As a freshman I had been elected President of National Junior honor Society and I was looking to create a long-term relationship with an organization that worked with kids who could benefit from regular NJHS volunteers throughout the school year. Finding an organization that wanted 15 year old volunteers turned out to be a real problem. I searched and searched and finally read an article about Urban Promise, an after school program for at-risk kids in Little Havana. When I met with the program director he told me the staff was reading Radical Kinship by a Jesuit priest and what need they had for male role models. He had no idea my school, Belen, was a Jesuit all-boys school. I knew immediately that it would be a good fit.
Our very first event was an annual St. Patrick’s Fun & Kinship Day which became an annual tradition. We added a few more events including a car wash, donut sales and a memorable end of the year party and as the momentum grew so did my relationship with the kids. That summer I interned at Marty Hennessey’s Inspiring Children Foundation where I was motivated to reflect on my life and what feels right. I knew volunteering genuinely made me feel good and that I could do more to help the kids at Urban Promise. With this in mind at the start of sophomore year, I founded the 305 Club, a teen volunteer force of students from Belen who would commit to service hours throughout the year and to a $305 dollar annual donation to help sustain the program. We added weekly soccer clinics, arts & crafts, holiday events, and fun activities including a science fair. Even through the pandemic, I did virtual tutoring, Zoom Hangman, and presentations on topics including the evolution of music. In 2020, I filmed and edited a promotional film, orchestrated a social media campaign that went viral and helped raised $35,000 on Give Miami Day in 2020 with 117 new donors who responded to the film.
The 305 Club continues to thrive. We are now up to 70 plus members including students from the Class of 2023 and 2024 at Belen and our first expansion with a group of girls from the Class of 2023 at Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart and expansion to serving additional after school sites run by Hope for Miami. I expect the 305 Club will continue to be a wonderful symbiotic relationship between at risk kids and local volunteers for decades to come.
I have served as a mentor to this same group of kids over the last three years and I hope to have made a positive impact on their lives. What this experience has given me in return can’t even be quantified. I started out with a problem and finished with a purpose.
