The DECA chapter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School finished one of their many Helping Hands donation projects on March 5. These programs are conducted regularly through the main DECA organization in order to raise money and supplies for local charitable causes.

This most recent campaign collected toiletries and other bathroom items such as soap, toothpaste, toilet paper and deodorant. The program was successful for the chapter, raising over 360 items from DECA and non-DECA members. 

MSD’s DECA chapter promotes these Helping Hands drives through social media advertisements and in-class announcements.

“To promote our event, we use social media sources such as Instagram,” DECA member and sophomore Adriana Hansen said. “These sources helped us to connect to our members in a more casual way and to transmit the information at a large scale quickly and efficiently.” 

The DECA organization rewards participating chapters with DECA diamonds, which count as extra credit for those in the program.

“Each year, [the DECA organization] rewards [DECA chapters] for being one of the top three that does it. We usually come pretty close, sometimes we are top three, sometimes we’re four or five, so we ask all of our members to go ahead and contribute towards whatever it is [DECA] is collecting,” Hospitality and Tourism teacher Mitchell Albert said. 

Along with this recent program, the DECA program simultaneously completed two other charity campaigns: “Beyond the Bike” and “Connecting with Generations.”