Menlo-Atherton High School students win Jefferson Award for Care Bears Club
Two Menlo-Atherton High School juniors — Faith Cropper (left in photo) and Ella Bohmann Farrell — recently received the Jefferson Award for community service for founding the Care Bears Club on campus, which now has about 50 student members.
“Faith and Ella have done a remarkable job investigating the living conditions of immigrants on our southern border, building a service initiative from scratch, bringing in additional students through the formation of the Care Bears Club, and organizing fundraisers,” said M-A principal Karl Losekoot.
Ella explained that her mother works in international trade and talked about the border issues. “I got super interested in the issue,” she said. “The shelters weren’t working. They needed a lot of supplies.”
Added Faith: “Our mission is to raise funds to buy supplies and go down to the border in April.”
Their goal is to fill gently used backpacks with new supplies that include sox, jackets, and toiletries. “These are the things that are most needed,” said Ella.”These kids can only travel with things they can carry in their backpacks.”
They’re accepting cash or check donations made through M-A’s treasurer, Elena Villafuerte, (mailing address 555 Middlefield Ave., Atherton, CA 94027) payable to “M-A Care Bears Club”.
