once more to discuss specific and relevant topics. Guest speakers, from organizations such as from Planned Parenthood, occasionally attend as well.

“Students can get involved just by showing up at a meeting,” says Sinitch. “Discussion is our focal point, and the more people, the better.” Story by Amit Dadon and Gillian Marton; photo by Joanna Zhuang Alumni Lindsay Wright, senior Jessie Sinitch start feminist club