By Sara Solimani, Opinions Editor
Last Thursday, February 16, the River Hill Class of 2024 Student Government Association hosted a bake sale at the home Varsity Boys basketball game to raise funds for prom tickets and to interact with the school community. During the week leading up to the game, students had the opportunity to sign up to donate their baked goods. There were a variety of treats present for those enjoying the basketball game to purchase, including cupcakes, brownies, cookies, blondies, rice krispie treats and even more.
The bake sale was able to happen thanks to the efforts of the SGA, who dedicated a lot of time and effort into coordinating and planning this event to ensure the best results. They took into account what type of fundraiser they wanted to plan, how soon, and a setting where a lot of people were more likely to buy these treats.
Aysegul Yildiz, Class of 2024 SGA secretary, shared that, “A lot of thought, hard effort, and research” went into organizing this event. She explains that they faced some challenges, “Since we are not allowed to fundraise during school, we had to find an activity outside of school where we could still engage with the students…We also had to communicate with the basketball team to pick the best date possible,” Teni Adejena, Vice president of Class 2024, adds on “we had to find people to donate baked goods, make posters, write announcements, create instagram posts, and run the event itself.”
The students at River Hill who provided baked goods for the bake sale were very excited to contribute to the school community. They had several reasons to offer a helping hand; some students were baking to get their service hours for the National Honors Society, and others solely wanted to help out.
Junior Chloe Son, who donated brownies, explained why she wanted to help out, “I decided to bake for the bake sale because I love to bake and will use any excuse to bake, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity. Also, the service hours provided may have had a hand in it too.” Students could have donated any treat they wanted as well as brownies, cookies, and cupcakes. Junior Vedanti Patel wanted to contribute as well, mostly because of the service hour she got from baking, but also because of her interest in baking, and she went with blondies. Vedanti expressed, “it was nice to do something fun while knowing it was helping SGA. I heard about it from my friend, Chloe, who’s in the Baking for Benefit club.”
The profit gained from this fundraiser is intended to be used to lower the cost of prom tickets and also to help fund other school events. Since the bake sale was being hosted at the last home basketball game, the SGA anticipated a big audience that could potentially purchase baked goods. Aysegul remarked that, “I am very excited to be a part of this event! I love putting in effort to help the student community! This bakesale is for a great cause, and I am also very excited that we are able to make such a thing possible during a basketball game,” Chloe also shared the buzz for the bake sale, “I am very excited to be a part of this event and help fundraise because I think bake sales are super fun and a cool way to help raise money.”
In the end, the class of 2024 SGA was happy with how well the bake sale went and they await the next event to come. After attending the bake sale and helping out, Teni reflects, “Honestly the bake sale was more of a success than I thought it would be.” Although the joy and the collaboration of the bake sale is over, the community is thankful for how it has helped with funding prom and other school events.