![IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Junior Zalie Mann performs “I Love to Cry at Weddings,” an ensemble piece from the fall musical Sweet Charity, to prospective students during the Fine Arts Showcase on Wednesday, Nov. 8. The showcase is a compilation of performances and demonstrations from each fine arts strand offered at McCallum. This show is put on so that prospective students can see if they are interested in joining an academy or major.
Sweet Charity originally ran the weekends of Sept. 28 and Oct. 8, but made a comeback for the Fine Arts Showcase.
“[Being at the front in the spotlight] is my favorite part of the whole dance, so I was super happy to be on stage performing and smiling at the audience,” Mann said.
Mann performed in both the musical theatre performance and dance excerpt “Ethereal,” a contemporary piece choreographed by the new dance director Terrance Carson, in the showcase. With also being a dance ambassador, Mann got to talk about what MAC dance is, her experience and answer any questions the aspiring arts majors and their parents may have.
Caption by Maya Tackett.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/53321803427_47cd17fe70_o-1-1200x800.jpg)
![SPREADING THE JOY: Sophomore Chim Becker poses with sophomores Cozbi Sims and Lou Davidson while manning a table at the Hispanic Heritage treat day during lunch of Sept 28. Becker is a part of the students of color alliance, who put together the activity to raise money for their club.
“It [the stand] was really fun because McCallum has a lot of latino kids,” Becker said. “And I think it was nice that I could share the stuff that I usually just have at home with people who have never tried it before.”
Becker recognizes the importance of celebrating Hispanic heritage at Mac.
“I think its important to celebrate,” Becker said. “Because our culture is awesome and super cool, and everybody should be able to learn about other cultures of the world.”
Caption by JoJo Barnard.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/53221601352_4127a81c41_o-1200x675.jpg)
When a few friends dropped off their federally funded lunches at senior Danny Walsh’s house he collected and donated 310 meals in two days. After months of planning, Walsh said he has begun to pick up 206 people’s unneeded meals twice a week and will continue to do so for the rest of the school year.
“It’s not terribly hard. In the end, it did take a couple of months to organize. But at least in the beginning, it was just such an easy solution that solves these two problems or at least helps these two problems become less bad. It just seems so obvious and just so perfect,” Walsh said.
Since the beginning of the school year, students have been able to pick up free meals on Monday and Wednesday. However, Park only gets reimbursed for the meals that are picked up. After hearing about this in class, Walsh said he worked with his friends to collect their lunches to donate to those in need to help solve two problems.
The idea to create a Google form where students could give permission for their meals to be donated came about when senior Maya Helpern wanted more people to have the opportunity to be involved.
“We thought more people would agree to be involved if they could just sign over their meals,” Halpern said. “Over 100 people have filled out the Google Form now, so we can just pick up all of their meals at once and donate them.”
For students who don’t pick up their meals and would like to have theirs donated, Walsh said to fill out this form available in his Instagram bio @dannywalsh. As of Feb. 12, 206 people have filled out the form, and Walsh has collected and donated 614 meals.
“Especially now that we’ve got the Google form going, it’s so easy to do. It takes 10 seconds,” Walsh said. “10 seconds (spent filling out the Google form) basically means … (about) 50 lunches that you then donated.”
With all the struggles that have surfaced because of COVID-19, Halpern said it is simple programs like this that make an impact on the community.
“It’s really important to be involved in your community and be trying to make a difference,” Helpern said. “We saw a need for, or an opportunity to help people and we wanted to take that.”
This story was originally published on The Echo on February 12, 2021.
