Goals Against Cancer was a fundraiser started by Tenzin Ganchentsang, Jacob Randazzo, and John Falco. The purpose of this was to have businesses from around the Greater Boston Area either ‘pledge’ or make a donation that we collected. Each goal scored by the boys’ lacrosse team during the month of March generated $1.00. They donated the funds they generated to The Cam Neely Foundation which provides care for cancer patients.

Every year, on May 18, Haitian flag day brings out pride and joy, not only throughout the Haitian Community, but everywhere. In order to celebrate their diversity and inform on the significance of this day, Medford High students organize an educational assembly, portraying aspects of the Haitian culture. The celebration is not limited to Medford High School but extends throughout the entire district. The High School students attend the Middle and Elementary schools, interacting and teaching other students the inspiring aspects of their culture. To conclude the festivities, the students host a party sharing food and music reflecting Haitian culture and heritage.

For Haley O’Rourke and Lily Loren’s project, they collected donation items to bring to an organization called Pine Street Inn, located in Boston. At Pine Street Inn there are several different lists of things you can collect and donate posted on their website, and each list is designated to a certain type of package that the donated items will be a part of. The two main types of ‘kits’ assembled with the donations are “Welcome Home Kits” and Toiletry Kits. Welcome Home Kits include daily items that are hard for Pine Street Inn guests to acquire on their own as they’re settling into a permanent home for the first time in a while. Some of the things that are put into these baskets are sheets and blanket sets for full and twin-sized beds, towels and toiletries, kitchen items such as plates, silverware, paper towels, and sponges, reusable bags, a $50 gift card for Stop n’ Shop (or other grocery stores) or Target, as well as many other things. The Toiletry Kits include all of the necessary items you need to maintain good day-to-day hygiene, as well as other necessities such as toilet paper, cleaning supplies, multicolored Band-Aids, unscented lotions and soaps, and other simple items you may find in your bathroom. They collected donation items to assemble many of both types of kits. https://www.pinestreetinn.org/ 

This summer, we had the pleasure of working with the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, Allie Fiske and Mike Nestor. They made and donated beautiful benches to us. We painted a female empowerment bench, a LGBTQ+ bench, a diversity bench, and lastly a sports bench. We think that these themes help make our community what it is. After the benches were painted, we moved them to Dugger Park, had a ribbon cutting ceremony, and we will hopefully broadcast it for the community and towns surrounding Medford. We are excited to introduce the new benches of Dugger Park to the community! Our CCSR project was focused on the inclusion of students in Medford High School with disabilities. Inclusion deals with joining students with disabilities and simply talking and getting to know them better from both an academic and personal viewpoint. During these class periods, we went to their classroom, came up with activity plans, and used those activity plans to get to know our new friends better. We gained an understanding of those around us, and by doing this project, we hope people will recognize that these students are just as nice, funny, and smart as your friends. We hope everyone will be able to greet these students on a first name basis, and not have fear of what they might say in return, because even a simple “hello” can go a long way!

“Letters of Comfort” is a project by Leticya Souza and Brianna Leccese. We hand wrote letters to parents who have children in the hospital. Our goal is to reassure them that everything will be okay and to wish them the best of luck for whatever they are going through, providing comfort for stressed parents is our objective!

Our project was a Spikeball tournament Against Child Abuse! Spikeball is a 2 vs 2 game where the objective is to spike the ball into a small trampoline so it can ricochet to the enemy. Players had three hits to coordinate and hit the ball off of the trampoline. If your team or the enemy’s team misses the ball, you or the opposing team gets a point. This sport has a striking resemblance to volleyball, but unlike volleyball this sport has no boundaries adding an extra layer of challenge and fun. All proceeds went to help the fight against child abuse. There was a prize for the most donated and another prize for the winners.

“The No One Fights Alone Campaign” is dedicated to raising awareness and money for cancer research. The inspiration behind this project is that everyone around us may be affected by cancer in some way and it is important to remember that our community is always here for each other. To show support for this project and the CCSR, purple bracelets were sold with “no one fights alone” written on them (all proceeds were donated to Dana Farber Cancer Institute). In addition, a Cancer Awareness Week was held later in the year. This was a time that students were encouraged to wear the ribbon color of a type of cancer that is recognized that day. The goal of this project is to remind our community that no one fights alone!

As we become adults, our connections we make with people become critical to achieving our goals. Technology can sometimes be a barrier to networking and making connections essential to propelling your career. Every other half day of the month (Wednesday), we invited a panel of professionals from various fields to speak about how to use connections to achieve our goals and become better networkers.

I’m a sophomore at MHS and I recently joined the CCSR. When I was at the McGlynn elementary school in the fourth grade a classmate and friend of mine lost his life due to cancer. A tree was planted in his memory but unfortunately it never bloomed. I raised money to replace this tree and planted flowers in his memory. I purchased another tree, planted it in Medford, and dedicated it to everyone who has lost a loved one to cancer.

For our CCSR Project, we want to close the gap between the young and the elderly. This project has a close connection to us because Theodora, on the left, works and volunteers at a nursing home. Vicki, on the right, volunteers with children of special needs, and Rachell, in the middle, in her free time volunteers as well. In order to do so, we created crafts for the children to make and then the three of us delivered them to the elderly. We know that they deeply appreciated the crafts and cards, especially during the holiday season and cherished them. We also sold the crafts/cards to enrich the community. A simple gift with a little care and love cago a long way.

Momeena Zayma, Prabidhi Rana, Dorotea Belotte, and David Mei’s mission was to create a space where everyone is welcomed and where our diversity is celebrated. The group hosted a festival in the city of Medford that featured multiple cultural performances and food vendors, local organizations, and interactive activities.

For our project, we recruited high-school bound female athletes to play in the Medford High School Girls’ Soccer Program. We attended U-14 soccer practices and shared our positive experiences as parts of the program. We also provided helpful information in terms of joining the program and succeeding in it. We feel we had a positive impact on the girls and we gave them insight into the program that we wish we had when we were their age. Hopefully, our efforts will increase the participation in sports among girls at Medford High.

August Bengtson did a drive for cleaning supplies, blankets, and toys for a local animal rescue, based in Medford, called Kitty Connection. He also baked some healthy dog and cat treats for these adorable animals in need. Kitty Connection not only saves cats, as the name suggests, but also dogs. They are a non-profit and all-volunteer organization. Many people only think of food when it comes to donating to a rescue. In fact, most shelters need much more than just food, but cleaning supplies, blankets, toys, and much more. In the future, the drive will most likely be held over a week or so in order to collect an abundance of supplies to assist these wonderful volunteers!

We hoped to be an outlet to the homeless by providing them with basic necessities that they cannot afford on their own. In order to help the homeless we made care packages that contained most items that we take for granted in our lives. We hosted a bake sale with cookies that were handmade by us to gain the money to buy the items. We sold hot chocolate along side the cookies. Once we had a sufficient amount of money we got all the items the homeless required. By then we had already been in contact with a homeless shelter that sought out donations. We wanted to make Medford’s Homeless people’s situation feel more comfortable and welcome.

Stefan Langshur’s CCSR Project was entering the NPR Student Podcast Challenge. He created a podcast about defining personal success, working toward it, and eventually achieving an end goal. His aim with this project was to help others define a goal for themselves and learn to work toward that goal every day.

Emma McGlynn created a video titled “A Veteran’s Perspective.” She interviewed five veterans from within the Medford community, each from a different branch of the military. Each veteran told their personal story about their experience in the United States Military, returning home, what they did after serving, and the overall impact of their experience on themselves and the community. Emma then complied their stories into a video to share with the community that honors local veterans and shares their experiences of serving.