This past Monday, Nov. 12, Helping Younger Hands held an event called Know Your Ribbon, which focused on educating students on different awareness ribbons. Participants were then able to design their own ribbon for themselves about subjects that are most important to them. 

This event was an effective way of raising awareness for different subjects that relate to students. Additionally, Know Your Ribbon opened students' eyes to the fact that people are faced with many different obstacles, and one may not always know what their peers are going through. It is important to be open-minded and show support to one's peers, and this event was an effective way to do so.

Helping Younger Hands is a new organization here at Kean University that prides itself in raising awareness and educating students on disabilities, disorders, abuse and more. They focus on how these issues impact children and people alike, and this event showed that. The members of Helping Younger Hands were able to show participants that these issues are prevalent and close to home. 

The event began with students making ribbons from different colors to represent raising awareness for various causes. All of the participants proudly displayed their ribbons on their clothing throughout the duration of the event. 

Next, the executive board gave a presentation where they showed a ribbon and the audience guessed what it stood for. Then, they explained the importance of the ribbon and the symptoms that come with each disorder. Some of the categories that students were educated on include the following: autism awareness, childhood cancer awareness, dyslexia awareness, Down syndrome awareness and many more. 

After becoming educated on what the different colors of ribbons meant, students were then able to color their own ribbon. They chose colors pertaining to subjects that impacted them most. This allowed the participants to have an outlet and express what issues hit home to them. 

Vice President Dawn Demarco said, "One thing I hope people took away [from this event] is gaining more knowledge of children and people in general with disabilities. One of the largest things I think people don't realize is the way they say things, which is something that I definitely put emphasis on during this meeting."

She continued, "One of the things that I emphasize is that they are always a person or child before their disability. For example, they are a child with autism or a child with Down syndrome. I think that's one of the biggest problems, that people don't know how to word things."

Helping Younger Hands was effective in their mission of educating students on different disabilities, while also raising awareness for them. If one is interested in joining Helping Younger Hands, make sure to check out their Cougar Link.