Students Send Aid to Greece

Two students with a first-hand understanding of the challenges faced by immigrants have organized an East Hampton High School Key Club campaign to collect and distribute needed items to refugees in Greece and elsewhere.

“Both of my parents are immigrants,” said Alicia Benis, who is of Greek descent. She spearheaded the effort with a friend, Myra Arshad, who is Pakistani. Watching the news in recent months about the tide of refugees from countries such as Syria trying to reach new places to live in Europe, “I felt horrible,” Ms. Benis said. “I didn’t want to stay silent.”

“We’re both from immigrant families,” said Ms. Arshad, who, like many of the refugees displaced by wars overseas, is Muslim. “We love international affairs, we love politics. We always talk about world affairs.” She was working recently on an article about migration for the school paper.

The Key Club, she said, spearheads a number of initiatives locally, but the two friends wanted to expand the efforts internationally. “I know that if I were in that situation, that we needed to leave this country, we would want someone to help us,” Ms. Benis said.

 “We always wanted to help people. We also wanted to inform people,” said her friend.

The two suggested to the Key Club that members collect clothing to ship to distribution sites on the Greek islands. With the help of Meghan MacNish, the club’s advisor, the effort got underway, and fellow students from throughout the school pitched in. 

They contacted the Starfish Foundation, an organization that coordinates donations on the Greek island of Lesbos, to pinpoint current needs, and arranged to ship some of the goods to Kalymnos, another island in the Aegean where refugees have landed, and where Ms. Benis’s sister lives.  About 90 pounds of goods were boxed up and shipped.

The effort was successful enough that extra items were given to a school security guard with roots in Haiti, for donation there. Some items were also donated here in East Hampton, to the Retreat, the domestic violence treatment center and shelter.