Enthusiastic engagement around the GSA bake sale was prevalent and resulted in $1,051 raised towards The LOFT LGBTQ+ Community Services Center in White Plains.

Junior Ari Spiegel, founder of the Gay Students Association (GSA) club, has always felt that the programming around LGBTQ+ History has been limited.

“I remember my freshman year there was an all-school kahoot for LGBTQ+ History Month in October, but besides that not much has been done for the month,” they said.

Working with GSA co-founder Sam Siguira, Ari felt a great way to spread awareness about LGBTQ+ History Month would be to organize a bake sale.

In developing the bake sale logistics, the GSA club sought to find a community partner focused on LGBTQ+ programming of which to direct their bake sale earnings. In the end, they decided on The LOFT LGBTQ+ Service Center.

“As a club, we were brainstorming about organizations to donate to, especially local ones. Then, one of our club members mentioned how they worked with the LOFT previously, and that’s when we really dug into research on the LOFT and decided to make the LOFT our partner,” Ari said.

One of the biggest things the GSA club was looking for when trying to find a community partner was an organization that was local and that had a strong network of support for the LGBTQ+ community.

“I really liked how the LOFT supported queer people in many different ways, like through advocating for gay rights, having support groups for queer people, having different events and programs meant for queer people,” Ari said. With the support of Upper School Community Engagement Coordinator Emily DeMarchena, and Hackley’s DEI team, they were able to build a relationship with GSA and confidently choose them as their community partner for the bake sale.

After much research and time educating the community on the “why” aspect of the bake sale, peers, teachers, and GSA club members got to work baking for the two-day event.

“I am definitely overjoyed at the success of the bake sale as we raised 1,051 dollars for the LOFT. When Sam and I called the LOFT to tell them the news they were definitely shocked and excited by what we have done for them. And although they did not know what they were going to do with the money yet, it’s nice to know that we raised so much money for a non-profit organization that supports queer people,” Ari said.

Aside from the bake sale, the GSA club has been one of Hackley’s more engaged and long-lasting clubs. Future plans for the club include raising more money, more like-minded organizations, and building more awareness within the community through conversations.

“Sam and I are planning on doing a discussion in a very similar format to the Stonewall discussion last year where select individuals would discuss an article that all of the upper school has read and created questions on. This year, however, we were planning to do the discussion on the existence of queer people in history and how we’ve always existed in history,” Ari said.