House Intensive Day is an opportunity for all the houses to build stronger relationships with their group members, gain a better understanding of their service learning projects, and evaluate the group's goal(s). The C.A.R.E. Bears used this opportunity to continue to learn more about GMHC, and strategies to improve the work we do in the community (i.e. bringing awareness about HIV/AIDS, and fundraising).
During the first half of our visit we were greeted by Ms. Emily Parson and Ms. Krishna Stone. They explained how GMHC was started, as well as all of the services they provide to the community. GMHC stands for Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and their office is located on 446 33rd Street New York, NY 10001. This is an organization of event planners that work on educating and fundraising to support important causes, like the NYC HIV/AIDS Walk.
We learned that GMHC was started by 6 gay men in 1981 with $7,000. The goal of this organization was and still is to provide education and support services for the community. GMHC is a volunteer driven organization, which means that they rely heavily on the community donating their time, skills and talents. Some of the support services provided are:
- Food Pantry
- Screening/Testing
- Legal Services
- Counseling
For more information about GMHC, please visit http://www.gmhc.org.
For more information about NYC AIDS Walk, please visit http://ny.aidswalk.net/
Our main goal on this day was to support in planning for this year’s walk. We worked on recycling signs from last year’s event by cutting out the title - NYC AIDS WALK. This part of the sign will be used to create new signs for the 2017 walk.
The C.A.R.E. Bears have decided to maintain our goal of raising $1,500 this year. We will begin to fundraise in January and end in May. We plan on achieving, by continuing to sell fruit kabobs during lunch periods, and having the class challenge where classes can collect small change and donate to the cause. This year we want to continue to improve on how we communicate and educate our school community about HIV/AIDS, in hopes to motivate them to participate more. So, we will be doing class presentation explaining what HIV/AIDS is and how it affects our community. Ms. Parson also agreed to join us in January during our assembly to help motivate the school.
The C.A.R.E. Bears will continue to work with GMHC throughout the school year to learn more about how we can support this important cause, and participate in planning events like we did today.
What was your favorite part of House Intensive Day 2016?
My favorite part of House Intensive Day was the food. We ate at Five Guys. - Bessy Santos
My favorite part was when Chrisbelis and I were competing to see who can cut out the most posters. - Sarah Hue
My favorite part was learning more about GMHC and how they help the community. It was interesting to learn how they started with $7000 and now the organization raises over $4,000,000. - Elizabeth Cruz
My favorite part was recycling the posters. - Leesa Narainsamy, Leslie Colin & Josirys Garcia
My favorite part was the opportunity to bond and get to know each other better. - Emilly Gonzalez