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During COVID Miami Palmetto High School senior Audrey March created a program called Letters to the Stars, a letter writing campaign to Holocaust survivors. She worked with a couple of other students on the program.
March has been working with the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach since seventh grade through the Young Lion Judah program.
“Before your bat mitzvah, you’re partnered with a survivor,” she says.
She worked with two survivors, one was a family friend.
Since then, she gained a close relationship with both.
She became even more involved in high school through an ambassador program.
“It started virtual,” she says. “Freshman year, we started in person in January, when COVID hit in March, we went online. Some were in nursing homes, which is very high risk.”
She became concerned about the survivors being isolated and wanted to do something.
“I thought of a letter writing campaign,” she says. “I was working with a few other ambassadors from Palmetto. We wanted to work with the freshman year teachers who taught the Holocaust units. The English teachers teach it through books and novels.”
A select group of students were chosen to write the letters. Those students were able to choose the survivors they wanted to write to from bios.
“One was a photographer and so she attached some of her photos to her letters,” she says.
The student and survivor ended up emailing back and forth and developed a meaningful relationship.
There were nine survivors in the program and all in all, about 40 letters exchanged. The survivors were not asked to write back, but they did send back feedback. Holocaust survivors are quite old and unfortunately some have passed.
“I think six are still alive, from the past three years since we started,” she says.
The letters were a big hit.
“They loved it, I think the students loved it too,” March says. “They were able to show their stories are still being heard.”
March says they wanted to do something to show what they have learned about the war, what happened before the war and afterward.
“We wanted to do something that would be meaningful for the survivors,” she says.
March will begin talking to teachers again in December in a continuation of the program.
“I’m hoping to expand,” she says.
Because of her interest in the Holocaust, she hopes to go on the March of the Living this year.
“You go to all the concentration camps with survivors and students from around the world,” she says.
She continues to volunteer at the Holocaust Memorial.
“Every event they have, I go,” she says. “I have a great relationship with the educational directors. It’s become a sacred place for me and my family to go. These stories give you a different outlook on life.”
The letter writing program can continue even after graduation.
“There are two girls that are part of the ambassador program,” she says. “They are a year younger. Last year we worked to combine them into the program.”
Outside of school she works with the Pinecrest City Music Program as Equity and Inclusion Director.
She’s also the executive director for social media for Palmetto Athletics. She runs the program’s Instagram account, and volunteers at games.
That goes hand-in-hand with her student council position as student involvement chair.
March is also the Forensic Investigation Academy club president.
She wants to get a management degree with a minor in sports management and then get a law degree.
She’s applying to Babson University, Leigh, Northeastern, University of Denver, and the University of Maryland.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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