By: Kara Haselton

As students may have noticed, this past week of March 7-11 Project Wisdom has been holding a t-shirt fast to raise awareness for the refugee crisis. Project Wisdom’s goal as a club is to encourage students to enhance their perspective of the world, become a leader and change the world. To do this, a global issue or event is chosen to become the club’s “Global Focus” for that year. In light of the huge refugee crisis occurring in Europe and the Middle East, Project Wisdom decided to choose to focus on the refugees.

The t-shirt fast was one event Project Wisdom committee leader Jillian Owczarzak thought of to help catch people’s attention about this terrible issue. She started an online fundraiser, where she sold t-shirts with the phrase “Refugees Are Human Beings,” successfully selling more than her goal of 50 shirts. Those who bought the shirt were encouraged to wear it everyday for a week. “We are trying to remind people that this is a humanitarian crisis, not a political one,” stated Jillian.

For the past week, Project Wisdom members, as well as any other teachers or students who wanted to support the cause, wore the same outfit including the t-shirts. The purpose was to help students empathize with refugees who have very little support and basic supplies that others tend to take for granted, luxuries such as multiple changes of clothes. Many people have commented on how wearing the same outfit for a week has impacted them. Mr. Schweickert, who also participated in the t-shirt fast, commented that it “wore on [his] self-confidence, and opened [his] eyes to a sense of privilege we unknowingly experience.” The t-shirt fast has various students and teachers at HHS to further their understanding of the plight of the refugees world over.