![A group of students and staff amble down the track as part of the Power Moves walking club on Monday mornings at Palo Alto High School. According to Power Moves founder Lucy Filppu, the hope is to encourage more people to join the club with motive of helping L.A. fire victims. “This[fundraiser] is the right thing to do," Filppu said.
“We’re hoping this is a really nice way to get the Power Moves’ name out there on the Paly campus, so more kids want to join us on the track,” Filppu said. “Regardless of fundraising, just to walk on Mondays at 8 and chill out without competition. It’s a great way to get people more aware of Power Moves.”](https://palyvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/walkers-900x612.jpg)
Amid weeks of devastation in Los Angeles caused by wildfires, Palo Alto High School’s Power Moves walking club is stepping up to make a positive impact. The club began a Red Cross Fundraiser encouraging the Paly community to donate money in support of the L.A. fire victims through March 18.
The club meets 8 a.m on regular start Monday mornings as a way for students and staff at Paly to come together; it is now part of a bigger operation.
Juniors Emily Tang and Keerthi Raj are responsible for organizing the fundraiser and advertising it to the community. Lucy Filppu, founder of Power Moves and AP Seminar teacher, Power Moves’ objective is to raise $10,000, and the club has raised $2,905 so far.
According to Tang, spreading the word is going to be crucial for making progress.
“I know there are a lot of powerful connections within people’s personal networks,” Tang said. “We want people to be asking family members and parents to continue forwarding the link to their companies or people they know in the community who have the ability to donate. The goal is to create change on a larger scale.”
Filppu said this fundraiser is not only important to her, but also to many people who are impacted by fire damage.
“This is a leap of compassion,” Filppu said. “We are all in California dealing with climate change. I am from the Los Angeles area, so this hits home for me. But this could have been us. We have had significant fires here so it easily could have been our hills that went up in flames. There are kids just like you waking up today that have no school to go to. They’re losing tons of instructional time, college apps are screwed up; if they’re little kids, their first memories of school — which should be some of the most precious times of their lives — are now in complete tragedy. We’re not immune from this. This could be us.”
According to Filppu, Power Moves intends to celebrate the club’s efforts at the end of the fundraiser.
“We’re planning an event at lunch, but Power Moves meets every regular start Monday,” Filppu said. “We will be whipping it up out there in March on our first Monday after the fundraiser is over. We’d love people to come out. We have pink hats and we will be celebrating what we’ve done.”
Tang said that she and Raj intend to continue advertising beyond the Paly community.
“We’ve done publicity through ASB and we’ve worked with our teachers to publicize it to the staff,” Tang said. “We’re also planning on advertising at Town and Country or popular areas that people frequent over the weekend. We’re also planning on just going door to door and explaining what we’re doing, what our cause is, and asking people if they’d like to get involved by donating.”
According to Filppu, this is a big moment for Paly to make a meaningful impact.
“I haven’t seen any other school or Gunn or anyone making a move, so I feel like this is a Paly moment,” Filppu said. “Kids should be proud. This is a moment for Paly to make a mark for a place that really needs help. I believe that people should feel morally moved to be part of this fundraiser since this is a California issue that is not going to go away.”
The link to donate for the fundraiser is here.
