Over the last few weeks, it has been nearly impossible to avoid noticing one of our school’s most beloved teachers, Mr. Howard, wandering back and forth across the quad with a multitude of bags, all full to the brim with some of the best tasting apples anywhere. In the words of Kyle Axelrod (V), “Mr. Howard’s apples are sunnier than the sunshine.” Well put, Kyle. Well put.
If you were lucky enough to be approached by Mr. Howard – as nearly everyone in our community was – you learned that perhaps even better than the taste of these apples is the price: fifty cents a pop. As a result, Mr. Howard and Co. have raised $1,670 through the sale of 3,340 apples, all of which were picked at the Don Baker farm in Hudson, NY. Through unparalleled persistence and determination, Mr. Howard has raised a tremendous amount of money for a worthy cause. With UNICEF as a backer, promising to triple the donations, Mr. Howard’s apple drive will have raised a total of $5,010 to aid UNICEF in its fight to protect Syrian orphans.
When I asked Mr. Howard how he pulled of this monumental project, he deflected all of the credit, thanking “the twenty students that came out and Mr. Buskey, who came and let [him] use his car to transport some of the apples.” Despite the modesty, we all know that none of this could ever have happened without Mr. Howard. As Danielle Cohen (V), the project’s organizer, said: “It was a rainy cold day when we picked apples, but Mr. Howard’s enthusiasm and passion for this cause made it all worth it!”
