The Pay It Forward Committee, formed by the Old Saybrook High School Student Government, displays what it means to be a community by using their resources to assist clubs throughout the school.
Run for the first time last year, club leaders were asked to first fill out a google form about their group and why they are in need of the money. The Pay It Forward Committee then selected the clubs they felt were most deserving of the help based on the information provided. From there, the selected clubs presented to the entire student government and the members cast a vote. This committee’s sole purpose was put into words by Student Government’s advisor, Mrs. Torre, “ I think we want to do just what the program is, pay it forward, right? Give back to the school community.”
Last year, the recipients of the Pay it Forward award money were seniors Chloe Young and Whitney Bird, the current co-presidents of the Cancer Walk Coalition, a club that holds a yearly event at the high school with games, activities (and walking) that ultimately raises money to donate to the Terry Brodeur Foundation for cancer research. Despite fundraising efforts, it became difficult to obtain the amount of money needed in order for the Cancer Walk to run at its best. Young expressed their motivation for applying for the donation from Student Government: “to ensure that we weren’t taking away money from the donations towards the [Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation and Connecticut Cancer Foundation], we reached out for some money to pay for the Cancer Walk t-shirts!” With the money donated to the cancer walk from the Pay it Forward award, Young and Bird were able to purchase shirts that were then sold to benefit the foundations that the coalition works to help. With her mother as a cancer survivor, Young feels a close relation to this club, as she explains, “ [The] shirts were like a symbol of everyone working together for one cause, to raise awareness about cancer and fundraise to help in the fight against it”. As the Pay It Forward Committee intended, the donation was able to succeed in helping, and in Youngs’ perspective the donation was “really beneficial to the process”. Concluding her sentiments, Young expressed her gratitude to the Pay it Forward award, ” I am so thankful for the help they were able to give us, as it really allowed us to make the event the best it could be.”
