Students support nonprofits during pandemic

Fundraising events include art auction, virtual fun run

While watching news reports of injustice and suffering during the coronavirus pandemic, Maya Palanki was driven to act. The Conard High School junior knew COVID was increasing need in vulnerable communities, while also limiting funding to state nonprofits. So she created a group to help.

Palanki invited three other students to join her to form Hope for Human Rights CT, a fundraising group that has grown to include more than 27 student leaders from eight Connecticut high schools.

“During the pandemic I saw nonprofits were falling through with their funding while human rights violations were growing and going unchecked,” Palanki said. “This group gave me and other students a way to close the disconnect between wanting to help and actually doing something.”

Hope for HumanRights CThas launched fundraising efforts collectively and within each school to benefit Hands on Hartford, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, the Center for Children’s Advocacy and CT Women’s Education and Legal Fund.

The students worked together through Google Classroom docs and video meets to organize the events, including an art auction, a virtual fun run with the Hall High track team that concludes Saturday, and a virtual fundraiser hosted by the Conard team that included performances by the a cappella group BeS#arp and the Conard Thespians, and an art auction. Students held a car wash in Canton, where Ella Cookman is a leader.

“I think it’s so powerful for the younger generations to show that we are making a change ... seeing someone so young, who hasn’t maybe had as much experience as other people, have these thoughts for not just themselves but their community and being aware they need to step in and build their future,” said Cookman, a junior at Canton High. “I think that’s super powerful and it sets an example for everyone around them — older and younger.”

Conard Assistant Principal Tor Fiske helped Palanki make connections between the schools so she could take the idea beyond West Hartford. The group grew to include students from Conard, Hall and Kingswood Oxford in West Hartford, as well as from Simsbury, Fairfield Warde, Fairfield Ludlowe, Canton and Farmington high schools.

“It’s rare to see a student organize a statewide initiative,” Fiske said. “Maya’s taken this to a next level. We talk so much with our kids about how to be active participants in our community and they take it a step further. … We’ve been inspired by what she’s been able to put together and her commitment and dedication to it.”

Anevent Saturday will run simultaneously from 1 to 3 p.m. in three locations: in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square, in the McDonald’s parking lot at 1799 Farmington Ave. in Unionville and at Sherman Green in Fairfield. Group members will collect donations and talk to people about the nonprofits they support and the issues surrounding them. They will have QRcodes to scan for contactless information and donations as well.

Palanki said she hopes the fundraisers are a springboard for the teens.

“It gives students something to do during the pandemic and gives them an opportunity to feel like they’re making a difference across Connecticut, while also learning new ways to innovate and help their community and delving deeper into learning about the need,” she said.

Hope for Human Rights CT is online at facebook.com/hopeforhumanrightsct and linktr.ee/H4HRCT.