All photos taken by Elijah Etienne
With the amount of Haitian students in Malden, it is no surprise that Malden High would be one of the schools in Massachusetts with a Haitian Club. The club meets in J278 with Paul Degenkolb as an advisor. The club raises money for organizations in Haiti by hosting bake sales and other fundraisers.
The club is run by President Leisha Fortunat, Social Media Coordinator, Christel Jean-Baptise, and Treasurer Jene-Elizabeth Jean-Nestin. The purpose behind a Haitian Club is “to just have fun and show the community who the Haitian population actually is… we’re trying to show that... we are a loving community that is trying to have fun—we show that through our culture, our food, our dances, and we’re just trying to be chill,” Fortunat said.
“Something I love about the Haitian Club is we are revamping the way people think about Haitians; it's a time for those that are new to this community to start getting to know people and make new friends and acquaintances” Jean-Nestin added.
One thing the Haitian Club has done so far this year is host a Bake Sale. According to Fortunat, “the bake sale was very successful. We raised over 400 dollars, which is a big deal for us since it's only been one bake sale so we’re already thinking of doing more bake sales and planning things like more advertisements.”
“The bake sale was successful, it was a lot more organized and put together. Right now we’re looking at different events that can be held; one of them was the hot chocolate during the winter before Christmas break,” Jean-Nestin commented.
The person in charge of said advertisements is Jean-Baptiste, who is also a reporter of The Blue and Gold. She said that she videotapes their “meetings and goals, stuff like that so people on the outside can get a genuine feel of what it is like inside there” and that she posts to “social media to any sort of trendy songs, hashtags, dances, stuff like that so it would be easier to get people to see stuff like that so they’re like ‘Omg that club looks so cool, maybe I should join.’”
Online advertisements can be challenging, however. “I do feel a little bit of pressure because sometimes when you do a post of social media it's not up to you, so however much attention the video gets, it's not up to you so it can either be recognized as a failure to you or just as a bust because it didn’t get as many views you wanted or it can be an achievement cause it met your expectations or something like that. But on the other side, I don’t feel as much pressure as people may think I do because I actually do have someone else helping me and she does a great job and helps relieve pressure from me,” said Jean Baptise.
"At the end of the day they’re all from the same cultural background but have so many different stories to tell."
Christel Jean-Baptise
The Haitian Club also really pride themselves on having a warm, fun environment. “I just look forward to interacting with a bunch of new people because at the end of the day they’re all from the same cultural background but have so many different stories to tell, so I look forward to getting to know them, talking to other people which is in my job description and just making new friends. I think Haitian Club is a really cool place,” Jean Baptise said.
“I definitely look forward to something different every time, we don’t have explicit deadlines for stuff, and we’re a laid-back club, we have some music going on sometimes and we just plan bake sales and stuff like that,” Fortunat added.
“The bond—I feel like words can only go so far to describe how we really are inside the Haitian Club. At first we were just regular friends but as you keep going to the Haitian Club you become so close to the point it's an interconnected family because through the bake sales, the events, just whatever we do inside the Haitian Club brings us so much closer,” said Jean-Baptise.
