Chapel Hill Clubs help give back over the holidays

The holiday season is a time to give back, so Chapel Hill clubs are preparing to help their community by hosting charity events and fundraisers, in hopes that students will become involved.

Junior Krishna Navaratnam is involved in the Cancer Patient Support Club (CPSC), which raises money for crafts and activities to help mentally heal cancer patients.

Throughout the holiday season, the CPSC will be selling candy canes with personalized notes on them, with all proceeds going to the Duke Hospital’s Recreational Therapy Division.

The CPSC also plans to send holiday cards to Duke Hospital patients. The club has decided to let Chapel Hill students write messages in the cards, which will be sent to cancer patients at Duke Hospital.

“The holiday season can be lonely for cancer patients cooped up in the hospital, so this is an important event that we hope students can really get involved in this holiday season,” Navaratnam said.

Senior Thilini Weerakkody is hoping students will help support her club Stop Hunger Now making her plans for a Candy Cane drive and Ice Skating Events possible.

Weerakkody’s plan is to sell candy canes that come with information about worldwide hunger, bringing awareness to the club’s main goal: providing meals to school nurseries and orphanages in over 65 different countries.

The Ice Skating Event will be a fundraiser that will help pay for the meals that Stop Hunger Now gives to children in need. It is scheduled to take place on Friday, December 18.

“Chapel Hill is such an affluent place that sometimes it is easy for us to forget that in other places in the world, hunger is very much a reality,” Weerakkody said. “I think that if more people knew the extent at which others were suffering, it would be impossible for them not to help.”

Both Navaratnam and Weerakkody urge all students to help give back to the world and make a difference in someone’s life by participating in some of the events that Chapel Hill clubs are hosting this holiday season.