Rallying support with lunch time craft events
Angel Chukwu (12) and Shreya Joshi (12) make greeting cards during the French Club event on November 16, 2015 in Room 315. The cards are for students in Paris to comfort them over the recent terrorism attacks. “Hearing about the terrorist attack took a part of my heart, so it made me feel bad about the children in Paris,” Chukwu said. “I just wanted to do something to help them and show them to keep going and keep being strong because everything gets better eventually.”
Jennifer Fong
Staff Writer
Following the terrorist attacks in Paris, which killed over 120 people, the French Club organized an awareness and support campaign, consisting of signing a #PrayForParis poster and making cards in Room 315 for students in Paris on November 16, 2015.
“I have family who lives in Paris and I was very scared for them,” publicist Anisa Benamira-Dod (10) said. “I didn’t know if they were hurt or not, so when I got home from school, my mom told me they were fine and I was really relieved. I’m so sad for other families because there are so many little kids in Paris and I knew they were scared. I just wanted to let them know that we support them and they don’t need to be scared.”
The French Club came up with the campaign soon after the attacks, when news circulated through social media.
“It’s great because, just a few hours after, people in the French Club began talking about what else we can do, aside from changing our profile pictures [on Facebook],” Emily Wang (12) said. “Everyone had ideas and we decided to do this [poster signing and card making].”
Regarding the terrorist attacks itself, activities commissioner Saisha Agrawal (11) thought they “were a show of how bad humans can get.”
“Terrorism can really affect not just one person, but an entire community,” Agrawal said. “These kids don’t deserve that. As a school, we need to do whatever we can to help the French community and build support.”
French club’s awareness campaign will last for the duration of the week.
“It’s really tragic and terrifying, the fact that there are people out there targeting humanity, not just Paris,” president Lavanya Vijayan said. “The most we can do right now is have the victims in our thoughts and giving positive, encouraging messages to give them strength and comfort at this time.”
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