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Palmer Trinity junior Megan Vinas has a strong commitment to community service. Vinas is a member of Twenty Little Working Girls, a service club that raises money and supplies volunteers for a variety of non-profits.
“We partner with The Chapman Partnership for the Homeless and Lotus House, but the Chapman Partnership is one of our biggest service organizations,” she says.
The girls volunteer at the homeless shelter in Homestead.
“We usually we throw a Halloween extravaganza for them,” she says. “We bring food from outside, and we help serve it.”
They also collect community donations for the groups they work with, depending on the needs of the organization.
“Each time we do different things,” she says. “Sometimes, we’ll collect household cleaning items, diapers and wipes or toys for the kids.”
This year Vinas served as historian on the executive board. As a historian she took pictures at events and ran the Instagram account. Next year, she will serve as vice president. She’ll oversee recording the hours each member serves and what they volunteered for.
“We have a minimum of three service opportunities each year,” she says. “My main job is to check in with the girls to make sure they fulfilled all the requirements to stay in the club.”
Her volunteer efforts don’t stop with Twenty Little Working Girls. She’s also involved in Achieve Miami, going to Caribbean K-8 Center to help kids improve their literacy skills.
“I just started it this school year,” she says. “I like being their friend and getting to know them.”
Vinas co-chairs the St. Thomas Episcopal 5K run which benefits Breakthrough Miami. The race is held annually at the beginning of February.
She is one of the captains of the girls’ varsity lacrosse team with the hope she will also be captain next year.
That’s quite an achievement as until this year, Vinas had been a competitive dancer, but decided a change was in order and she joined the lacrosse team.
The team had a good year, going as far as the District 16 1A finals before losing to Westminster Christian School.
Her years in dance included all styles of dance from hip hop to ballet and tap. She was at the Miami Dance Collective almost every day of the week.
“It was my second home,” she says. “it’s weird having more time on my hands.”
Aside from lacrosse, at school she’s a member of the math honor society, Mu Alpha Theta, the National Honor Society, and the Spanish National Honor Society.
Vinas serves as a peer counselor. It’s a club that the students have to be nominated for.
Peer counselors are given special training on the issues and how to help the students. They work alongside the school counselors to help kids who need someone to talk to.
“It’s a little less intimidating than if a teacher was talking to them,” she says.
She works mainly with middle school students. She and another peer counselor recently met with girls in a homeroom and discussed different scenarios and how they would react to them. The scenarios cover a variety of topics, including bullying.
“My whole life I’ve always loved helping people and making them feel included,” she says.
Now that she’s about to be a senior, she’s considering her college options. She’s interested in the medical field or psychology.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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