Admit None: Community Council’s Scary Movie Night in the Courtyard
NEIRAD enilno edition
On Friday, October 28th The Sixth Sense will be played in the Darien High School courtyard at the Community Council’s “Scary Movie Night.” The school-wide event will support Simply Smiles, an organization based in Bridgeport dedicated to aiding impoverished children in Mexico.
After building several schools in Oaxaca, Mexico’s poorest state, Simply Smiles is in need of school supplies for the approximate 150 children that attend the school. To help the organization accomplish this goal, students will pay “admission” to the movie with school supplies. Money for concessions, such as popcorn and baked goods, will also go towards Simply Smiles.
According to Community Council Volunteer Coordinator, senior McKinley Stauffer, the movie will be projected onto a giant inflatable television screen and set up in the courtyard outside the F-building to emphasize the “amphitheater-like” layout. Students are also welcome to bring their own blankets and sleeping bags to lie on in order to create a “Drive in Movie” feel. “Something that this school lacks is moments where we can come together as an entire community,” Stauffer said. “We cannot fit the entire school into the auditorium anymore, so there are no full school assemblies. This ‘Scary Movie Night in the Courtyard’ allows students to not only volunteer, but also show school spirit in a fun, innovative way.”
Simply Smiles founder Bryan Nurnberger created the organization in 2003 after visiting a children’s home in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2002. “The need was so great there I knew that I would have to change the course of my life and try to help these children,” Mr. Nurnberger said. Since its founding, the organization has conducted several projects, beginning with the building of the Casa Hogar Children’s Home in Oaxaca City where children are raised in a safe and providing environment. “We built a second children’s home, we built 27 homes [for] families who were living in a garbage dump, and we are currently working with a remote village where we are distributing 12 tons of food every six weeks to more than 2,500 people, building schools, and bringing back the coffee industry – which is their traditional way of life,” Nurnberger explained.
DHS is not the first school to coordinate fundraisers with Simply Smiles. “Others schools in Connecticut do fundraisers and even send kids to Mexico to volunteer at Simply Smiles,” Stauffer said. “Not only will this event be linking us with each other in the community, but with the rest of the state as well, which is a truly neat experience.”
Despite rumors that the administration is on a “disapproval streak”, Principal Dan Haron assured Neirad that the administration is doing its best. “We were very supportive of the concept, and plan to work closely with Community Council on the details to try and make sure it happens,” Mr. Haron said, much to the relief of members of the DHS community. “I think this fundraiser is a terrific idea,” junior Katie Farren, Community Council Executive Treasurer, said. “I am so excited for it to happen and I think it will be really popular among the rest of the students at DHS,” said Farren.
