On January 20th, Irvington’s Indopak Club held their 9th annual cultural show Dil Se which means “From the Heart”. This vibrant show consists of aspects of Indian culture such as the various dance forms, music, and clothing. A unique characteristic of Dil Se is the mashups of Indian Bollywood and folk songs with modern pop songs. With over 10 schools from the Bay Area participating and 2 sold out shows, Indopak donated $2000 to Project Rishi, a non-project organization dedicated to promoting development and growth in rural Indian communities.

Irvingthon was started by Corinne H. in 2017 to raise money for childhood cancer. Corinne got the idea from a similar event her siblings did while they were in high school. During IrvingThon, members of community perform activities and play games. This event has raised $900 and collected around 100 toys for children with cancer to be distributed during Holiday Season. Corinne is also organizing smaller events such as a coin drive starting in mid-February. This event has brought community members together and raised money for a worthy cause. 

Friday 12/15 was Irvington Annual Resonance! Benefit Concert. This years concert raised money to benefit the island of Puerto Rico recently devastated by a hurricane that left most of the island without power. This years concert featured musicians and singers from IHS Resonance and Vams Clubs in addition to MSJ Vams Clubs preforming both festive songs and classical numbers. Resonance! was able to raise $2,200 all of which will be donated. If you missed this years concert make sure to mark your calendar for next December.

On Friday December 1st Irvington High School hosted our first of two blood drives. We were amazed to have over 120 people sign up to donate blood and more then a dozen students sign up to be runners, man the check in station and the recovery canteen. Our goal for this blood drive was to collect 60 units of blood for the Stanford Blood Center. At the end of the day we collected 68 units of blood! Thank you to everyone who helped and to the members of ASB who came to school at 6:45 to set up and stayed till 4:00 to clean up.

Often times we feel that task of making the world a better place is to big a goal to be accomplished. The key is not to get stuck thinking the change you can create must be a big radical change to be meaningful. Sometimes the smallest things we do can have profound impacts on the people around us. Making a difference starts small and over time these small changes add up to create larger and larger changes. Looking for inspiration? Check out Drew Dudley's TED talk "Everyday Leadership".