Cinco de Mayo is a yearly celebration for me. Not because I'm Mexican. Not because I know Spanish. Not because I need a reason to drink a margarita. Nope. It's because I'm the sponsor of our school's HOLA -- the Hispanic Organization for Leaders of America!
As most of you know, I'm a high school teacher. When our school opened 5 years ago and I started teaching, a few students came up to me asking if I'd like to sponsor their club. According to them, they were in HOLA in the school they transferred from. In HOLA, they would dance and compete. They'd also have some fundraisers, such as car washes and bake sales.
I had a different idea. To me, the Hispanic Organization for Leaders of America was a title that said, "Service to our community to show that Hispanics WILL be our future leaders." It didn't say, "Hey, let's dance." So that first year, we only did community service projects and fundraisers. It was a blast!
We also started a great tradition: we registered to be in LULAC's annual Cinco de Mayo Parade in downtown Houston.
Now, five years later, I still sponsor HOLA. It's one of the biggest clubs in our schools. We added a dance section to the organization (because not all my students can or want to dance), and we still participate in the parade: just like we did yesterday!
I'm very proud of HOLA. I'll write more about it and my students in my blog. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures!
