Not everyone has the opportunity to truly make a difference in their school or community, never mind the world, but a BHS student has recently shown that giving back on a global scale is possible.

With perseverance, hope, and a ton of hard work, senior Mariah Brady and her team made their mark on the world by diligently supporting Yuda Bands, a charitable organization that helps children in a much different way. Instead of feeding children that suffer from hunger or providing them with other basic needs, Yuda Bands asks schools to sponsor fundraisers for specific children that cannot afford an education.

“These bracelets create jobs, instill confidence, create drive and motivation and of course give the greatest gift of all: the chance to learn and grow,” said Brady. “The most interesting thing about it to me was that it encourages education.”

How exactly does a single company accomplish such daunting tasks? Each seven–dollar bracelet sold helps sponsor a child’s education in Guatemala, and in this case, Brady helped “send a girl named Maria to school for an entire year.”

“The problem with these villages is that due to the lack of educational possibilities there becomes wait lists for school, and if you want to go to school that year it’s a $350 fee,” said Brady. “The majority of these families are unable to work or feed their children, making school the very last option.”

That’s where Yuda Bands come in. They help pay for the fees that the families would not normally be able to pay for, which the organization believes will help eliminate the overwhelming amount of poverty in the small Guatemalan villages. Brady believes that by sponsoring a child at BHS, it taught the students here a lesson as well: that education shouldn’t be taken for granted.

“Education is a routine and freely expressed ability in our country, and to attend grade school in America…is also free,” said Brady. “A lot of us wake up in the morning and dread dragging ourselves to school, whereas these children dream for years to attend school.”

The opportunity to sponsor a Yuda Band fundraiser came to her at a Student Council meeting and she immediately know two things: that it would be a lot of work, but that she would love doing it.

“In Student Council each officer chose a philanthropy to peruse and our advisor, Mrs. Cyr, suggested it to me and instantly I knew it would be successful at our school, with a little hard work,” said Brady. “It took time and my awesome team helped during lunches to sell, but I don’t think any of it was time wasted.”

Since this was such a huge project, Brady needed a group to help her. This group of Student Council representatives assisted Brady in everything and she is extremely grateful, claiming that “without them, nobody would’ve been able to buy them [Yuda Bands].” One of the members of the team was junior and Student Council representative AnnaMarie Seiler, who also appreciated the charity and what it supports.

“Yuda is unique,” said Seiler. “It helps kids that can’t help themselves [and] I felt like Yuda gave our school the chance to change someone’s life–someone who otherwise would’ve been trapped into a really miserable life.”

Additionally, Seiler really enjoyed participating in the fundraiser, and she especially liked working with Brady through the entire thing.

“It was stressful at times, like any major fundraiser is, but I think the benefits of getting the Yuda sale going was large enough to motivate our team and make it enjoyable,” said Seiler. “Mariah was really good at handling the business aspect of it, and she was good at communicating with the others who worked so hard to put this fundraiser on.”

Through all of the hard work, Brady is truly proud of everything that her and her team accomplished with this fundraiser and couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome. “Wear a band, change a life” the organization claims, and Brady believes they did just that.

“This wasn’t just about selling bracelets and we all knew that; it was for real people and we made a real difference.”