High school students banded together on April 21 to raise money to support music teacher Jennifer Halsey’s upcoming mission trip to bring clean water to children in Ghana.

To assist Halsey’s effort, the entire student body participated in a beach cleanup and grass planting project at Hampton Bays’ Tiana Beach. They secured sponsorships for the beach cleanup and planting in addition to participating in a recycling project within their school that yielded $1,600 in total.

Money raised through the effort, which was organized by seniors Laura Maila and Maddalena Wrobel, will be used to purchase water filtration systems for Ghanaian children.

“We not only raised money for Ms. Halsey’s mission, but we also cleaned up a local beach and restored beach-grass that was destroyed after Super Storm Sandy,” said Laura.

“We are thrilled that we were able to make this happen,” said Maddalena.  “It is amazing to see the entire school work together.”