Feature Friday: Charlie Ciantra and Chelsea Gorius

Nipmuc's DECA volunteers with faculty members
Ryan Cody and Gary Perras

If you've read my "Feature Friday" posts, you know how impressed I am with the range of accomplishments of our students. One of the areas that is most impressive is the capacity of our students and their volunteer efforts. At any given time there are more than ten student-run fundraisers, community-building events, or volunteer campaigns being run by students. As the scope of their projects grows, so too does their positive impact on others.

The most recent example of this excellence in volunteerism is the DECA Volleyball Lock-in event that benefits pancreatic cancer awareness and research. Now in its 4th year, the all night volleyball tournament is as successful as ever. Organized by students to raise funds and awareness to fight pancreatic cancer, the event is also one of the highlights of our students' school year.

After weeks of planning, last Friday seniors Charlie Ciantra and Chelsea Gorius ran this overnight event for approximately 300 Nipmuc students. With support from parents, local businesses, and faculty chaperones, the students played volleyball, enjoyed great food, watched movies, and had a great time for a wonderful cause. Through their efforts the event raised more than $2,000.

I asked Charlie and Chelsea to talk to me about the event and what it means to them.

Charlie Ciantra

Q. How did you become involved with this event? What is its significance to you? 
A. I got involved with this event my sophomore year. That year my sister was running it as a DECA project and decided she wanted to hand it off to me. This project had gone to the international competition twice and I had huge shoes to fill. As my partners I picked Jacob Hess and Lauren Campbell.  We worked tirelessly on this project and even added a second event to it - a tournament for the middle school students. When the state competition came we gave it our all, but sadly lost. After that we decided the project had run its course but that we could still do a Lock- In as a fundraiser for DECA and donate 25% of the proceeds to PanCan (A group that supports pancreatic Cancer research). 

    This event has significance in my life. Personally I don't have any family members who have passed away from pancreatic cancer, but I have had family members pass away from other cancers. From that experience I know that it is an extremely difficult process to go through. That is the reason you do these events - to raise money and be able to help the families and the people who have this awful disease.

Q. What lessons about leadership and entrepreneurship did you learn through this organizing this event for two years? 

A. Through this project I have learned so many great skills that are going to help me with the rest of my life. These skills range from small, simple things to life lessons and skills that will help me in future careers. Some of the small things include:  how to write a business email, how to call companies and ask for donations, and how to set up meetings with people. These all seem like pretty basic tasks but when you actually have to do them they are a lot more complicated than expected. The bigger life lessons include leadership skills, public speaking skills and overall people skills. These skills are things that are going to help me be able to reach my goals in the future. 

Chelsea Gorius

Q.  What does this event mean to Nipmuc DECA? 
A.  This event is very important to Nipmuc DECA.  This event is easily the club’s biggest fundraiser.  The event has become such an anticipated event in the school so it is definitely important to DECA  members to make sure it runs smoothly.  We have to make sure it goes well not only because it is a form of advertising for DECA and for kids to join, but also because the event is geared toward spreading awareness for pancreatic cancer.  Even though it is such a large event for the school and the club, the awareness for Pancreatic Cancer that it brings is easily the main reason we enjoy holding it every year.  All of DECA e-board loves to host this event because of those reasons and everyone on e-board did an amazing job in getting this event ready, everyone did such a good job and I am so honored to be president this great group of people.

Q.    What is the greatest challenge and reward of running the DECA lock-in? 

A.     The greatest challenges of running the lock-in are keeping it organized.  Making sure the auditorium has movies set up, making sure the media center has enough things to keep kids busy, and making sure the volleyball games are running on a timely basis.  In previous years it was a struggle to make sure that the courts were always filled and that the tournament kept pushing forward.  This year we were able to make sure that games were always going on.   The greatest reward is seeing that we did it! That all of DECA e-board came together and put on this great event.  We were able to spread awareness about Pancreatic Cancer and make donations to help the cause.  In addition to that we were able to get more kids in the school, especially freshman, to become aware of DECA and hopefully increase our membership.  Knowing we did a good job though is definitely a reward, especially when people in the school come up to me, Charlie, or any other e-board member and tell us how much fun it was and how well organized it was.  The Nipmuc community is such a great place it makes putting on this event and all the hard work well worth it.