The Harker Community Comes Together to Help Others

This article was originally published in the Fall 2011 Harker Quarterly.

Hotel Toiletries Gathered for Homeless

Pat White, middle school history teacher, has again led a collection of donations of hotel toiletries for the Georgia Travis Center for homeless women and children in San Jose. White’s group last donated 210 individual plastic bags of soap, shampoo and other personal care products for individual use in June, and this fall were well on their way to reaching that level at press time.“Thank you so much for your generosity,” said White.

Mother/Daughter Teams in Relay for Life

Michelle Douglas and Amy Wardenburg, 11, created a mother/daughter team for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life held July 9-10 in Campbell. The pair’s lives have been impacted by cancer and they were inspired to create a team to help fight it. For the past four years, Douglas and Wardenburg have volunteered at the Campbell Relay for Life. This year, along with their mothers, Chris and Heather, they were joined by fellow 2013 classmates and their mothers Cristina and Helena Jerney, Cecilia and Laura Lang-Ree, Hannah and Sue Prutton, and Molly and Roni Wolfe. Lang-Ree is chair of the performing arts department at Harker and Prutton is director of upper school volunteer programs. The team walked for 24 hours and raised $4,000.

Senior Raises Funds for Propionic Acidemia

Maya Gattupalli, grade 12, organized a fundraiser in August for the Propionic Acidemia Foundation and invited the Class of 2012 to participate. The event was a 5K walk in Vasona Park in Los Gatos on Aug. 14. “Nine other Harker seniors volunteered at the event,” said Gattupalli. “We had about 83 people attend the walk and we raised $5,256 (and therefore reached our goal of raising 5K).” Propionic acidemia, a recessive genetic disorder affecting one in every 100,000 people in the U.S., is characterized by a nonfunctioning enzyme used in the digestive process, leaving those afflicted unable to break down certain proteins and fats. This leads to the build-up of toxins and acids, which can cause organ dysfunction.