Junior Helps Students and Housing Insecure Alike

Student spends free time helping his community the best he can 

Friends of Santa Clara Junior Tone Lee would describe him as a down-to-earth guy who constantly thinks about what he can do to help others. 

 “I was just sitting around with some free time on my hands and figured I should do something to help at least someone out,” said Lee. 

 Lee has raised over $3,500 dollars in fundraising. He used the money to buy sleeping bags and make care packages for people without housing. 

Lee distributed 110 sleeping bags on March 28 to the homeless at Roosevelt Park and other parts of San Jose with the help of some of his fellow volunteers. 

Lee is a finance major and business analytics minor. He was inspired by one of his former mentors from middle school to donate out of his own pocket and fundraise through Facebook to contribute to sleeping bags for the homeless. 

Despite the large amount of sleeping bags that were given out, many people in need of just a source of warmth in the winter remain. Lee used additional funding to create care packages that consisted of essential items like non-perishable food and toothbrushes. 

These packages also went out in March to the communities in need of San Jose as an effort to give aid and provide them with essentials that are often unavailable to the unhoused. 

Lee decided to try out his own campaign via Instagram, which involved direct messaging friends and family online and sharing links to help out the people without homes who still needed sleeping bags to stay warm in the winter. He created story posts and turned his pet’s Instagram into a campaign that engaged his peers online to donate just a few dollars to contribute to the cause. 

“It is not a one man job,” says Lee. “I have been very appreciative of the support from my community these past few weeks.”

The fundraiser is not the only thing which Lee has been involved with creating. He also posted a petition on change.org hoping for academic leniency and financial reimbursements in the wake of the coronavirus’ impact of online schooling at the university. 

In the petition, Lee voiced the concerns of many students.“I am petitioning for Santa Clara University to meet its obligations to its students,” the petition declared. “The way the school has handled COVID-19 has been unacceptable, and there needs to be amends.”

The great amount of stress/fatigue students feel after being away from campus for almost a year was reflected in the more than  1,800 signatures on the petition. With the large amount of support, the university announced leniency on February 19, allowing students to decide to take any class as pass or no pass, as well as offering students the opportunity to withdraw with a W until finals week for both winter and spring quarters. However, the rest of the demands regarding quarantine housing have not been addressed. 

Lee explained that he is still working with ASG to achieve the petition’s final demands. He says ASG has been helpful in his attempts to aid the students affected by the pandemic that are receiving inadequate support from the university. 

“My dad always taught me to fix what’s wrong,” said Lee. “Here, it felt like something was wrong, and I was just sitting around with nothing to do. I never expected such positive impacts.”