Harry Niles ‘21, expresses gratitude towards those involved in Shielding Our Defenders success.
This summer 25 students were accepted in the CSGC grants program. These grants are funded due to the generous support of the Cost, Earle/Mendillo and Workman families, who established endowment funds to support the community and public service endeavors of future generations of Deerfield students. For more information on these grants please visit: https://deerfield.edu/csgc/grants
Since our last blog post, Shielding our Defenders has been on the move. Our team has officially donated over 20,000 masks nationally! We are currently working on a partnership with Sen. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to hand out reusable masks to low-income households in NYC. We are pushing an initiative to sell masks online, where profits will then be used to donate masks.
Our team has grown in new and unexpected ways. Our Chicago team has begun selling stickers and raising money in local areas. Our Southern team has handled with grace the second wave of cases in their hometowns. We partnered with NAN (the National Action Network) and JunXion to distribute around 2,200 masks at protests. Our Instagram platform has shown consistent growth and follower count. The numbers for our teams are growing and with them comes an increase in our reach.
At first, Shielding our Defenders began as a group of high schoolers trying to make a small difference in their local communities, but I believe that we have become more than that. We have expanded all around the United States, were featured on the news, and donated more than 20,000 MASKS!
I’m excited to return to Deerfield in the fall with a new set of knowledge. Shielding our Defenders has taught me so much about how to run a team, a non-profit initiative, and much more. The knowledge I gained from running this initiative with my close friends will be useful for the rest of my life.
I truly believe that the CSGC’s help, if it was talking with Mrs. Brown or our team’s $2,000 grant, was a crucial part of our success. The guidance, knowledge, and support we received from Deerfield allowed our small group to become a team.
Thank you to everyone who has followed our journey, on Instagram, or on our website. Every view, repost, and even word about Shielding our Defenders has made a huge difference and I want to thank you all for the support.