If you’ve had Ms.Caminero as a teacher you might’ve noticed that her room is sometimes full of clothing, hygiene products and other commodities. These are not provided by the school. Ms. Caminero has identified a need, and has done multiple Donors Choose fundraisers to meet that need. She shows support not just for the students of AMS but their family as well.
On the day before the February break, 2/12/2026 and 2/11/2026, Ms. Caminero opened a pop-up shop where students and parents were able to buy a variety of donated items for free. The shop had items like skin care products, decorations, toys, clothes and much more. Caminero was very happy with the results of the pop-up shop. The number of donations and shoppers surprised her. “A lot of people donated,” she said. “I did not expect to have this many donations, and I am also surprised at the amount of parents that showed up.”
The shop required hard work to maintain and set up from Caminero and the teachers and students who helped here’s a small list of some of the teachers and students who helped and deserve credit; The NIA group, Mr. Palmere. Dr. Stover, Ms. Fofana, Ms. Ramirez, Ms. Chung, Ms. Santiago, Ms. Del Rosario, Ms. Hinds and Ms. Quezada. Carrying all the supplies for the store and setting them up in the hall as well as coordinating the event and informing students and parents about it required a lot of coordination, and effort for everyone involved in the creation of the shop.
Ms. Caminero said the idea of the pop-up shop came from a conversation. “I was actually having a conversation with my best friend, and I was complaining about how I had a lot of things that I no longer use. He gave me the idea of an event where I can donate a lot of my things, and then I got the idea to ask staff members to donate as well, that’s how the event came to life.” During the shop parents and students browsed for household goods. One of the shoppers, a mother of a high school student, purchased bread, body cream and skin care products and other household items such as decorative frames. “I think it was a good idea to come into the school while I was picking up my son-I was able to get some things that I actually really needed but didn’t have the time to go out shopping,” she said.
Joseph, who was a shopper, commented on his experience “yeah, i was just looking around to see what got me interested”. Joseph, like many other shoppers, enjoyed browsing through the store to see if there was anything they liked, the store was also refreshed and restocked through the days that it was run.
Ms.Caminero’s efforts and hard work towards these events reinforces the idea that being in AMS doesn’t just make you part of the community, but also part of the AMS family. She is currently encouraging other staff to donate in hopes of organizing the next pop up shop.
