Kesher and Lit Mag Hold Fundraisers

by Rebecca Bazini, SSLI ‘26

Last week, Kesher and Literary Magazine (Lit Mag) fundraisers were separately held in the Schechter hallways during lunch. On Wednesday, January 7, the Kesher fundraiser sold a variety of snacks, such as M&M cookies, blue punch, and Ritz crackers. The profit they made is going to support the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). Two days later, on Friday, January 9, Lit Mag sold homemade, brown-butter chocolate-chip cookies (baked by senior Emma Roth, whose Instagram handle is @emmabakestreats) to fundraise the prize for their upcoming Pleiades writing contest.

Ms. Laury Kassell, supervisor of both Kesher Club and Pleiades, stated, “The Child Welfare League of America is an advocacy group for children and their families.” Eden Greenfeld, a senior and Kesher Club member, remarked, “The CWLA’s initiative is to advocate for children and families that may be in vulnerable situations by providing services or setting standards, and providing training for a better outcome in situations like foster care, adoption, etc.” She continued, “The CWLA will use our donations and other donations by using them to make their initiative stronger. They will use this money for services, educating individuals on foster care adoption and more to create a better environment for children or families that are going through a difficult time and need the extra support.”

For Kesher, the fundraiser was a huge success, as many teachers and students donated through their purchases. Kassell stated, “We are thinking of doing another fundraiser for this group in order to boost what we collected—sometimes home baked goods are a bigger draw than packaged treats.”

For Lit Mag, that this is the first time that Pleiades has hosted a fundraiser and contest alike. Pleiades is Schechter's official literary magazine, consisting of hand-selected creative submissions. Kassell stated, that “for over 20 years, this has been a literary magazine, and we've always accepted submissions from any high school student who wants to write poetry and write short stories and even do some artwork, illustrations, [or] photography.” While they are always looking for inspired creatives, the chance of a contest offers the particular opportunity of both a cash prize and a title in the magazine. Emma Roth, a senior and board member in the club, stated that “the theme of the contest is Pleiades,” who were “seven mountain-nymph daughters of the Titan Atlas” according to Greek mythology and are also a constellation that can be seen as a star cluster in the night sky. Kassell added, “Anything that is related to stars, to the world, to the sky, or anything you wish upon” can be written about.

If you are interested in donating to the CWLA to help out struggling children and their families, you can check the donations portal on their website. Kesher Club is also still collecting for their winter clothing drive, and they have a donations box just outside the main office. Additionally, if you are interested in submitting to Pleiades, Roth stated that interested writers should “simply write a piece and submit it to Shay Ginzburg at sslipleiades@gmail.com by January 19!”

Rebecca Bazini is a staff writer for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since January 2023. Rebecca is currently a senior at the Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: rbazini26@schechterli.org.