In response to the wildfires that have devastated Los Angeles, OVS students have decided to contribute their share to the national response.
The Upper Campus’ theater department organized a fundraiser at the same time as its performance of How to Survive a Shakespeare Play. Meanwhile, Lower Campus raised money and supplies to support the children and pets affected by the fires.
“The school, as well as the Ojai community, is very aware of what it feels like to deal with the aftermath and the horrifying results of a wildfire,” said Brittany Whipple, an Upper Campus English teacher who runs the drama program. “And this seemed like the perfect opportunity to fundraise for something that we went through and other people in the neighboring county are currently going through.”
It’s that familiarity that inspired Craig Floyd, the head of Upper Campus, to form READ (Restoring Education After Disasters). The organization sends school supplies to students after natural disasters.
Lower seeks to finance READ’s school supplies through class-based fundraisers. Many individuals on and outside the student council are contributing financially to READ and other foundations, but student representatives from each grade are brainstorming on how they can organize more collective fundraising efforts.
But READ is part of a coalition of charities OVS supports.
As February began, the Lower Campus student council gathered necessary pet supplies to give to the Pasadena Humane Society. The Society requires it, as they’re housing hundreds of animals separated from their owners and homes.
Key items, like cat and dog food, cat litter, towels and toys, will be shared at drop-off areas at the entrance of lower campus, so anyone can easily donate.
The Upper Campus student council followed suit, supporting animal shelters as well.
“As president, I hope we can earn enough money from the senior snack shop to contribute our share as a class,” said Student Council President Teni Aderibigbe. “But I’m also looking for more methods of raising money, since a lot of the snack shop money will go to the senior river trip.”
Class representatives can take a page out of Ms. Whipple’s book.
As the head of Upper’s theater department, she encouraged those attending the play to donate money in support of LA, and though she hasn’t counted all of the money yet, the response appears to be positive.
“I think people were receptive to it emotionally,” she stated.
The OVS theater department has never charged for admission tickets, but this fundraiser’s success may put in place a longer tradition, where the student body would choose a relevant cause and invite the play’s audience to support it.
“I like the idea of looking more locally rather than globally because so much of our philanthropy is for our local community,” Ms. Whipple said. “I think grounding in a local community is effective.”
Given how endemic wildfires are to the California landscape this century, it appears only natural that OVS, after everything the school has been through, seeks to ensure that no one else would have to rise from the ashes alone.