Aug 18, 2021
4:14 PM
Ryan Hudgins, Jackie Llanos, Tayler Butters
NEWS & FEATURES Education


St. Catherine’s School’s Eñye/Freñye club, named after the Spanish alphabet’s letter ñ and designed to offer a safe space for students of Hispanic descent and their friends and allies, sold handwoven purses and bracelets for the Pulsera Project. Founded in 2009, Pulsera, which means “bracelet” in Spanish, supports artisans from Nicaragua and El Salvador by providing a market for their products in the United States. Since its initial sale, the organization has sold more than 1 million bracelets in over 3,000 schools, with 100% of the proceeds returned to the artisans.

Twelve middle school students crafted a campaign at St. Catherine’s to sell bracelets and purses, writing emails to teachers asking them to educate students on the project and setting up photo shoots to market the products. The students raised $2,300, more than any other school involved in the effort.

“It’s a wonderful way to educate students of all ages, so we were able to quickly disperse information to teachers so they could teach each of their students, and some even created lessons to go along,” says Allison Felton, a St. Catherine’s middle school Spanish teacher and the club’s sponsor. “It’s just wonderful to see how [the girls] can see really quickly how they can make an impact on their community.”