Schools
Quarry Lane Student Creates Initiative to Help Community in Need
A Quarry Lane middle school student took the initiative to provide hand-sewn masks and raise funds for a local food kitchen.
The shelter-in-place ordinance and COVID-19 outbreak motivated Quarry Lane School eighth grade student, Siddharth Ramalingam, to contribute efforts to help the his community during this challenging time. Beginning in early April, Siddharth began constructing home-sewn masks from leftover fabric at home. He sold each mask to his neighbors for $5. He then expanded his sales to locations across the country from the help of family and friends through a Facebook page he created, Bay Area Mask Care. Using a small sewing machine, he worked on sewing masks before and after his remote school schedule. He spent his weekends making more masks and delivering them. Soon after, he realized there were many in the community who could not afford the masks that needed them. He then reached out to a local elderly housing community in Pleasanton, Ridgeview Commons, that were in need of protective masks and donated 50 of his masks to the community's elderly residents. In addition to the donated masks, Siddharth has sold a total of 125 masks to date. Proceeds from his mask sales, as well as monetary donations from his friends, family members and neighbors, have gone towards Open Heart Kitchen, a local food bank serving prepared nutritious meals free of charge to those in need in the Tri-Valley community.
In Siddharth's words, "Quarry Lane School has not only taught me how to be successful in academics but to be socially conscious of the community we live in. I feel proud of my contributions and feel a sense of accomplishment, I was able to solve two problems with one action. I was able to raise and donate money to a local food bank during these difficult economic times but at the same time provide masks to people to protect them and prevent the spread of the virus."
"The initiative that our students have taken to help those in need during this challenging, unprecedented time, is incredibly inspiring," says Dr. Sabri Arac, Head of School at Quarry Lane. "Siddharth's efforts to help the community is another wonderful example of the compassion and kindness that defines Quarry Lane."
