Benefits of Giving

Daniela Sofia Cosio   Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart
Daniela, a ninth grader at Carrollton, is a straight A student taking all honors classes and a member of the Junior Honor Society 2006 – 2008 and the 2009 National Honor Society. With a litany of achievements including; a City of Miami Certificate of Appreciation from Mayor Manuel A. Diaz for organizing hurricane relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina, organizing children and contributions for the Children of Centro Mater – a day care center and school for underprivileged children, raised money for the Epilepsy Department of Miami Children’s Hospital and obtained a $500 food and toothbrush contribution for Camillus House. Daniela organized a fundraiser for Miami Children's Hospital’s Epilepsy Department on May 2nd for which she coordinated 150 children from eight schools and raised over $25K. 

Joshua Williams    Fisher Island Day School
Joshua was five years old when he founded Joshua’s Heart Foundation. His heart conceived a passion for assisting those who struggle daily to procure food for basic survival. The main focus of his vision is to “Stomp out Hunger” in indigent and underprivileged communities, as well as from among those who battle debilitating diseases that affect their ability to earn enough to feed themselves. The primary objective of Joshua’s Heart Foundation’s “Stomp out Hunger” program is to empower needy people to improve their quality of life by providing items of basic necessity such as food and other grocery products. The program’s intention is to engage and educate communities at home and abroad about committing to fight hunger and poverty on a global basis.

Emily Martinez-Lanza   Gulliver Preparatory School
In 2006, Emily was valedictorian of her eighth grade class and that was just the beginning. An accomplished pianist and violinist, Emily scholastic achievements are too many to mention, with recognition of the National, Math and English Honor Societies, a snapshot. She is President of the Mercy Hospital Teen and College Student Auxiliary, Vice President of the Key Club International chapter at Gulliver and President and Founder of Teens Against Domestic Abuse (TADA). Emily founded TADA with a mission in mind and that was to raise awareness about the prevalence and destructive nature of domestic abuse and to assist victims through education and support by encouraging them to seek help and ultimately rebuild their lives. Partnering with the Coral Gables Police Department Victim/Witness Unit, Emily has helped collect over 300 cell phones for her motto is “one cell phone in a victim’s hand at the right time and place can save one or more lives”. Her current campaign is titled “Break the Silence-Break the Cycle”. Emily has raised over $5,000 in the past four months alone to provide basic needs for victims as well as to support educational programs.

Ilana Dreyfuss      Hillel School
Since Ilana was ten years old, she has been visiting senior citizens at their homes twice a year to deliver Passover and Yom Kippur Food Packages, organized by the Jewish Community Services. For as far back as Ilana can remember, she has participated, along with her family, in a major phone-a-thon effort organized by The Miami Jewish Federation (Super Sunday) in their main building. She would make calls all day to solicit donations to help a variety of organizations of the Jewish Federation that are dedicated to helping those in need from the homeless and senior citizens to the abused, poor and ill. Ilana also spent over 100 hours teaching underprivileged children to play tennis. She also collected girls tennis outfits for the girls in the program. This year Ilana formed a club called “Books Across Borders”. To date, the club has collected over 2,000 textbooks and reading books that they packed and sent to an organization called “Books for Africa”.

Alexis Lehrman Lehrman Community Day School
A trip to Dunkin’ Donuts can mean more than coffee. In 2006, Alex and her Mom were in the store when she spied a pink glazed donut and thought out loud “hey, Dunkin’ Donuts should use these pink donuts to raise money for breast cancer!” This sparked Lexi to her next exclamation “why not me?” which led her to ask friends and family to defer from giving her birthday presents and channel the gift money to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Lexi lost two very important women in her life, her Grandmother and cousin Missy, which left her with an understanding of how difficult it is to lose someone precious, thus leading to her next philanthropic idea the “Love Lexi Foundation” in order to continue her “acts of loving kindness”. Lexi’s motto is “Be creative. Be inspiring. Be caring.” She has so far raised almost $24,000 with her Art for the Cure party at which guests painted their interpretation of the breast cancer ribbon that were then made into posters and sold. Even Romero Britto is engaged with the “Love Lexi Foundation” and Lexi had the chance of a lifetime to paint along side her idol. Dunkin’ Donuts is on board too donating free donuts and monies raised from the sale of pink donuts during breast cancer awareness month.

Nicole Holtz Miami Country Day School
Nicole has worked tirelessly for the cause of juvenile diabetes. She created a tennis tournament fundraiser to raise funds for the cause and for the past four years, Nicole has worked at the golf tournament sponsored by the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI).  She has given over 200 hours of volunteer time to DRI and shows no signs of letting up. Nicole has also been involved in the Jackson Memorial Foundation annual gala. A senior, Nicole is also involved with the NCJW Teens Runaway project and with the Miami Country Day School’s Cancer Walk. She is a dedicated student and “they don’t come any nicer or more dedicated”.

Stephanie Castillo Palmer Trinity
Stephanie, has been the school’s student Community Service Coordinator for the Executive SGA for the last two years and has helped raise awareness for the plight of children in the Middle East. Last year Stephanie implemented a school supply drive under the auspices of Operation Iraqi Children. Through her initiative, the school collected supplies for over 100 backpacks that were distributed by American troops to children in war-torn areas to help them continue their education. This year, working with other members of the French National Honor Society, Stephanie has organized another global outreach drive, the “Plumpy’nut Project”, to assist in raising funds for malnourished children in Niger, Africa. Combating the effect of global poverty on children has become a cause-celebre for Stephanie in her quest to make a difference within the emerging world community. She plans to continue these objectives when she attends Dartmouth College in September.

Analise Palomo Ransom Everglades High School
The volunteering bug hit Analise at the age of five through her involvement with the Girl Scouts where she made and shipped quilts to those affected by Hurricane Katrina, as well as collected money and school supplies for young students at the Community Partnership for Homeless. Asking for contributions in lieu of birthday gifts, Analise raised $2,500 for MUJER. As President of the Volunteer Services Organization (VSO), she has collected clothes and food for hurricane victims in Haiti and collected over 100 shoeboxes full of toys for children in India, organized a tutoring program with Ransom Everglades’ neighboring underprivileged school, Tucker Elementary. Additionally, she has collected canned food for Thanksgiving dinner at the Miami Rescue Mission, raised $500 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation through a PowederPuff Football Game, held a school-wide bake sale to raise money for Share Our Strength and organized the Swoop-a-thon at Ransom with the Association of Retarded Citizens (ARC) of South Florida to raise over $20,000.

Sam Bolduc St. Thomas Episcopal Parish School
Sam, a fifth grader, is committed to making a difference. Sam wrote a letter to all of his fifth grade classmates (51) inviting them to make a difference in the lives of children with Downs Syndrome by registering to join him and his family in a one mile walk in Coral Gables to benefit people with Downs Syndrome. Sam’s five year old sister, Ellie, has Downs Syndrome and this “cause” is close to his heart. In his letter: “if you have met my sister, you already know that even though she looks a little different than you do, she is still cute. You already know that she talks a little different than you do, but has a lot to say. If you have met Ellie, you also know that although she does a lot of things a little different than you do, she loves, laughs, and feels just like you do.” Sam had 181 people at his event October 12th and raised almost $5,000 for kids with Downs Syndrome.

Holly Ceasar    American Heritage School
Holly is a “highly talented, internally motivated and genuinely altruistic young person” says her Director of Guidance, Kelly Bennett. Holly’s early altruism consisted of becoming involved in her local Best Buddies organization for which she swiftly ran for and became the President of the school’s chapter. Her enthusiasm seemed contagious and the club grew to over 20 members. Holly worked with her team along with Publix and Einstein Bros. and through contributions the Buddies and Peer Buddies (another Holly innovation) were able to make 150 sandwiches for the Fort Lauderdale Homeless Shelter.
After attending a photo-documentary seminar at the Florida Scholastic Press Association Conference, Holly was struck by a slideshow about David, a boy with autism. She decided to create a similar documentary “VOICE” to provide a voice for those with intellectual disabilities. Under Holly’s leadership, the Best Buddies chapter has been recognized as an “Outstanding Chapter” a “Five Star Chapter of Excellence”. Holly has discovered her passion for encouraging and ensuring equal rights for all individuals and hopes to pursue a career as a human rights attorney.

Back to the top

Grassroots Giving: Frank C. Martin K-8 Center National Junior Honor Society

Frank C. Martin K-8 Center National Junior Honor Society was certainly honored to aid Miami Children's Hospital Foundation by putting on another spectacular show. Simply put, we hoped to duplicate the success of last year’s “First Annual Charity Showcase”, and we did just that.

The chapter was absolutely aware that there were many kids our age or younger that were suffering from multiple physical problems in your facility. The onus was on us to continue our efforts despite the deep recession that began at the end of 2008.

We organized and presented a spectacular Talent Show that actually drew more parents, faculty, staff, and students than we expected. We began the auditions in earlier meetings. By the end of those, we mutually believed that our outreach effort would reach many and rally them to this cause.

Miami Children's Hospital's tremendous work in our community was recognized, including the wonderful role they played when the Chapter Advisor’s infant son was terribly sick. These meaningful words were expressed during a segment of the Talent show as a glowing testimonial of the organization itself.

NJHS Chapter Advisor Mr. Stephen Simms and other Committee members Mrs. Alice Host, Mrs. Claudia Walden, Mrs. Catina Boynton, and Dr. Sharon Humphrey (our MYP coordinator) were very instrumental. They helped monitor ticket sales, made constructive suggestions, and kept performers & students in line. Also, we gave out homemade cookies and fudge brownies as another incentive to market our show better. This was along with us publishing the Talent Show in our school newspapers and even having it broadcasted of the PA system.

The Mighty Falcons came through again with the laudable amount of $1200 to benefit Miami Children's Hospital. Every NJHS member was exceedingly proud to partake in this momentous effort to aid a hospital that has been so instrumental in our community. The event took place in March 2009.

Back to the top

Grassroots Giving: The Musical Club at Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbour K-8 Center

The Musical Theatre Club was founded in September 2008 at Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor K-8 Center where children from 3rd to 7th grade can find a way to give back to the community through hard work and passion. On Thursday May 21, 2009 the children organized a Talent Show which raised $462.00 for Miami Children's Hospital.

"The volunteers and children thank Miami Children Hospital for being such a great place for children, even when they are sick. Continue to make children smile!
Love,

The Musical Theatre Club"

Back to the top