“I was so happy when we had an overflow of clothes donated on Friday,” junior Zainub Qureshi said. “We had so many clothes to sort through and bag, but it was definitely worth the pain of carrying them all.”
The Muslim Student Association decided upon a clothing drive for their charity project and hosted it for one week in May.
The MSA includes Muslim teachers and students, but the club is not exclusive and welcomes non-Muslims who seek to learn more about the religion.
Senior Christina Hall, a non-muslim, said she has attended the MSA meetings for several months now and said attending is a learning experience.
“I’m not a Muslim myself, but I accidentally stayed for a meeting at Learn, and I’ve been going to them ever since, ” Hall said. “The organization does a really good job of teaching others about their religion and culture, and I never feel awkward to be there.”
Hall said she attended a meeting on May 17, where the grandmother of two members of the MSA, Jacqueline Muhammad, came to speak about the reasons why she wears the hijab.
“The clothes you wear don’t make you a person,” Muhammad said. “Clothes are only a uniform, everyone has one. We are all still people no matter what you wear. Do not associate the actions of one person to an entire religion or race. We are individuals. We are people too.”
Junior and active member of the MSA, Zainub Qureshi, was a main contributor to the organization of the drive. She said the drive was extremely important to her and her peers.
“With all of the horrible things happening in Syria and even in this country today, we are so lucky to have what we have,” Qureshi said. “It’s so important to be accepting of one another and by donating clothes, it still allows people to be free. Choosing what you wear and how you are able to proudly show off your heritage and culture is being truly free.”
Math teacher Abeer El-Baz, one of the teacher sponsors of the MSA, said the reason the students chose the clothes drive as their charity project was because of the experience some of the members have had with in previous years.
“We started off with many ideas and narrowed them down to a few,” El-Baz said. “Then finally we decided on a clothes drive to help the Syrian refugees”
MSA members had strong opinions on the drive.
“One of the member’s uncle[s] was a leader of one of the group’s main clothes drive in one of the Islamic community centers in the area,” El-Baz said.
Qureshi said she was nervous about its success at the beginning.
“At the beginning of the week there weren’t that many clothes in the bins that we would have to carry up the stairs at the end of the day,” Qureshi said. “I was really nervous we wouldn’t get that many because this event is so important to me and my fellow MSA members.”
But the drive proved to be a success, with an influx of donations.
“I was so happy when we had an overflow of clothes donated on Friday,” Qureshi said. “We had so many clothes to sort through and bag, but it was definitely worth the pain of carrying them all.”
The MSA donated almost over 10 bags of gently used or new clothes to Syria in order to help aid the country.
“Much crisis is going on in Syria, it’s important for others to help as much as we can,” Qureshi said. “It takes very little out of people to make a big difference.”