FBLA participated in a Sock Drive for Salt + Light, where a few FBLA members gave out the socks to the homeless at the encampment. Salt + Light is an organization who focuses on transforming the lives of people who experience homelessness.
By: Emma Largoza
Earlier this year FBLA also participated in another community service event for Salt + Light, so the club has had experience working with this particular organization.
Community Service Event
Photo courtesy of Orosco
Serish Hirani, ‘27, is the Vice President of Community Service for FBLA. Hirani said, “I love participating in community service events, especially with my friends and in high school. I think community service is a great way to get more involved within your community, and also help others out. It’s just a nice thing to do.”
Hirani personally donated 2 packs of socks, and shared her favorite part of the event being, “Handing the socks out. It was so fun because I was with my friends, and also all the people were really nice, so I appreciated making those connections with them as well. We went to the Tulare encampment area, and I’ve never been to a place like that before. So being in such a vulnerable area with people who don’t have the ability to afford houses, and they just have to make do with what they have. That was definitely very, very inspiring to see for the first time.”
Abby Orosco, ‘26, is a member of FBLA and donated socks towards the event too. When asked if Orosco likes participating in community service events she said, “Yeah it’s pretty fun. It is a lot of time consuming, but overall it feels good to know that you are helping the community.”
Photo courtesy of Orosco
Answering how helping others makes her feel, Orosco says, “Quite good actually. These past couple events that we have done are really eye openers to struggles that I’m no,t currently facing but to the real world is and like how to help people better.”
A way Orosco shares about how others can get involved in helping the community is, “Definitely reach out. There are so many different organizations right now that if you just reach out, they are more than willing to work with you. It’s not only ‘I’m going to help certain people,’ but really helping the community means helping anyone. Whether that’s like you see someone who needs a beanie you give it to them.”
Gabriel Atienza, ’25, shared his favorite part of the event being, “Seeing the gratitude towards the warm socks, because like for me it’s really cold. I’m sure everyone has been feeling cold, and I can’t even imagine what they’re going through, which is a lot harder. They don’t even know because they don’t even have a heater or anything, so just having some form of warm socks or warm clothing is really helpful.”
Atienza said, “There’s so many places that need some help, like we at Kaweah Delta volunteers need some volunteers. Salt and Light themselves need volunteers, and any other service organization always need something. You can always give back if you look for it.”
All members who were interviewed were asked two words that they described the event as. They said, “life changing,” “perspective changing,” and “giving back.”
Atienza describes how helping others makes him feel. He said, “Helping others makes me feel pretty happy. It’s nice to see everyone’s happy faces and their gratitude to our time and effort to make the world a better place.”
Emma Largoza
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