Lining up in front of a table decked out in pink, students waited to buy treats to support the American Cancer Society, Oct 30. Co-presidents of Westview’s American Cancer Society Club Lmar Al Jaibaji (11) and Erjot Kaur (11) dashed back and forth, selling students a variety of cookies, donuts, rice krispy treats, and more. They hosted a bake sale before and after school at the front of the school, Oct. 30, and at the football game on Halloween, raising a total of $800 for cancer research and patient support.
Kaur said she was shocked at how many people lined up at their table after school and at the football game.
“We actually had a really great turnout,” Kaur said. “We did a big sale on Thursday before and after school, and then a smaller bake sale at the football game, and we completely sold out there. Right now, we’ve raised over $1,000, but that’s with money from the Powder Puff game last year as well. The total we made from the bake sale was $800.”
Because the dates of the bake sale lined up with both breast cancer awareness month and Halloween, the treats and decorations were themed, which Al Jaibaji said was fun to plan. Their table was filled with pink frosted cookies and donuts dotted with Halloween sprinkles.
“We’ve always thought about doing [a fundraiser] outside of school before and after school hours, and a bake sale sounded really cool,” Al Jaibaji said. “We had our committee bring in food, and since it was Halloween and breast cancer awareness month, it was fun to coordinate something that could either be Halloween or pink themed”
Going into setting up the event, she was unsure whether or not they should hold the bake sale, as the club struggled to get approval for the event and had strict guidelines to follow, but in the end, she said she was happy they did.
“We started planning it a week before, and the closer we got to the day, we thought we should just cancel because it was really difficult to put together,” Al Jaibaji said. “There were a lot of rules and paperwork, but we decided to just go with it. And it turned out to be a huge success.”
For every $200 they raised, Kaur said they would be able to support 40 cancer patients through the money they will donate to the American Cancer Society at the end of the school year.
“All of [the money from] our fundraisers and events accumulate, and we’ll do one big donation at the end of the year to the American Cancer Society,” Kaur said. “Their main goal is to fund research and support patients in their families. And the money you donate is either put back into more fundraisers, research, or towards cancer patients and their families. If you make $200, it’ll fund 40 people. It’s important to us because we want people to know what the American Cancer Society is.”
Al Jaibaji said she was happy so many people came to their table out of interest for the American Cancer Society and was proud of how well the American Cancer Society Club team worked to put everything together.
“I think it exceeded our expectations,” Al Jaibaji said. “They would come over more for food, but we had so many people come up and say, ‘This is such a good cause,’ which was really sweet. I’m so proud not only of myself, but of our team, because our exec committees put in so much work. There were a lot of people who told us that it might not be possible, so getting to that end goal and finishing it felt so good. I remember going to bed smiling that night, because we just did [something] incredible.”
