“I’ve always liked helping people in the community, and Super Joey helps me do that,” said senior Molly Santeford.
Santeford is one of the new senior officers of South High’s Super Joey club. Super Joey is a national nonprofit organization whose goal is to help families who are affected by childhood cancer. Super Joey was originally brought to South in 2023 by 2025 graduates Sienna Breen and Grace Fu. The club is sponsored by South High Spanish teacher Julie Mazdra.
Senior Jessica Raj is the other new senior officer leading the club this year. She says the new leadership is planning to continue working toward the club’s past mission of raising awareness and supporting families dealing with childhood cancer.
“We’re trying to continue volunteering a lot,” Raj said. “ It’s important to us that we make sure that all of our meetings and club activities are giving back to the Ronald McDonald House or other organizations that help with cancer awareness.”
South’s Super Joey club plans multiple events throughout the year, including cooking meals at the local Ronald McDonald House, the St. Baldrick’s head-shaving fundraiser in the spring, and this year Santeford plans to start a new event that will give students a chance to give back even more.
“I hope to add on to all of our other events by also doing a can tab drive so we can raise money for the Ronald McDonald House. I think if everyone brings just a few tabs, we could raise a lot of money,” Santeford said.
The Ronald McDonald House is a non-profit organization where families can stay for free while their child is receiving treatment at a nearby hospital. In St Louis, there are two Ronald McDonald Houses, with one close to Barnes-Jewish Hospital and another close to Mercy Hospital St Louis.
Senior Nikhil Jain has just gotten involved with the club this year, and from what he’s seen so far, he believes it could be a fun and beneficial club for any student to join.
“I joined because the volunteering sounded fun because I’d get to help families while also hanging out with a bunch of people I know,” Jain said. “I really like getting to cook with my friends while I help people.”
Cooking homemade meals at the Ronald McDonald House is fun for the student volunteers, but more importantly, it is deeply appreciated by the families staying there, according to Raj.
“It is so rewarding every time we get to see the family’s faces when they walk in and see the delicious homemade meal that we made for them,” Raj said.
Last year, the club was made up entirely of juniors and seniors, so currently, the club’s members are almost all seniors, but Santeford is doing many things to try and gain more members.
“We’re going to promote all of our club meetings and activities on Instagram, so anyone interested can follow our account @superjoeypsh so they know about everything going on,” Santeford said. “Even if you’ve never come to an event before, we’d love to have you come volunteer with us or come to a meeting.”
As the club continues planning events for this school year, Jain is looking forward to seeing how many families Super Joey will be able to help this year.
“I just want to help families get back on their feet, and I want to promote a feeling of support within their community,” he said. “I think we can help a lot of people this year.”
![“All-Suburban [choir] was really fun because I got to work with a lot of people from other schools that I didn't know and I got to make friends. We got to learn fun but challenging music and perform for my parents so that was really fun. But the audition process was really stressful, because over 600 people auditioned but only around 150 actually made it into the choir so that was really intimidating for me. I was one out of three girls in my class who made it so that made me feel really special and I was really grateful to have this opportunity.”](https://psouthtreaty.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Image_20260523_140845_694.jpeg)
