![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DSC06926.jpg\")
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The May 2025 TMLA Black Student Union\/African Heritage and Caribbean Culture Club\u2019s 5-year anniversary celebration.<\/p>\n
Morgan McEachern, BSU\u2019s historian (TMLA, Class of 2026)<\/p>\n
The Mary Louis Academy\u2019s (TMLA) Black Student Union, formerly known as the African Heritage and Caribbean Culture Club (BSU\/AHCC), launched a fundraising campaign in response to Hurricane Melissa, which hit the Caribbean country of Jamaica the hardest on Oct. 28.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As part of this campaign, TMLA high school seniors and BSU\/AHCC members Mahlania Flores and Morgan McEachern said the BSU\/AHCC wanted to create a mini-documentary to help bring awareness to the hurricane and the damage it caused.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also wanted our community to understand the severity of what happened, so we reached out to Jamaican staff and students \u2014 people with close ties to Jamaica,\u201d Flores said. \u201cWe first spoke to a junior whose grandfather\u2019s house had been impacted; she told us the whole roof was gone and how difficult it was for them to move around or even manage basic needs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They then spoke to Howard Holness, facilities director, and Dameon Gordon, facilities associate at TMLA, as they wanted familiar faces who could represent the cause to speak on it, because they understood what was happening in Jamaica and could speak to it authentically.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to use footage from Gordon, who had visited Jamaica to help his mother,\u201d Flores said. \u201cHe shared videos showing the impact on his community and the people he knew (in Black River). We paired that with insight from Howard and commentary from one of our classmates, Malia Mangaroo, whose cousins lost their roof and can no longer attend school. Including her perspective helped students our age imagine themselves in that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
To those who watch it, McEachern wants people to have an impactful experience and really feel what is happening. \u201cI want them to understand that this is serious, that people\u2019s lives are being affected, and that they need help. Now is not the time to be selfish,\u201d McEachern stated.<\/p>\n
For this school year, TMLA collections began on Nov. 24, 2025, and they end on Dec. 19, 2025. As of last week, the BSU\/AHCC has raised over $7,500. Official distribution in Jamaica of items collected by the group is scheduled to occur in February of next year.<\/p>\n
Both Holness and Gordon were raised in St. Elizabeth Parish and they will escort the goods to Black River, partnering with local Anglican churches, which are identifying families and local schools most in need of them.<\/p>\n
Flores hopes the campaign will help Jamaican families long term by giving them a starting point to rebuild their communities.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether the donations are small or large, everyone who contributes is helping,\u201d Flores explained. \u201cOur goal is to help reform and rebuild, which connects back to TMLA\u2019s mission of helping the dear neighbor and working in unity. Our school came together to support an entire country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Discussing how she\u2019d want this project to be part of her\u00a0 legacy, either personally or on behalf of the BSU\/AHCC, Flores thinks the mini-documentary really opened eyes and changed hearts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis wasn\u2019t just a typical fundraiser where you dress down for a week; it was tied to a meaningful cause,\u201d Flores said. \u201cKnowing that people can help restore what was lost or bring back a sense of comfort and safety for others \u2014 that contributes to our legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The May 2025 TMLA Black Student Union\/African Heritage and Caribbean Culture Club\u2019s 5-year anniversary celebration. Morgan McEachern, BSU\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[37677,13979,7379,37678,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-74840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-black-student-union","tag-hurricane-melissa","tag-jamaica","tag-mary-louis-academy","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}