Sometimes, we get ahead of ourselves.
In the modern age, our lifestyle is so fast-paced that we tend to shift our attention from one futile topic to another. This volatility is apparent during our Charity Ball fundraising season, for we are constantly seeking donations, and after one, we quickly shift all of our focus onto who will donate next.
Charity Ball isn’t just about fundraising and securing donations. The underlying significance of this superficial goal of fundraising is the role of the community in shaping what Charity Ball truly means. What makes Charity Ball so great is that not only are we just a group of high school students planning and organizing it, not only have we raised over $500,000 dollars for local nonprofits, but through this process we unify those in the community while achieving our ambitious goal.
I got involved in Charity Ball in my freshman year, and at that point I hadn’t really understood the reason behind it. I knew we were raising money for a good cause, but I couldn’t relate to it well, so initially, I wasn’t all that motivated to raise a lot of money. I didn’t know the meaning behind fundraising, why we were doing what we were doing, That all changed when I visited the charity, Learning Together, and saw the kids and facility that our money was going towards, which put the entire thing in perspective.
That year, every dollar we raised went towards those children. After the visit, Charity Ball began to mean a lot more to me. I truly understood why what we were doing was so important, and I gained extreme admiration for those in our community who assisted in making our goal possible.
We sometimes get so caught up in the physical aspect of fundraising that we forget the true meaning of it all. The kids who don’t have an equal opportunity for education, the families who don’t know how they will get their next meal, the people who have no idea where they will sleep on a daily basis are the ones at the heart of Charity Ball. It is important that we take a step back, slow down, for when we remember why we really do what we do, it makes it all that much more worth it.
Ushno Chakraborty
Executive Council Member