The MYP Community project is an important and exciting project. Eighth graders Asher Leinoff, Vinnie Damian, and Ben Migdal worked with an organization in the Dominican Republic for their MYP Community project. They bought sports equipment and school supplies for the students who live there that are less fortunate. Their love of sports inspired them to do this project. They all love to play sports and want to bring the joy of sports they have to other people around the world.
“We are raising money for kids in the DR who are not as fortunate as us. It is an after school program that helps them become better people and be active by learning sports. We will be donating toys, sports equipment, and school supplies,” said Leinoff.
Raising money is a large part of this project. There were a lot of supplies that they needed to buy that were very expensive. They are raising money by having stands at Temple Beth where they are selling chips, cookies, and drinks to kids after their basketball games, as well to the people watching them. They also have a GoFundMe and Venmo account set up.
“When doing all of this I feel very powerful because I am helping a community in need. I am very glad we chose to do this for our project because we are making an impact on children who are not as fortunate as we are. I love to play sports and we all especially love to play basketball, so we are donating a hoop to them so they can learn to love it just like we do,” said Migdal.
The MYP project has many steps in order to complete the project, and is a very vigorous process. Right now their group is on the action step. They are taking the action in delivering and collecting all of the supplies for the Dominican Republic.
“I have been to the Dominican Republic and worked with this organization. I got to help these kids and after I did this I felt very warm,” Damian said. “We get to help kids our age who don’t have the same experiences we do, get to do things they dream of doing. I decided to bring this idea to my group so they can feel the same way I did and I can feel this again as well.”