By Haley Welsh, Contributing Writer, Westborough High School, class of ‘19
Westborough – Since 2014, Westborough High School’s (WHS) Genesis Club has been hosting fundraisers and events supporting The Genesis Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization based in Boston. Their goal is to improve the lives of people born with genetic disorders.
In 2017, WHS juniors Alexa Vassilakis and Diya Matthews took over as co-presidents. The club has about 25 actively involved WHS Students.
“We have strong underclassmen participation in our club so we hope to have the club grow in a number of different ways with more fundraisers and bonding events throughout the year,” said Vassilakis.
The ultimate goal of the WHS club is to raise money to make a donation to the Genesis Foundation at the end of the school year. WHS students also volunteer at the foundation’s events throughout the year.
Some of the fundraising events that the WHS chapter are involved in include restaurant fundraisers throughout the year as well as an annual holiday party with the Genesis Foundation. At the holiday party, students get to meet some of the kids that their donations have helped. In the weeks leading up to the party, the club holds a toy drive. The toys collected are given to the children at the party.
Their most popular event is the trip to Fenway Park in the spring.
“Fenway Day,” Vassilakis explains, is a “day where we get to volunteer for the foundation’s open park event and also get to spend time with the kids.”
Junior member Miara Sasdi said she really enjoyed Fenway day last year and the connections she made with students.
“I went to the holiday party in December so it was cool to meet with some of the same kids and really see them enjoy the day. It was a really special event for them and even just connecting with the other volunteers and members of the genesis foundation was really fun,” she said.
Earlier this month, the WHS volleyball teams, who have multiple players involved with the Genesis Club, held a clinic for local youth where donations were collected for the Genesis Foundation. However, the volleyball program isn’t the only team to run a fundraiser in this nature. In total, five WHS varsity teams have organized similar clinics with all proceeds benefiting the Foundation.
