Courtesy/Roop Jyot Kaur
By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Shrewsbury – Now that school has been put on hiatus, many teens may be choosing to treat the time off as an extended vacation. Not Hassan Ridha. On a rainy March 17, the Shrewsbury High School ninth grader set up a stand outside his family home and gave away free toilet paper.
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic made its way into the United States, shoppers, for some inexplicable reason, have been drawn to buy extra toilet paper – lots of it. Shoppers have bought so much, that stores run out of their supplies practically every day.
“I think our community needs the inspiration…our future is intact with children like this young man,” Kaur added.
“This is the least that we can do for the community,” stated Mohammad Ridha Farajalla, Hassan’s father.
“I was impressed by his thoughtfulness during this challenging time. He was outside close to five hours,” shared neighbor Gina Sheehan on March 18. “Today when I ran into him outside again, he seemed very proud!”
“This idea came to Hassan when he was sitting outside watching the cars drive by the house, and he thought to make people happy by handing them toilet paper during this difficult time,” Ridha Farajalla explained. “The reason he did this is because he wanted to create a happy and joyful environment in a rather tense one. He likes to help people out in general and he saw this as the perfect opportunity.”
Hassan enlisted the help of his sister and his mom and dad who helped package the toilet paper. They even included paper towels. They packaged approximately 15 rolls of paper towels and 21 rolls of toilet paper.
Ridha Farajalla shared, “He still has lots of leftovers and is planning on going out again tomorrow as the weather would be better.”
The photo made its way to assistant school superintendent Dr. Jane Lizotte who shared it in a tweet on Twitter that said “…Hassan created a stand and signage, giving away free toilet paper to those in need. He is actively living the message: “We’re all in this together!”
Hassan’s great passion is animals and nature. His favorite subject in school is biology and he enjoys spending his time painting, fishing and playing sports (especially ping-pong.) He also likes to play the piano and solve the Rubik’s Cube.
His father also shared that Hassan plans to hold free lemonade, water, drinks stands this coming summer because Hassan “would like to make someone’s day.”
“He is really a hardworking and enthusiastic person and once he puts his mind on something he goes completely through with it,” he said.
“Hassan is just an all-round sweet soul. He is an alumnus of Al-Hamra,” Noor Ali, principal of Al Hamra Academy added.
