Having finished their last major competitions for the 2016 school year, the speech and debate team, led by junior co-presidents Ayush Aggarwal and Divya Rallabandi, has entered the early stages of planning volunteering events. The team has historically focused on competitions — this is the first time that it has shifted its attention to charity.

“We really wanted to do this [volunteering] because speech and debate has affected us a lot both in and out of school,” Rallabandi said.

On Oct. 24, the team held a mandatory meeting to introduce their plans. The team plans on holding multiple fundraisers outside of school to raise more money. Rallabandi said that the team plans to reach out to many businesses in downtown Los Gatos to make raffles; they also plan on selling flowers in Santana Row.

“I'm excited because the fundraiser is for such a great cause and I'm really happy that I'm able to be a part of it,” freshman Ananya Vadlakonda said.

In doing so, Rallabandi hopes to spread the message that all students deserve a chance to participate in speech and debate.

“We don’t really believe in doing GoFundMe’s or online fundraisers,” Rallabandi said. “We want to personally interact with people and get to know them so we can spread the message.”

Once the team has fully established their fundraiser program, Rallabandi and Aggarwal plan on setting up direct outreach meetings with the students whom the charity will benefit. For now, though, their plans have centered upon dividing the students into separate groups to plan individual events.

“Ultimately, speech and debate is a right, not a privilege,” Rallabandi said, “and we want to make sure that a lot of kids get the same opportunity that we take for granted.”