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Palmetto High School senior Valentina Caceres has run a supply drive for Miami Animal Rescue.
“I’ve been working with clubs at my school to get community service hours for students,” she says.
She worked with the Key Club and the National Honor Society to collect supplies. Caceres says they usually collect two to three big boxes of supplies to donate.
She initially came up with the idea when a friend adopted a dog and then the family ran into financial difficulties. Caceres saw from the friend’s Instagram account that they were running low on supplies for the dog.
“I was able to deliver the supplies they needed,” she says. “I’ve had pets all my life and I feel a special connection to them.”
Her sophomore year, she created Project Lotus.
“I love fashion and I wanted to come up with a community service project that included fashion,” she says. “At school, through the French Honor Society and the English Honor Society, I collected props and I took a group of 15 girls one weekend and we held a fashion show for the kids.”
The props included items like trendy sunglasses, fairy wings, feather boas, tutus, and items to create costumes for the kids at Lotus House. The children then chose costumes to wear in the show. The items donated had to fit any child.
The event went well and she was planning on holding it again this school year. However, COVID-19 put those plans on hold.
“Hopefully if everything improves, I’ll be able to do it my last year in high school and hopefully pass it on to someone younger,” she says.
When the lockdown that shut down the schools began, she knew she wanted to do something to help health care workers so she put together an online live virtual talent show called Unmasking the Talent.
“We were able to donate that money to an organization called Feeding the Frontlines,” she says. “It’s an organization that uses the money to buy meals from local businesses and provides those meals to underfunded hospitals.”
The show was held June 6. There were 20 acts and they were able to raise $1,500.
“It was a really great event,” she says. “We were able to raise money and bring our community together.”
Caceres says they have talked about doing another show.
“It was so much fun and more successful than we thought it would be,” she says.
She’s president of the French Honor Society and a member of the Spanish Honor Society.
She’s a member of Key Club and the Special Event Chair for Student Council.
“I’m also on leadership on newspaper as senior multimedia editor,” she says. “I oversee our team of photographers and videographers on staff.”
She’s also president for Bridge to English, a program that helps Pinecrest Elementary kids for whom English is a second language improve their understanding and use of English.
Bridge to English is a natural fit for her. She’s originally from Paraguay but moved to Africa at five. She moved to Miami when she was nine.
“I lived in Senegal first, that was French, then I moved to Ghana, which was English and French,” she says. “I had never taken a Spanish class until I moved here in fourth grade.”
When she moved to Senegal, she spoke only Spanish. She had to learn English and French while in Africa but school was conducted in English.
For college, she’s applied to Georgetown, UF, University of Virginia, Boston University, and the University of Michigan. She plans on a business major concentrating on marketing.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
