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Miami Palmetto High School junior Orli Clarin is collecting used eyeglasses to donate to underprivileged people in Guatemala when she goes on a mission trip with Temple Beth Am’s Social Justice Teen Fellowship Program over the Memorial Day weekend.
“I want to give everyone the opportunity to see clearly,” she says. “That is something we all take for granted.”
Vision is important to Clarin and her family. Her father and grandfather are optometrists.
“It’s something I’m super passionate about,” she says.
The teens are going to build a school with recycled materials.
“As a group we go, we take recycled materials and make them into bricks,” she says.
The teens will also go hiking and they will have opportunities to interact with the residents.
Her plan is to bring the glasses to the school so that those who need glasses can try them on and take the ones that help their vision.
She set up boxes to collect the glasses at the temple and then at each of her father’s offices, Clarin Eye Care in Palmetto Bay and Coral Gables Eye Care. She also worked on getting collection boxes at some eyeglass outlets.
She expects to take 150-200 pairs of glasses on the trip to give away.
As a junior, this is her first year in the fellowship. The group attended the Pride Parade to advocate for the gay community and went to Immokalee to learn about farm workers.
Clarin is also on JServe, an offshoot of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. The students organize a Mitzvah Day on Martin Luther King Day in January.
“We designed a project, and we were able to get the NAACP involved,” she says.
“Throughout history, the Blacks and Jews have had strong connections.”
The projects this year included making flowers and art for a woman’s foundation and making challah. More than 100 loaves of challah were donated to Community Fridges around Miami, including Richmond Heights, Coconut Grove, and Miami Beach.
Clarin is a member of BBYO, a Jewish organization for teens.
“I’ve been on the board since eighth grade,” she says. “I’ve been almost every position including president. I love having a Jewish community.”
She’s currently the Gizborit, the treasurer. She also designed hoodies for members to buy, with the money going to the treasury.
She also volunteers at different events through Beth Am. This year, for Mitzvah Day, she made sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches (as well as other sandwiches) that went to the Community Fridge in Coconut Grove.
“We stocked the entire fridge—we put in over 100 sandwiches,” she says, adding that the fridge had been empty until they stocked it.
At Palmetto, she’s on the Jewish Student Union board. She’s also a peer educator for the Health Information Project.
She’s on the new Dance Marathon board. The Dance Marathon is an organization that is usually found on college campuses – Palmetto is the first public school in Miami-Dade to have it.
“It’s a mission to raise money for children at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital,” she says. “In college, you dance for 24 hours. Each hour has a different theme.”
Palmetto’s event wasn’t done in the traditional way, but they did incorporate a dance.
Clarin is a member of the National Honor Society, the National Science Honor Society and Interact.
She’s also a member of the varsity lacrosse team, which had another successful year, winning district championships for the second year in a row. They lost in the regionals.
“Our team played very well, we could have won regionals,” she says. “Our team is super strong, but it didn’t end up working out.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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