PHOTO PROVIDED BY HOLY TRINITY EPISCOPAL ACADEMY Jubilant members of the National English Honor Society at HTEA pose with all the books and pajamas donated to the Pajama Program. Foster children in Brevard County benefitted from the largesse. Members are from left: Joshua Knight, Julie Spicer, John Allen, Seneka Epasinghe, Soyoun Choi, and Lauren LeBeau.
MELBOURNE – It started as a simple community service project but became a personal mission for members of Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy’s National English Honor Society (NEHS) – thanks to some incredible generosity.
An email that senior Sydney Levy received from a national clothing company after Hurricane Irma inspired the project. “NEHS was looking for new ways to do community service, and I had received an email from Vineyard Vines in support of the Pajama Program,” Levy said. “I thought it would be a great idea for NEHS to participate in, so I brought it to Mrs. Pedicini to initiate the project.”
Stefani Pedicini, the NEHS advisor, thought it was a good idea that the school’s NEHS group collect pajamas and books to give to children in need. “Initially, it was a project just for NEHS members who were looking for community service credit,” she said. “They were asked to bring in one book or one pair of pajamas. At the beginning of the drive, I was skeptical about how successful the event would be. We advertised it and opened it up to other students, faculty, and staff members. However, the students and the faculty and the school community exceeded my expectations.”
The Pajama Program is a national organization dedicated to ensuring children have a clean pair of pajamas and a bedtime story at night. Holy Trinity senior Soyoun Choi contacted the Pajama Program.
“When I first reached out to the PJ Program, I didn’t know where these items would go,” Choi said.
A representative from the Pajama Program suggested they give what they had collected to the Brevard Family Partnership, a non-profit group that oversees 269 foster children in 143 foster homes in Brevard County. “After they connected me to Brevard Family Partnership, it became more personal,” Choi said. “And after hearing that many of the kids don’t have many resources, I felt like that the items we collected would be of great use to them.” The students were able to collect 162 pairs of pajamas and 153 books from Jan. 16 to Feb. 2.
The effort didn’t go unnoticed. LaChrista Jones, director of licensing for the Brevard Family Partnership, had this to say about the contribution: “The impact is huge because a lot of our kids that come into care sometimes just leave their home with the clothes on their back. A lot of times, we don’t have the opportunity to pack their bag. To arrive at a home and have a new pair of pajamas and also a book is wonderful. It gives the foster parents an opportunity to read them a bedtime story.”
The group initially ordered four collection boxes. “That was not enough,” said Pedicini. “We had to find more boxes to pack up our collection, so we could deliver it. I am very proud of our NEHS students on how they participated in this community service opportunity. They brought way more than just one book or one pair of pajamas. The students truly enjoyed donating to this cause, and that, in itself, is the most rewarding part of the drive!”