MSD Alumni come together to support the Coral Springs and Parkland community
Once an eagle always an eagle
Mobilized Marchers. MSD Alumni walk down Pennsylvania Ave at the March For Our Lives in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of Mobilizing
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MSD Alumni
ragedy often brings people with a similar past together. With a common desire to make a difference after the deadly shooting in their hometown on Feb. 14, many Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School alumni found themselves getting in touch with one another, each eager to lend their support to the Parkland/Coral Springs community. Just hours after the news broke out, friends Judith Danovitch (class of 1996), Rachel Nyswander Thomas (class of 1998) and Kim Moscaritolo (class of 1996), created a Facebook group titled Mobilizing MSD Alumni. They hoped to get in contact with other MSD alumni to figure out a way to help their former beloved city. “We used the word ‘mobilizing’ because we wanted to focus on alumni actively doing something to help,” Danovitch said. “We invited our friends from MSD to join and, within a few days, we had over 10,000 members.” Mobilizing MSD Alumni, which now has over 11,500 members, has three main objectives: outreach, advocacy and building alumni community. According to the group’s website, outreach initiatives deal with providing support to MSD students and teachers, as well as organizing recovery and advocacy
projects with the school and the Parkland community. Advocacy is a much broader initiative, which involves taking action to demand policy change, encouraging voter registration on a national scale and amplifying the voices of student activists and victims’ families. The community aspect correlates to strengthening alumni connections, finding new alumni and maintaining strong ties to MSD.
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social media accounts. “To me, that was a way to get involved and help out using the skills I have,” Sloan said. “Within the social media realm I’ve helped in creating posts and letting people know that the alumni are out there and that we are here to help in.” According to many alumnae like Sloan and Tori Ford, who graduated from MSD in 2013 and then from Elon University in North Carolina in 2017, their favorite part about being included in a group like this is that they have been granted the opportunity to connect with so many alumni they did not know existed or lived by them. “The best thing is the inspiring and supportive community that has formed from such tragedy,” Ford said. “Alumni I One usually doesn’t get the chance to never knew, who only lived a few miles repay the teachers and school that helped from me in DC, are now great friends. you grow as a person,” Lapin-Bertone said. After moving to North Carolina, I felt that “My favorite part is being able to tell the I already had a family here, with over teachers, staff and students when they 100 plus North Carolina alumni warmly ask why I volunteer so much - ‘You’re all welcoming me back to the state ready worth it.’” to take more action in support of the Another MSD alumna, Nicole Sloan #neveragain movement.” (class of 2007), now lives in New York City, Whether receiving their high school after graduating from Indiana University. diploma recently or years ago, the MSD With a background in marketing and alumni will forever hold onto their fond social media, Sloan contributed her skills memories from when they attended the to help run Mobilizing MSD Alumni’s school. From being president of a club,
I’ve had the opportunity to give back. One usually doesn’t get the chance to repay the teachers and school that helped you grow as a person.
One alumnus, Jesse Lapin-Bertone (class of 2000), who still lives in Coral Springs, mainly focuses on the outreach pillar. Through his membership, LapinBertone has had countless opportunities to work with MSD students and teachers. Lapin-Bertone has aided his help in many service projects; he helped produce the “Shine” music video, supported campus events, such as Dance Marathon and the Feis Bowl, and even brought modulars and furniture on campus so therapy could occur in a private setting
22 Feature • Mobilizing MSD Alumni
during the last few months of the school year. Recently, Lapin-Bertone helped bring suicide intervention training to staff and students over the summer and wrapped up the installation and training of Stop the Bleed kits for MSD classrooms for the upcoming year. According to the alumni, none of these changes would have been made possible without the overflow of support from the organization. “I’ve had the opportunity to give back.
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