How It All Began …
Mrs. Maxwell owns a bakery on the Jersey shore and in May she noticed that her borough installed sun-screen dispensers for the public to use. She was super pleased with this new idea, as Mrs. Maxwell is a skin cancer survivor and knows many others that have been affected. Mrs. Maxwell turned her thoughts towards purchasing these dispensers for our school so that students could be protected from the sun. She contacted Richard David Kann Foundation to gather more information on implementing the dispensers in our school. Mrs. Maxwell says, “We were lucky with the help of the director and my efforts to be matched with a donor to assist with covering the costs for [three] portable sunscreen dispensers for our students in the district.” Thankfully, we now have these dispensers available to the students in Lower Moreland School District. One is located at the high school near the athletic training room/fitness center, and another at Murray A venue School near the track. Mrs. Maxwell says that, “We are using the third for our newly organized Students Against Melanoma Club (SAM Club).”
The Club and Its Offerings:
The LMHS Students Against Melanoma Club (also called SAM Club) meets monthly and has completed a lot in a short amount of time. Back in October, club members attended the school’s Food Truck Festival to provide information on sun safety and hand kids sun-safety coloring pages. In November, the club was featured on Bob Kelly’s “Fox 29 Kelly’s Classroom,” and was able to show off the new sunscreen dispensers granted to our school. Mrs. Maxwell says, “In January, we purchased a Skin Scope Analyzer that can show variations and changes to skin by viewing through a skin viewer” which can provide useful information to students in the school. In addition, the club has partnered with Island Sun Tanning in Huntingdon Valley to offer students a discounted spray tan for the Winter Ball. The club thinks that it is important for students to be aware that spray tanning is a much safer option than tanning beds or booths that emit harmful UV A and UVB rays. In the future, the club is planning to host a fundraiser and attend the Phillies Melanoma Awareness day hosted by Mike Schmidt in May.
Why Mrs. Maxwell Enjoys Sponsoring the Club:
Mrs. Maxwell says, “I have been incredibly lucky to have an incredible group of students join this year to kick off the first year of the club with a lot of ideas and energy. They are helpful, thoughtful and motivated to make change.” Mrs. Maxwell is aware of the high rate of skin cancer among Americans today and wanted to educate and encourage students and staff to implement sun safety in the district with the sunscreen dispensers. Practicing sun safety at a young age is important and beneficial because it can save people from obtaining skin cancer at a later age. She believes that the best way to help spread the word about sun safety was to create the SAM club.
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