Ruby Brockert
August 27, 2020 4:04 PM
AAAAAA Charity Meeting by Ruby Brockert
The weeks had passed so quickly, so that before she knew it, it was time for the meeting. It seemed like Ruby had just been at Emerald's wedding and now she was back at school getting ready to work on her booth for allergy and asthma awareness. She knew how important this topic was as she could see how difficult things were for Miles, Aunt Madeleine, and her aunt and uncle's kitchen elves as they had to work out allergy friendly recipes so as not to accidentally kill the two year old.Fortunately, her aunt had gotten a cookbook that contained safe recipes and substitutions from the very charity Ruby was supporting which had also sent the Teppenpaw free copies of for her booth at the fair. She'd also gotten lots of pamphlets and statistical information on the subject at hand.
In addition to raising money at the fair for AAAAAA, the seventh year hoped to get the kitchen elves here at Sonora to make allergy friendly dishes. Yes, Miles was only two and wouldn't be attending school for awhile yet, but there very well might be students who were attending now or in the future besides her cousin that could have food allergies. Plus, if the initiatives started around when Miles went to school, he could be outed as the Kid Who Had Allergies. Ruby knew from when Sapphire didn't want her doing an epilepsy charity "just in case" that some people didn't want to be singled out in that way.
Of course, her cousin didn't just have food allergies, he had indoor, outdoor, insect and pet allergies too. If Miles or his older sister Libby wanted a cat or dog, they could not have one. Their house had to be completely dust free and if someone took the little boy out when there was a lot of pollen....well it was just plain for the best if he stayed inside during those times of the year as the alternative was an allergy potion that really drugged him up and probably wasn't good for him.
The women in their family also couldn't wear perfume around Miles, because most of them aggravated his allergies. If Aunt Madeleine wanted to wear it, she had to put it on when she got to the event and wash it off before she left. Fortunately, the two people in their immediate family who wouldn't care about triggering his allergies, Topaz and Uncle Eustace, also weren't the sort to wear perfume, though the latter enjoyed a fine cigar and Miles was allergic to smoke too. Not that he cared if his nephew was sneezing or having issues with breathing. He would usually mock the poor child for being a "weakling" the way he had always mocked Owen as such for being asthmatic (and unathletic).
Today's meeting was mostly about trying to decide what sort of activity they should have to raise money. Ruby wanted it to be something really fun so they brought in a lot. Problem was, there was not going to be one thing that everyone thought was "really fun" because people liked different things. Like, for example, some people thought Quidditch was fun but the Teppenpaw didn't enjoy it at all. And then there was Topaz whose ideas of fun were not at all fun for other people.
The allergy cook book had come in handy for today's meeting as the seventh year had asked the kitchen elves to prepare some allergy friendly snacks because she felt it would not be appropriate to serve things that weren't at a meeting for an allergy related charity. The fried pasta and mock cheese crackers were both favorites of Miles and Libby both, even though the latter was completely allergy free and could eat whatever she liked.
Once people arrived, Ruby stood up and began to talk. "Hello, and welcome to the meeting for Allergy and Asthma Awareness and Advocacy. This is a charity that promotes awareness about allergies and asthma and advocates for those who suffer from these conditions. They do things like create potions to treat allergies and asthma and recipes that are safe for those who have food allergies as well as making sure schools like Sonora have allergy friendly foods available."
"We're here to find an activity that we can do to raise money for this charity. I'll open the floor for suggestions now. Please remember to be respectful of others during this discussion and that there are no bad ideas."
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Ruby Brockert
AAAAAA Charity Meeting
1405
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Jasmine Delachene
August 30, 2020 6:45 PM
Aaaaaah, good by Jasmine Delachene
Jasmine arrived at Ruby's meeting eager to help her challenge companion turned friend. Peyton was her best friend and would have first dibs on Jasmine's help, but Jasmine had a lot of help to give and Ruby would get anything Peyton hadn't claimed first. Of course, Jasmine's best idea - the hedge maze - was still under consideration by Peyton's team, so she probably shouldn't mention it here. Also, some people might be allergic to hedge pollen or something, so it was a bad fit anyway. Likewise horseback rides since the shedding could exacerbate asthma. Thestrals could be better, since they didn't have hair, but . . . most people didn't like riding horses they either couldn't see at all or found terrifying to look at if they could. Maybe save that idea for Dorian's group. They could maybe even magic a Granian to look like Rainbow Dash. She seemed like a good poster pony for the LGBTQ+ group given her cutie mark.Anyway, Jasmine didn't really have any great ideas left that were appropriate for the Allergies and Asthma group. She still tried her utmost to make her brain produce one when Ruby asked for suggestions. She wanted to be helpful.
"We could maybe have a bake sale with foods that use alternatives to common allergens like eggs and dairy and gluten?" she suggested. Peyton was the better baker of the two of them, but Jasmine was sure she could make something edible. "Or maybe some kind of game that makes people more aware of all the hidden dangers in almost every food and product? I'm not sure how we'd do that though and still be fun instead of depressing."
Okay, that maybe wasn't the most helpful thing, but maybe it would help someone else spark an idea?
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Jasmine Delachene
Aaaaaah, good
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Caitlin Pierce
September 11, 2020 7:29 PM
Aaaah ok by Caitlin Pierce
When it came to the charity fair, Caitlin had signed up for Sylvia's historical building charity both because she was a loyal friend and because she genuinely believed in preserving magical history. All too often the Nessa McLeods and Zara Jacksons of the world wanted to inflict the Muggle world and it's values on them, as if it was somehow superior.And did they not realize that magic was the subculture and Muggles were the dominate ones? Magic had been pushed underground! Not that Caitlin wanted Muggles to know about magic. When that had been the case, Muggles had branded witches and wizards as evil and started persecuting them.
Not only that but some of those people thought that people like Caitlin were being oppressed because they were female. Because they grew up to be wives and mothers and socialites rather than business people and politicians. Because they would rather pursue feminine pasttimes than play Quidditch. As if playing sports and working were the more desirable options. These were the people who had the nerve to say that those like Caitlin imposed their values on everyone while doing exactly that.
And they would just say she was brainwashed for her views when the Crotalus had the Anns sitting right there, doing those exact things that were so promoted by those people. She had never seen anything desirable about their lifestyle and felt strongly that it was the result of the fact that the Anns had such an unhealthy bond that it rather made them unmarriageable-and that wasn't her.
Not to mention people like Allegra who would not do well in a cutthroat environment like business or politics. What were people like her friend supposed to do if people like Nessa and Zara and Lyssa Fitzgerald had their way?
Anyway, Caitlin also had wanted to do something to show she cared about people. Although her options were limited by the amount of things ran by undesirable people-not to mention charities she out and out disagreed with-the sixth year had decided on supporting Ruby's charity for people with asthma and allergies. The only alternative had been Peyton O'Malley's anti-child abuse charity, while she agreed with wholeheartedly, she found incredibly depressing.
Besides, Caitlin really did feel bad for Miles. For the rest of his life, he was going to have to be excessively cautious, especially around food, because of the amount of things out there that could potentially kill him or at the least make him sick. She could only imagine how that might affect him down the line in terms of his outlook on life. Caitlin couldn't imagine how stressful it would be to spend your life living in fear that you might at any time come into contact with something harmful to you.
It was actually completely unfathomable that there were actually people out there who chose to live that way-and not just Aurors who went out and protected people. Aurors obviously had their place in society. She more meant people like the sort who went into Pecari, who treated danger and putting themselves in harm's way like it was a game. Did they not get that there were people out there who really were in danger at any given time, both ones like Miles or others with chronic health conditions and ones like those abused children that Peyton and her charity were trying to save? Honestly, Caitlin wanted to smack them for being so stupid. Even though this reasoning for wanting to do so had not occurred to her until recently.
Ruby began the meeting, followed by Jasmine Delachene offering some suggestions. Really, that was the problem with joining in school activities, they were open to everyone and that meant she had to be around inappropriate people. Still, Caitlin was a proper lady and part of that was being polite, even when she didn't want to be. Besides, Ruby had said to be respectful and that there were no bad ideas. Sometimes, Ruby was just way too nice, honestly.
Still, Caitlin didn't see the harm in pointing out the flaws with something that wasn't a viable idea. "While I definitely see why we should promote allergy friendly food, I don't know how many people are really good at baking and cooking." One of the things she had learned during the Challenges was how uncommon a skill that was among Sonora students.
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Caitlin Pierce
Aaaah ok
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Jezebel Reed-Fischer
September 15, 2020 8:48 AM
*screaming* by Jezebel Reed-Fischer
Jezebel was happy to be involved with things on campus, especially since she had started turning her mind towards post-graduation life and resigned herself to the fact that she would need to start from scratch on the resume-building front. She wasn't too old to be starting but if her classmates were anything to judge by, she wasn't the youngest to be starting either and she could do with any leg up she could get. Interestingly, it was exactly those sorts of students that she was working with for this charity, and not at all those sorts of students. Jezebel suspected that the older girls who were helping with AAAAAA had begun preparing for their future long before they had begun at Sonora, but she also suspected that most of their futures did not include such things as resumes or jobs or college. Maybe that wasn't true of all of them, and maybe that was fine for some people, but Jezebel couldn't help thinking that felt like settling.In any case, she felt terribly out of place when she joined Ruby, Jasmine, and Caitlin in the MARS room for the charity meeting. Jasmine's idea seemed like a good one to Jezebel but she was saved from backing the wrong horse when Caitlin immediately shut the idea down. Shame, really, because Jezebel thought it would be a good educational tool for sure. "We may be able to ask the kitchen," she pointed out quietly. She hated that she pointed it out quietly because she was generally a confident person, she thought, and she shouldn't have to speak quietly now. Still, her instinct said to be small so she followed her instinct. "They probably already make or know how to make allergen-free things. If not, we could still do pamphlets or something about it Maybe," she suggested. That didn't help make them any money though.
"Could we maybe sell little toys? I know, growing up, when we would do Halloween and go trick-or-treating," she paused, not sure whether the other girls would have experienced any such thing, but also not feeling like she wanted to explain when a coherent idea was finally forming, "when adults would pass out candy to kids, sometimes the kids would be allergic, so some places started passing out little toys instead. It was a good way to give kids something fun without risk hurting them. Just something simple maybe?" she suggested. "A lot of people have younger siblings at home that they might buy little toys for," she added, thinking of Patience especially.
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Jezebel Reed-Fischer
*screaming*
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Allegra Brockert
September 16, 2020 4:33 PM
Staying quiet by Allegra Brockert
Allegra was not generally the type who would choose to get involved with school activities. She was tended to be quite afraid to put herself out there and risk rejection from her peers. She honestly felt like most people were not going to like her, that she had little to offer them and that she was pretty much not the kind of person most of her classmates would like. Had Sylvia and Caitlin not come visited her and befriended her on her first day at Sonora, she probably would not have made friends at all.She certainly would not have gotten involved with the charity fair at all. Not because the Crotalus didn't care about people, which she definitely did, but because she might have to work with people that she was not sure would like her. Allegra already had to do that as prefect. She was under no illusions that anyone outside her small group of friends liked her that much.
However, both Sylvia and Ruby were organizing booths. The former was a good friend who'd made it so the fifth year wasn't completely alone, so Allegra like felt she owed the older girl her support, both with the charity fair and with her Head Girl vote. As for Ruby, she was Allegra's cousin and so was Miles, who was more or less the reason why the Teppenpaw had selected this particular organization which Aunt Madeleine was already in contact with. Allegra had always had a soft spot for the younger children in her family and was pretty good with them so of course she wanted to help her littlest cousin. She hated the fact that he was suffering, that he would probably continue to do so. That he couldn't enjoy simple pleasures that every little kid got to have like eating an ice cream cone. Allegra knew how much her own little brother Uriah, who was only five months older than Miles was, enjoyed food, that he had the freedom to have whatever he liked to eat while their cousin had to have special allergen free recipes.
Of course, some allergies were often outgrown by people, so hopefully, that would happen for Miles. As it was, he was going to spend his life living in fear, a feeling the fifth year knew all too well. And Miles was going to have to worry about both allergens and Topaz. Not to mention how people might treat him because of the former, like he was a freak or something. Uncle Eustace already ridiculed him for it. In her uncle's eyes, a medical problem made someone lesser, made them weak and he thought there was nothing worse for a person, a male in particular, to be. Uncle Eustace had always been awful to Owen because of the latter having asthma. Allegra couldn't be sure that others wouldn't be just as terrible to Miles in the future.
Still, just because she was helping out with Ruby's charity, did not mean that the Crotalus had ideas to contribute or would speak up even if she did. Nor did she want to especially say she liked the ideas of people like Jasmine Delachene or Jezebel Reed-Fischer when Caitlin was in the room. Despite the fact that both of them had decent ideas. After all, food was a big problem for Miles even though he was allergic to other things too. Caitlin was right too though in that they probably didn't know how to cook things and Allegra wasn't sure if others were getting the kitchen elves to make food too. Or if they were just already doing refreshments for the fair in general. She liked Jezebel's idea even more though.
However, Allegra stayed quiet and waited for the next person to speak as she was generally uncomfortable speaking up in groups like this one where she wasn't one hundred percent comfortable with everyone.
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Allegra Brockert
Staying quiet
1426
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Jasper Brockert
September 17, 2020 7:26 PM
What about.... by Jasper Brockert
Naturally, Jasper had signed up to help his older sister with her charity. Ruby had always been good to her younger siblings. While Topaz had tortured them and Emerald had rather ignored them to the best of her abilities, Ruby had often enjoyed playing with him, Sapphire and Amethyst. Therefore, the first year wanted to help her with her charity.Not only that but this charity was to help out people like his cousin Miles who were suffering from allergies. His cousin's allergies weren't just some annoyance if he went outside with out being medicated during the summer-which would be bad enough-they were pretty much an actual disability. Disabilities were things that impacted a person's ability to do basic things like eat and interact with the world around them. Being allergic to most foods definitely impacted Miles' ability to eat. Going out to eat at a restaurant would be pretty difficult for him. Plus, it was hard for him to simply leave the house in case he ran into flowers or perfume or animals, among other things.
AAAAAA also helped out people with asthma, like Owen. Owen didn't have it quite as difficult as Miles did. He could basically eat whatever he wanted and really only had to avoid a few other things like cockroach droppings and very cold weather. It was also hard for Owen to do more than mild exercise. However, the Teppenpaw alumna was not crazy about sports and physical activity anyway. And very cold weather and cockroach droppings were easy enough to avoid.
Still, not being able to breathe well was awful and it still had had an impact on Owen. For example, Uncle Eustace had often ridiculed Owen as a weakling because of it and the former Teppenpaw had always been worried that people would mock him the same way. That he wasn't good enough. Plus, it caused his mother to be rather overprotective of him. Not to mention the obvious, which was that sometimes he had difficulty breathing.
Anyway, Jasper was really happy to raise money for a charity that would help people that he cared about. Of course, he was glad that nobody he cared about would need help from that other charity that he was helping out. Unless himself or Christopher counted...
Fortunately, Ruby started the meeting so he didn't have to think about that right now and people began coming up with ideas. Jasmine mentioned a bake sale or some game making people aware of the dangers hidden in almost every food product. The former sounded like a reasonable suggestion because food allergies and the lack of options that Miles had seemed to be one of the biggest issues he (and his mother and their kitchen elves) had to deal with. However, Caitlin had a point too. He had no idea how to bake and they would want things to taste good and not be ruined so people would be willing to spend money on them.
Jasper did like the idea of some sort of game though as well as Jezebel's idea of using small toys. "I like the idea of having small toys but instead of selling them, I think we should have some sort of game where you win them. Except that it should be like, you get a prize every time. I mean, I guess that's sort of selling them, but it's a fair, so we need....fair type activities. As for pamphlets and stuff, we can provide those too and we have a cookbook that we can hand out."
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Jasper Brockert
What about....
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