A charitable & foundational partnerships to ensure that portions of proceeds and/or profits are channeled to organizations dedicated to building better lives for underprivileged kids.
It is a privilege to present Chase Colman as our Cape Kid of the Month for the month of April. Chase is third grader at Central School in Warren, New Jersey. He is a great friend to his classmates and often can be found including others in school and at recess.
Chase has volunteered for Wear The Cape on several occasions. He was a Cape Kid greeter at our annual Holiday Fundraiser two years in a row. As well, he gave up one weekend of his Summer Vacation in August to help film one of our Hero Assembly videos, which features him saying a line he lives by in his everyday life: he sticks up for kids who can’t…
As an avid and talented baseball player, Chase cheers on his teammates and encourages them to Wear The Cape, as well. His favorite team is the Red Socks, which is a tribute to his Boston roots.
It is an honor to introduce to you our Cape Kid of the month, Ilana Druskin, a 15 –year-old high school Sophomore at Gill St. Bernards School in Gladstone, NJ and an inspiration to children and adults.
This wonderful young lady has been volunteering since sixth grade. She had always helped others, but decided that she wanted to assist in a greater way, in preparation for her Mitzvah project. Her desire to help children led to her work with Blessings in A Backpack, with the Greater Brunswick Charter School, where she helped to raise enough money to fill backpacks with food for over 170 less fortunate students, for them to bring home on the weekends to ensure that they had food to eat when not in school.
Ilana became so passionate about this project that she chose to continue her work with Blessings in a Backpack and the Greater Brunswick Charter School. Once, when in middle school, she noticed that the school’s pantry was near empty. In response, she organized a canned food drive to ensure that the pantry had plenty of food for the students. She also has lead several bake sales and coat drives to help the students at the school over the course of the four years that she has been volunteering.
Along with her family, Ilana provides Thanksgiving meals to families in November, so that they have a warm meal to eat on the holiday. In December, she purchases Christmas gifts for the students at Greater Brunswick Charter School, as she knows their families cannot financially provide them with the gifts they hope to receive.
When asked what serving these children means to her, Ilana replied, “It makes me more humble and not take anything for granted. These kids will take anything over nothing. “
Ilana even turned a family vacation in Guatemala into a service project. She noticed that impoverished children were running to cars to receive Christmas gifts, a custom in this country. She and her family wanted to help. They found a local store and purchased toys, then pulled to the side of the road and handed them out to the dozens of children who ran up to the car. “It made me feel good to do something for them,” she recalls.
In an effort to do even more for others, Ilana became certified as a pet therapist with her dog, Chloe, through Bright and Beautiful, Ltd. She hopes to begin her own business tutoring children in reading by having them practice read to Chloe. She has already started reading with kids and her dog at a her local library, and claims “…the kids absolutely love it. They don’t want to stop reading. It’s a great way to encourage the love of reading.”
As an aspiring doctor, Ilana will volunteer in the Emergency Room at Ocean County Medical Center in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.
When asked how she finds the time to fit in all of her volunteering with an already full sports and school schedule, she says that she lives by her motto: You can only go up! If you keep trying hard, you can only get better. Don’t stop, if you put in the dedication and effort, you will get results. She encourages others to volunteer as well by stating, “Saying that you don’t have the time is not a good excuse. I have practice every day, and I find the time. Start small and find something that you are passionate in.”
Well done, Ilana. Thank you for being a terrific Cape Kid and for inspiring others to want to help, as well.
Originally from New Jersey, Mairead has been an integral part of helping founder Leigh Ann Errico establish and run the New Jersey based Junior Board, which is composed of fifteen young adult members, who help guide the ideals of kindness. Mairead’s tireless work in the crusade to teach children about kindness has resulted in very successful events over the past three years; such as helping to organize and develop a first of its kind 5K Race and family festival in 2014 – which resulted in over one hundred runners and raised over $10,000 to help support the foundation’s outreach of kindness. She has helped work on the annual Wear the Cape Holiday fundraiser that, in 2016, raised over $7,000 for the kidkind Foundation.
Through her own successful business, Bay Head Boutique she has raised thousands of dollars which she chose to donate to causes close to her heart, such as to help wildlife, children’s diseases, and to support those in need. Mairead has continually used skills and business acumen to donate her time and money to Wear the Cape and kidkind Foundation.
Filled with a tremendous gift of entrepreneurship, combined with the desire to help others, this fine young woman has worked with many charities to raise awareness about the power of kindness and giving back to the community. Her huge heart and passion was paramount in her desire to start a Southern Chapter of Wear the Cape. Through her hard work and dedication to this project, Mairead was able to bring our assembly to Out-of-Door Academy in Sarasota, Florida. The assembly, which Mairead will be a part of, will be performed in March 2017.
We are thrilled to have such an exceptional young woman as our Florida advocate. Being able to take her early learning and success from Wear the Cape in New Jersey to Florida is an incredible opportunity. Mairead looks forward to bringing her knowledge, leadership and the message of kindness to all Florida school children.
It is a privilege to present Chase Colman as our Cape Kid of the Month for the month of April. Chase is third grader at Central School in Warren, New Jersey. He is a great friend to his classmates and often can be found including others in school and at recess.
