Here at Morgan, students can create new school clubs. All they need is a structured plan and a teacher to be the advisor.

Seniors Kirsten Amendola and Sophie Morello came up with the idea for Courage For Kindness freshman year. They faced several setbacks due to COVID-19 and weren’t able to get it off the ground and running until this year. Technology teacher Jessica Mularski was willing to be their official club advisor, which was the final step in this long process. 

Courage For Kindness is a club that raises money for the CASA/GAL (The National Court Appointed Special Advocate / Guardian ad Litem) foundation which benefits foster kids receiving pro-bono legal care/representation. The National CASA/GAL Association for Children takes donations for the youth who have experienced abuse or neglect. This helps assure a safe and loving home for those in need. Although the donation doesn’t go straight to the children, it helps their network recruit, train and support more volunteers to advocate for the best interests of children who have experienced abuse or neglect. It is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and the donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law

Kirsten states, “both Sophie and myself knew we wanted to do something in our community which could benefit people out in the world facing a lot of hardships that we don’t often see or hear about.” 

Over thirty students have joined and helped out with Courage For Kindness since the start of the school year. Anyone is able to join and there are a variety of students in all grades. Students meet in Mrs. Mularski’s room on Mondays before school. Kirsten mentions how “Clinton in general is a pretty fortunate town and using what we have been gifted to help others and make even a small difference is super important.”

So far, the club has had a bake sale at the annual powderpuff game and collected donations during school lunch on Halloween. For the future, members of this club hope to partner with Morgan events or potentially throw a school wide kickball game to raise money. “We wanted to create a sense of pride and encourage helping others within our small school and try to get everyone involved” said Kirsten.