BY PATRINA PUN
Welcome back, Cougars! Featured here is our column highlighting important events and the inside scoop at QO, so that you can Keep Up With the Kougars!
PROJECT HAPPY FEET AT QUINCE ORCHARD:
Project Happy Feet is an up and coming organization that has expanded nation-wide. The organization is now present at Quince Orchard High School where a donation box is located in the front lobby. Students are able to donate old athletic shoes.
The organization was founded by Winston Churchill High School junior Laura Jablonover. The concept quickly gained traction and expanded across states such as Georgia, Texas, New York, and Maryland. Local schools here in MCPS such as Churchill, Clarksburg, Northwest, and even Quince Orchard have donation boxes set up.
Sophomore Anousha Farooqui is an ambassador of the organization and has started the Quince Orchard donation box. Every month, Farooqui will empty out the box and perform a shoe cleaning, after which her team will then decide which school will receive the donations. Additionally, Farooqui is consistently hanging flyers up and creating posters to draw attention to the organization. Outside of school, she aids in setting up fundraisers at sports events such as the Capital Hill Volleyball Tournament.
This organization is certainly not made up of a group of people, but rather a community of people as Quince Orchard students are highly encouraged to participate. By spreading the word or donating, Quince Orchard students can make a difference and help sports to be accessible to everyone.
Farooqui joined this organization to aid her community and create a better environment for others. She first learned of this organization through the usage of social media and thought to start a donation box at Quince Orchard. By being a part of this organization, she says, she stays connected with her community to ensure she does not “miss out on an experience of a lifetime.”
If you would like to be featured in our next issue of Keeping Up with the Kougars, please reach out to us through our email at QOHSprowler@gmail.com!
Quince Orchard High School
Anousha Farooqui
This is a corrected version of this article. In an earlier version in the print edition, Project Happy Feet was erroneously attributed to UCLA medical students, who started a different, but similarly named organization.
March 2024
The Prowler 