Club Brings Compassionate Action to Campo

The Compassion Club, founded this year by English teacher Tom Duffy, has a short mission statement: Help Humans. Inspired by his December journey of aiding homeless people around Pleasant Hill, Duffy intends to bring this mission of compassionate action to Campo.

Though the club has yet to meet, Duffy is looking forward to its future and said, “It’s very much in its formative stages. So we don’t know how it’s going to evolve or turn into what, but I’m so excited to see what ideas people have. It’s open to whatever.”

Duffy’s mission started outside of Campolindo. “I started trying to help some homeless people in Pleasant Hill. And then I found out about great things that were going on in Martinez. And I started playing some music for the homeless people with their showers on Fridays. And that was the beginning of this compassion thing,” Duffy said.

In addition to Duffy’s own efforts, the club has 1 confirmed member, senior Chelsea Tatum, who acts as the club’s standing president.

Tatum joined the Compassion Club after internalising Duffy’s message that when you help people, that impact will come back to you in a positive way. “He would always tell our class about how much it has served him, as well as [the homeless].”

The club has plans of helping out teachers around campus who have been impacted by the quarantine and other misfortunes, sending out cards and other heartwarming messages.

Duffy emphasized that the club is “minimum commitment, maximum benefit” in order to highlight the relaxed nature of the club. “Let’s just see what we can do with all the mind power and all the energy of these campus students when we put it toward this kind of goal or purpose.”

As of right now, the club meets together on Wednesday academies in Duffy’s room, E11. Duffy encourages students to join and figure out how exactly the community can be bettered.