Palmer Trinity sophomore Pedro Morales is president of the Hope for Tomorrow club. He’s been a member of the club since seventh grade and stepped up to lead the club that raises money to support pediatric cancer research. The club was started by his sister Vanessa Morales. She started it because one of her best friends had cancer when her friend was three.
“We have various fundraisers,” he says. “We can do bake sales. We set up a table during breaks and we sell baked goods and we get good profit from that.”
They also have Shed Your Threads day that can raise anywhere from $200 to $500.
“We also do other fundraising events such as Candygrams on holidays,” he says. “We can sign up for a holiday. We did Valentine’s Day last year and I think we’re going to do that again this year.”
The money they raise is sent to St. Jude’s Hospital. However, they sometimes collaborate with the organization Live Like Bella on events.
This year, Morales hopes to do have club members to volunteer more for Live Like Bella and he will work to have a Palmer Trinity convocation dedicated to Hope for Tomorrow.
Morales is also a member of the Second Chance Club, a club that helps animals in need.
“We raise money,” he says. “We collected a little bit of money at the first meeting and with that they are going to buy lollipops and sell them around the school.”
Club members will also conduct a drive to collect towels to be donated to shelters.
He used to volunteer for Paws4You, an organization that takes care of dogs until they are adopted.
Morales is secretary of the sophomore class. Previously he was secretary of his freshman class. The class officers hope to strengthen class bonding. His job is to promote increased bonding by incorporating community service, sending teams of students to the Deering Estate to do clean-ups.
“It promotes bonding with people who are not normally friends,” he says.
Morales says there are plans to design a class shirt for sophomores to wear. They are also working to promote school sports, so his friend created an incentive punch card which is punched at each sporting event the student attends. Every 12 punches entitles the student to a candy prize.
Morales plays tennis for the Palmer Trinity team. He also plays outside of school, at the tennis courts at the Crossings. This summer he played so much he injured his elbow.
“I haven’t been able to play since the summer,” he says.
He hopes to begin playing again soon.
In the meantime, he continues to play violin in the school orchestra. The orchestra plays two annual concerts in the Winter and Spring. They also go to competition and play well enough regionally to go to the state competitions.
He’s also a member of the Investment Club. The club has its own stock portfolio.
“We are the only school that through donations from parents we have the privilege to invest $40,000,” he says.
The club as a whole decides which stocks to invest in after they hear presentations about that stock.
“We maintain safe investments,” he says. We analyze the stock. We look at the stock a lot before we make a purchase. We make a decent profit from it.”
Club members do participate in games where they invest fake money and have competitions as to who does the best.
“I only go risky when I’m playing the stock market game with my friends,” he says.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
