By Kathryn Roth, Staff Writer
As Thanksgiving just passed and more holidays are fast approaching, students here at River Hill participated in a holiday service activity hosted by Angels Network to give back to our community. After school on Monday, November 28th, everyone was welcome to come and package snack bags and make holiday cards for the local Grassroots Crisis Intervention.
Grassroots Crisis Intervention is a 24/7 single-point access for behavioral health, crisis, and homeless services for any individual. Their mission is to simply serve those in need as they provide a 24-hour general crisis hotline and walk-in counseling program and a shelter program that includes family shelters, men’s shelters, and short-term motel shelters. Though for any service facility, all they want is to have the public, our community, help out so they can run as smoothly and as efficiently as possible.
River Hill students feel pride in helping the community, including junior Aysegul Yildiz, vice president of Angel’s Network, who explained, “I feel so passionate about giving back to people and I have always been like that since I was little.” She continued to talk about how Angel’s Network is one of the biggest clubs here at River Hill and how it has more members than any of the other service clubs as well. She continued to say, “It was the first club I joined my freshman year and I am so proud to fill an officer position this year!”
Multiple students expressed the same feeling when asked about what being a member of this club means to them, including senior Sophia Salicru and sophomore Whitney Le. As Sophia stated, “Giving back to our community and helping people in need in such a simple way just seems necessary if I have the opportunity to do it.” Whitney then added, “I completely agree. It is just an hour or so in my life that might make someone out there so happy or continue to keep on striving.” As there are so many kids who participate in this club, what is made from the events can affect so many people in so many different ways and for the better too.
At Angel’s Network events, participants can be anyone from club officers to members to students who are not officially a part of the club. Not only is it important to give back but Angel’s Network also allows students to meet new people or socialize with peers after school. Senior Andre Seanez, the historian of the club, explained, “Of course, it’s great to help out our community but I love seeing new faces at every event we have. Being a historian and taking pictures of everything that is going on, I get to capture the true emotions that are going on and how people are enjoying themselves.”
With events almost every month, the officer team of Angel’s Network is always finding new ways to serve our community as well as making sure that the River Hill community can contribute by donating materials or just showing up and helping out. For being one of the strongest and most successful clubs, it is expected that Angel’s Network will continue to thrive and benefit the community outside of our school.