Once a year, Granada High School hosts the 24-Hour Race, a fundraiser designed to bring awareness to human trafficking and raise money to stop it. With its date fast approaching, I sat down with the race’s executive director Jamie Yi, a senior, to get some insight into her experience as a staff member and leader of the fundraiser.
Her introduction to the race started as a way to be part of Granada. “I joined the committee to meet people,” Yi says. She explained that she enjoyed the people and the environment created by the Race. Yi has been on the 24-Hour Race Committee since she was a freshman and has found her experience to be well worth it. “It’s been really rewarding. The Race made me much more social and really helped me come out of my shell.”
I was curious about what made her want to stick with the Race for all these years and she had this to say: “I like the cause. [Human trafficking] is something I think we all need to be more aware of because it’s constantly happening around us, but you never hear anyone addressing it or spreading awareness. It’s the most widespread issue no one is talking about.” Yi also attributed her desire to stay with the fundraiser to the community it has bred. “I met so many people and grew really close with a lot of the team.” She feels she has made many friends she probably would not have otherwise.
Yi loves being part of the Race and is honored to be its director. She explains what it’s like to go from a committee member to the event’s executive director, “It was unexpected honestly. I just slowly worked my way up from part of the marketing department to its head. Most of the committee were seniors by the time I became head of marketing, but I was still surprised that I was asked to be executive director. I mean, I never would have thought I’d be in that position when I joined the Race in freshman year. It meant a lot.”
The last thing I asked Jamie Yi was how she would describe her experience as the executive director of the Race thus far. She enthusiastically told me, “I organized a good timeline [for future events] earlier in the year so things can run smoothly and efficiently.” She made an effort to plan as much as she could as early as possible to make her last year of the Race the best it could be. Yi is grateful to her directors as well, saying, “My team of directors this year are also amazingly hard-working people, so together we’re all progressing well.”
The new executive director of the 24-Hour Race is very excited about what this year will bring. The school is forward to seeing what she organizes for the Race, given her enthusiasm and faith in her team. Be on the lookout for info as the date of the 24-Hour Race inches closer.
