With many students looking for ways to show appreciation for friends and significant others for Valentine’s Day, the Glamour Gals team was ready. To fundraise for their club, members sold “Heartfelt Hellos,” a set of gifts from a secret admirer, a program organized by the Glamour Gals club for one of their fundraisers.

For three to four dollars, admirers could purchase packages that included either a hedgehog plushie, a hedgehog plushie with a treat, or flowers. Club members then distributed the gifts to recipients during lunch bands on February 14.

Freshman Pratikshya Patra, who bought the hedgehog plushies, said they “were really cute and they made great gifts for my friends.” 

Freshman Yugesh Kumar said, “[the hedgehog] was so cute [that] I had to get myself one out of self love.” 

As a Glamour Gals member, freshman Jazlyn Febles aided in selling and distributing Heartfelt Hellos to the student body. “We made a lot of money,” she said, “and it was definitely for a good cause.” 

Glamour Gals is a New York based foundation which works to provide the elderly with companionship while simultaneously helping teenagers become involved with their community. The foundation provides an opportunity for students to create club chapters at their high schools or colleges. 

The Townsend Harris chapter, which is advised by English teacher Raquel Chung and led by seniors Amelia Jacobson and Kylie Gavlin, will use proceeds from this fundraiser to fund further club activities and opportunities to provide local seniors with companionship. In recent weeks, the club posted pictures of one of their makeovers, where they visited seniors to paint their nails.

“The delivery was mostly smooth. Some of our members helped with the distributions during their free or lunch bands. Ms. Chung, our advisor, helped a lot with the selling as well as giving out the plushies to the seniors and faculty,” said Amelia. “We want to do more fun crafts with the seniors and buy more varieties of colors for nail polish.”

The Heartfelt Hellos fundraiser follows the club’s last fundraiser, the Winter Wishes campaign, where students had the opportunity to purchase carnations for any member of the THHS community. Club members also held a card-writing event to send seniors holiday cards.