Every Tuesday, the members of the HB the Change club meet to pitch and organize projects for the community and the school. Their main goal is to do little acts of kindness in order to help people in need. Throughout the year, fliers and donation boxes will be set up by HB the Change all around the school; they’ll be advertising food drives, care packages and Challenge Day, among other things. 

Founded in 2017, HB the Change was created to break up cliques around the school in each grade. Due to the separation, different social circles weren’t making an effort to interact with each other, so HB the Change started as a community project to bring together students together who wouldn’t normally talk to each other. Eventually, HB the Change expanded to encompass others like Habitat for Humanity and Challenge Day, along with other service activities. 

Most of these activities are not just directed by the club advisors, but are heavily student-based, especially when it comes to ideas for their next projects. “It’s like a seesaw, where it’s like input from the students about what we want to do and then we have input from the advisors. It’s a really nice balance between student and advisor input,” said Lorenzo Occhialini ‘20, the current president of HB the Change.

HB the Change is always working with different organizations to make a change in our community. Recently, a representative from Pink Revolution reached out to HB the Change, asking if they could help them reach their goal of 1,300 chemo care packages. Thanks to the club’s initiative, over the last two weeks, students and teachers donated items such as fleece socks, hand sanitizer, adult coloring books, sudoku, playing cards and colored pencils. In only a few weeks, over 1,700 items were collected for the chemo care packages. “Everyone was really blown away,” said Occhialini. 

There was also a competition between period three classes to see which class could donate the most and the winning class would get a breakfast party as an incentive to bring in more chemo care items. Lisa Danis’s English class won.

The next big project HB the Change plans to do is a drive for the Humane Society, for which they will collect towels and blankets for puppies. They also have Challenge Day coming up for students of various grades to get together with the organization to remove stereotypes and stop bullying.

HB the Change will also be spending Nov. 16 building a house for someone who doesn’t have one with Habitat for Humanity. The club really does a lot for not only the Hollis Brookline community, but for anyone in need. 

HB the Change is a club that is filled with positive vibes, and as it helps the community grow, the club’s students grow with it. If interested in joining students may contact English teachers Lisa Danis and Ann Melim. HB the Change is a side to the school that many students have not seen and it’s something that is really powerful and continues to grow each year.