Stonington ― Students and staff at the high school competed in a lip-sync battle in the auditorium Wednesday to raise funds for an orphanage in Haiti besieged by gang violence.

“I’m passionate about social justice,” said show emcee Peter Previty, a junior and president of the Helping Hands for Haiti Club, which hosted the event. “I thought it was just an amazing cause I wanted to get behind.

Students, faculty, or a combination of both, competed in two laughter-filled performances before the school community, as part of the annually occurring fundraiser for HELO, an organization that runs an orphanage and school near the city of Les Cayes, Haiti.

Students and faculty will vote for their favorite act through monetary donations between Wednesday and Friday. All members of the winning act will dress as a princess on Monday, replete with a tiara, boa and wand, and every dollar raised will go directly to the organization.

Eileen Fiore, a French and Spanish teacher at the high school, began the collaboration with the orphanage a decade ago by pairing her language students with students at the orphanage in a pen pal program and holding fundraising events.

Both the high school and middle school have been raising money for the orphanage since then, and the high school hosts one large fundraiser each year along with smaller ones. Fiore estimated that students have raised $5,000 over the years, and contributed far more in physical goods such as toys, clothing and toiletry items.

Senior Brady Mullen and sophomore Patrick McGugan entered the contest with a performance of “Summer Nights,” from the movie “Grease.”

Mullen, who lip synced the part of Olivia Newton John’s Sandy Olsson, complete with dress and curly blond wig, said he decided to enter the competition because he and McGugan try to stay heavily involved with their community.

“We saw a fun opportunity and we always love getting involved — showing people they can get out of their comfort zones and have fun,” he said.

“People don’t necessarily donate without something they get back, so I feel like this was a great idea because they get to watch a great performance, and then there are benefits after the performance too,” said McGugan, who channeled John Travolta’s character Danny Zuko, referring to the princess costumes the winners will wear on Monday.

“We’re helping a good cause, and that’s all that matters,” McGugan added.

Career Center Coordinator and assistant football coach Elijah Brown, wore a long blond wig and a cape during his performance of “A Thousand Miles” by Venessa Carlton and “I’m Every Woman” by Chaka Khan mixed by DJ MOTY. He was accompanied by a cadre of faculty back up dancers.

“I have an awesome team with me, and I wanted to do something fun for the school,” he said, adding it was a great cause, and he was happy to be able to help in Haiti by participating.

Founded in 2007, the Wethersfield-based non-profit HELO works to provide a “Home, Education, Love, and Opportunity” to orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti.

Fiore said that in addition to food insecurity and massive inflation, a sharp increase in gang violence in the small, island nation has forced the orphanage to hire around-the-clock security guards to keep the children and staff safe, creating an urgent need for donations.

An early February United Nations report detailed human rights abuses, tremendous violence, kidnappings, mass murders, gang rapes and sniper attacks. On a single day last summer, gang members murdered 85 people including six children, the youngest of which was two years old.

According to the HELO website, the orphanage cares for 37 children on site and provides education through high school to 350 children in Haiti both in-person and remotely. The facility consists of three homes, each with two adult caretakers and between 10 and 12 children, a transitional home for children over the age of 18, and two school buildings with a computer center.

“School in Haiti is not a right; it’s a privilege,” Fiore told the students, adding that the Haitian government has shuttered 72 schools in the wake of the extreme violence.

“The world is made up of millions of people doing millions of little things to make a difference, and today, you can do something little to make a huge difference,” she said.

Donations can be made to helohaiti.org or by mailing a check made out to SHS to 176 South Broad St., Pawcatuck, CT, 06379 with HELO in the memo line.