Design Thinking & Hurricane Relief

Soon after hearing about how many people were affected by Hurricane Harvey, my Upper School Design Thinking class decided they could help. The question we tried to answer, using the design thinking method, was “How might Darlington assist those affected by Hurricane Harvey?” 

The first step in the design-thinking process is to have empathy. It was not difficult to have empathy with people in Houston and the surrounding areas that were suffering from the aftermath of Harvey. Part of the empathy piece is the interview process. We were not able to interview people directly in Houston, but we had all watched the news and seen the struggle people were going through. 

The next step was to ideate and brainstorm. For this step, we used sticky notes and wrote down any way we could think of to assist the citizens of Houston. We also asked a lot of questions such as “How would we get supplies to Houston?," “What are the essential supplies the people of Houston need?," and “Would it be better to collect money and not supplies?" This process took a while, but soon we devised a plan and put it into action. 

I volunteered to be the leader of this project.

The following was our plan, and we communicated through email to faculty, staff and students:

• Members of the Design Thinking class and head prefects are collecting money to assist those affected by Hurricane Harvey.
• Anyone, including faculty and staff, that donates at least $5 to this cause will earn a free dress day to be scheduled by the student life office. 
• There will be a competition between the Upper School houses. The house to raise the largest amount of money will receive an additional free dress day.
• We encourage everyone to create cards for children in Houston. (Supplies were located in the library and dining hall during lunch)

Thanks to the generosity of the Darlington Community, we were able to collect almost $900 on the first day! We decided to sell Chick-fil-A biscuits and set up a table at a home football game to encourage everyone to donate. 

We decided with the success of the Upper School's effort that we should incorporate the Pre-K to 8 students. I met with several administrators and teachers at Thatcher Hall and they decided to collect pennies and coins to assist with this effort. My class created baggies to be sent home with each student and teacher in grades Pre-K to 8. Lilley Washburn, Lawson Brown, and I visited Thatcher Hall and gave a presentation encouraging all of the students to collect coins to fill the baggies and return them to school by Friday, Sept. 22. 

In the midst of collecting money for the people of Houston, Hurricane Irma hit Florida. After completing research, we decided to put the money toward the Donors Choose organization, allowing us to donate to students like ourselves in Texas and Florida. 

So far, the Upper School has raised $3,530. Thornwood House won our house competition by donating a tremendous $744. 

I would like to thank my peers for participating, Mrs. Kinney and the administration for allowing us to have a student-led fundraiser, my fellow head prefects for their work collecting funds, and my Design Thinking classmates.