MAD HOPE makes a difference

Ritenour’s revived club seeks to change things in the community and around the world

Jessica Steele, Staff Writer

Making a Difference Helping Out People Everywhere (MAD HOPE) was started seven years ago by a group of students, and was then sponsored by Jared Bell. The club did not attract many students at the beginning, but now is seeing a renewed interest.

The purpose of MAD HOPE is to raise awareness for other cultures, poor people, sick people and anyone who needs help. From this, it inspired the name of the club.

“I really like helping people, and that is what MAD HOPE is all about,” Junior Alexis Murphy said.

The last active group of MAD HOPE was in the 2010-2011 school year. Shortly after that time the club took a short break to regroup. Then in December of this school year the group had their first meeting.

The group has successfully raised two hundred dollars by selling rubber-band bracelets. This helped start the fundraising as well as the awareness of other charities that they hope will continue each year.

Every person in this group wants to help people and make the lives of others easier. To them, it is up to everyone to help, not just the people directly affected by what is happening, and it is completely student run.

“This is their club, not mine,“ Bell said.

They are inspired by the fact that there is so much people take for granted in their daily lives. They believe it is time for other people to get a chance to have what exists in the daily lives of people in the U.S.

“We have it really good in this country, and we get lost in the constant me, me, me,” Bell said.

The group is currently working on helping the homeless; there is no limit on what type of causes that they decide to help. If there is a group in mind that students would like to see the school help, they can join MAD HOPE and help support the cause.

A current project that the group has is a school lock-in to help raise awareness for different charities.

They focus on multiple charities such as the Wounded Warriors Project, the Red Cross, and the Susan G. Komen organization.

There are other charities being discussed in the group and soon there will be a few more names on that list.
This group is helping make the world a better place one charity at a time.

“I want to positively use my ideas to create something not just to help out one area or one group of people but to help out the whole world.” sophomore Trevor Hicks said.