Hats Off for Cancer
This year, for Coginchaug DECA’s community service campaign, we ran a hat drive over the course of a week (November 16- November 20) which we called, “Hats Off For Cancer.” During the drive, we asked our school community to donate new hats that we could then bring to the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital to be given to children battling cancer.
We posted flyers around the school, used twitter, and made daily announcements to promote the event. We gave the homerooms boxes or reusable bags to collect the hats throughout the week, and then went around to collect them at the end of the collection period.
We gathered many hats, ranging from knit hats to baseball caps, from both students and teachers. The main purpose of this hat drive was to provide children battling cancer, a fun and or warm hat. Hair loss is an all too common side effect of chemotherapy, and many people, children especially, struggle with their new appearances. We thought hats would be a great way to lift these children’s spirits. Along with the hat drive, we also coordinated a school-wide hat day on Tuesday, November 23. This involved students either wearing a hat and paying two dollars to do so, or just donating two dollars to DECA. Similar to the hat drive, we posted flyers around our school, explaining the event and we announced the event in our daily morning announcements. Hat day helped our chapter to raise approximately $100. With that money, we were able to purchase new hats that could be brought to the children with cancer, on top of the ones we had previously collected. On November 30th we brought the hats to the Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven, CT. We were able to donate a total of 72 new hats to patients battling cancer. |
Close to 85% of our DECA members participated in one way or another throughout our community service campaign. Students volunteered to create promotions for the campaign, bring in boxes or bags to collect the hats, collect the hats from the homerooms, donate hats or money, and bring the hats to the Smilow Cancer Center at Yale New Haven Hospital.
It was truly rewarding to see the faces of the children who received the hats. They appreciate all of the support people bring them. It is comforting to know what kind of a difference, albeit a small one, we can make this holiday season. We volunteered to be in charge of the community service campaign because we enjoy giving back to others and conducting this drive and then seeing the delight it brought to those kids epitomizes why we help the community. We are so glad that being a part of DECA has enabled us to branch out in serving our community. This even gave the students, teachers, and members of DECA the chance to make a change and an impact, even if they simply brought in a hat or donated two dollars for the cause.
It was truly rewarding to see the faces of the children who received the hats. They appreciate all of the support people bring them. It is comforting to know what kind of a difference, albeit a small one, we can make this holiday season. We volunteered to be in charge of the community service campaign because we enjoy giving back to others and conducting this drive and then seeing the delight it brought to those kids epitomizes why we help the community. We are so glad that being a part of DECA has enabled us to branch out in serving our community. This even gave the students, teachers, and members of DECA the chance to make a change and an impact, even if they simply brought in a hat or donated two dollars for the cause.