On Dec. 12, a special online charity concert will be held to raise funds for the families of firefighters who lost their lives battling the deadly wildfires that have burned across California since August. The concert, organized by Nathan Liu, grade 9, will be broadcast on Facebook.
“As we navigate these unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic and the continued wildfires in California, I just want to contribute my time to host an online music concert to pay tribute to those fallen heroes [and] also to raise funds to provide emotional and financial assistance to families of fallen firefighters,” Liu said. Last week, independent TV station KTSF featured Liu on a segment about the concert.
The performers include veteran professional musicians, including Sandra Wright Chen, a highly regarded concert pianist and Steinway Artist; bassist Joshua Thurston-Milgrom of the department of music at Stanford University; and violinist Kei Obata. Student musicians Callie Yuan, Shayla He, Ella Yee, Jerry Li and Vardaan Ghai, all grade 9, also will be featured, and Liu also will perform. “The fact that a concert consisted of mostly my peers from Harker proves how talented our Eagle community is,” said Liu. “Due to the pandemic, we were not able to practice together or have an in-person concert, therefore, we heavily rely on remote communication technology to collaborate, such as emails, chat, Zoom and cloud document sharing to brainstorm about the concert.”
The concert is scheduled to go live on Saturday at 7 p.m., and Liu advised those who wish to attend to like the concert’s Facebook page and keep an eye out for a notification when the event is live.
In the segment, Lu shares his motivation for co-founding YAPA, which stems from his own love of learning and the desire to foster that love in younger kids. “I’m someone who really enjoys learning, and this would be a missed opportunity if we didn’t do something like that,” Lu told CBS.
Yesterday, students and faculty contributed to the Palo Alto Black Lives Matter street mural, painting the first letter “A” in the mural, which now appears on Hamilton Avenue in front of Palo Alto City Hall. Elliot Kampmeier, Arya Tandon, Maria Teplova and Natasha Yen, all rising seniors, and rising sophomore Ally Lee, accompanied by art teacher Pilar Aguero-Esparza and history teacher Roxana Pianko, were one of several groups selected to help paint the mural. “Elliot had communicated with me early this summer that he wanted to create a mural in San Jose and I began to ask art friends I know in the community and one of them forwarded the call for artists from the Palo Alto Public Art program,” said Aguero-Esparza. “They pursued it after they got the clearance from Palo Alto staff that they could submit if they had an adult sponsor.”
Artists were required to submit an application containing both a statement detailing why they were interested in the project and samples of their work. In their statement, the students noted their intent “to stand up against systemic racism and show our solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.” Upon being selected, the students were assigned a letter and asked to submit a sketch of their idea. “The call for art submissions and the process has been very fast paced,” said Aguero-Esparza. “I am super proud that they got excited and worked within the constraints of the call.”
Rising freshman Kabir Ramzan and rising sixth grader Ameera Ramzan have been working to raise funds in support of Black Girls Code and Second Harvest Food Bank. To encourage donations through their GoFundMe page, the siblings created a virtual music concert featuring themselves playing various pieces on piano, flute and violin. Two of the three instruments featured in the concert were taught to the Ramzans as part of the Harker music program. In addition, their company, ArtShackCrafts, will send a gift of an artisan bracelet for all donations over $50.
The two created ArtShackCrafts to sell artisan crafts to support philanthropic efforts about which they are passionate. These causes have included assisting detained immigrant children through the ACLU and aiding California wildfire victims through the American Red Cross.
A group of Harker upper school students – ninth graders Mir Bahri, Samvita Gautham, Eileen Ma, Dominick Piscione, Jessica Tang, Deeya Viradia and Carol Wininger; and juniors Ethan Choi and Natasha Yen – launched a GoFundMe campaign last month to assist low-income families who are facing greater difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic due to job loss. The group plans to give a portion of the proceeds to a local family-owned restaurant, so that it can distribute meals to people facing food scarcity as well as small businesses impacted by the pandemic. The remaining funds will be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank, which is struggling to meet the swelling demand of its customers.
In addition, the students also plan to provide online tutoring to area students who cannot attend school due to closures.
Over spring break, middle school math chair Vandana Kadam spent her spare time teaching math online to students who were unable to attend school due closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. She asked some of her current students, as well as former students who are now at the upper school, if they would like to assist, and seventh grader Jonathan Xue, eighth graders Claire Luo, Julie Shi, Cynthia Wang, Michelle Wei, Olivia Xu and Ella Yee, and ninth graders Riya Gupta, Stephen Xia and Sally Zhu all jumped at the chance to help. The sessions have continued past spring break and now take place twice a week. “It is so rewarding to see our students taking time from their busy schedules to help other students,” Kadam said. “They do it with tremendous dedication ensuring that the students benefit from the coaching.”
The upper school ASB and Student Council have launched a donation drive to support Silicon Valley Strong, an initiative started by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo that delivers aid to households put at risk of displacement during the COVID-19 pandemic due to factors such as illness, joblessness and lack of income. Small businesses and local organizations also are receiving assistance. The donation drive, which runs from today until Sunday, was launched to provide Silicon Valley Strong with more funding, which has become necessary due to the high demand for aid.
Sixth graders Anika Akkiraju, Shloka Chawla, Pavitra Kasthuri and Danielle Steinbach spent their spring break devising a way to help medical workers dealing with PPE shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic. After meeting via Zoom, the students launched a fundraising campaign on April 1 to collect donations to purchase the equipment. By the end of the campaign, the students had raised nearly $11,000, which they used to buy 3,000 masks and 1,000 face shields for Kaiser Permanente, which were delivered late last week.
“Despite being quarantined and unable to connect with each other, we have created memories that remind us to continue serving the community and have succeeded in helping others,” said Chawla. “The experience has taught us valuable lessons, and together we had lots of fun.”
In late March, a number of Harker families began making face shields to help local hospitals deal with a projected surge of COVID-19 patients. Having heard that 3D-printed face shields had become popular, Harker parent Mary Yang (Andrew Pangborn, grade 4) reached out to her friend, Jian Chen (Kevin, grade 5, and Julie, grade 4), who owns a 3D printer, and asked if he could produce some masks for her and her co-workers at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara. The family of Emma Lee, grade 5, and Anna Lee, grade 8, also joined the effort, and the group ended up printing and assembling 100 masks. “The doctors and nurses at Kaiser loved them,” reported Yang.
Harker parent Natalia Abrikosova (Alex and Hannah Micchelli, both grade 3), a doctor at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, has been working to combat coronavirus by performing tests at the foundation’s urgent care center, often while people remain in their cars, which is safer if a person does not need to be hospitalized. “We also have a Respiratory Clinic from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. where we see and test patients who meet testing criteria for coronavirus in a parking lot on the first floor of our building,” said Abrikosova.
In March, Harker aided medical workers’ fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by donating 500 N95 masks to the foundation. The masks have been used by the staff to protect themselves while testing people for the virus. “It’s not a pleasant test and most people cough and/or sneeze during or after,” said Debra Nott, Harker’s director of health services. “It’s a dangerous job and I’m happy we are able to help them be safer as they do it.”