Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Student selected as a 2018 Disney Summer of Service winner
Pickering Valley Elementary School third-grader Ava Phipps, and her friends, donated birthday baskets to the Lord’s Pantry of Downingtown
UPPER UWCHLAN » Birthdays can become a positive family memory, and a Downingtown student wanted to ensure other local children could experience that.
Ava Phipps, an 8-year-old, third-grade Pickering Valley Elementary School student from Chester Springs has been awarded a Disney Be Inspired Summer of Service grant through Youth Service America. The grant will support Ava in leading a community service project that addresses the issue of strengthening family relationships within the local community.
Ava and her classmates created 30 birthday baskets on Friday and the Phipps family donated it on Monday to the Lord’s Pantry of Downingtown, a local nonprofit, which provides hunger relief to more than 700 families within the Downingtown Area School District.
“It went really well,” said Kristin Phipps, mother of Ava. “There are more families that could use our help, and we hope to do more again next year.”
The project was inspired by Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia in September 2015 and his message about the importance of developing strong family bonds to protect our communities from the intrusions of drugs, violence, and crime. Ava wanted to help less for-
tunate children in her local community by creating birthday baskets, filled with items needed to celebrate a child’s joyous occasion. She hopes that by creating positive memories, the family bond will be strengthened and keep families together.
Ava said that other children may now be able to celebrate their birthday during a party with friends and family because of the items they will receive in their birthday baskets. She went shopping with her mom to pick out items for the basket which included hats, plates, napkins, cups, silverware, cake mix, frosting, confetti, blow outs, balloons, candles and a banner. Ava said she want to make sure the kids had blow-outs, also known as noise-makers, because “I like the sound it makes.”
Kristin Phipps shopped online at the Dollar Store and she bought items in cases. She then shopped in the store with Ava to purchase the remaining amount of items needed. Shopping came easier to the Phipps family because this is the second year they purchased birthday party items to donate. Last year, her twin sister, Olivia received the 2017 Disney Be Inspired Summer of Service grant. She recruited the help of her classmates to donate 30 birthday baskets.
Kristin Phipps explained that her daughters “initial inspiration” came from Pope Francis visiting the United States and she asked them about their fun family memories. They both said birthdays are fun and they wanted to help other kids.
“One way to do this is creating positive memories,” Kristin Phipps said. “It would give them a positive memory with their family and hopefully it would strengthen the bond within their family.”
Kristin Phipps, Ava and her third-grade teacher Gloria Burgos, oversaw the production of students assembling their baskets and writing birthday cards. The class was joined by several elected officials including state Rep. Becky Corbin, R-155, of East Brandywine; state Sen. John Rafferty Jr., R-44, of Collegeville, and Kori Walter, district director for U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, R-6, of West Chester.
“We put them to work. Even though they didn’t have to, but they were excited to help,” Kristin Phipps said. “They helped from start to finish.”
The students and politicians each wrote birthday cards to be included for the recipient. Burgos picked Jan. 12 for the students to participate in the activity and it allowed the Phipps family to deliver the baskets on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, known as a day of service.
“It gives us a chance to give back and help our most vulnerable and show that we care about them,” Kristin Phipps said. “It’s a great day of service. The more they do it, the more they will realize how special it is. It doesn’t happen the first time or second time that they volunteer. I hope they love volunteering as much as I do.”
Ava is one of 270 young leaders across the country awarded a $500 Disney Be Inspired Summer of Service grant to organize projects to help make their communities healthier, greener and stronger. She is one of the youngest students to receive this award and the only student in Downingtown Area School District. The grant is available to students aged five to 18. Grantees will educate and mobilize their peers around the importance of strong family connections creating solutions to the erosion of the family unit through awareness, service, advocacy, and philanthropic activities.
Visit Daily Local News staff writer Ginger Rae Dunbar’s blog about journalism and volunteering as a firefighter at FirefighterGinger.blogspot.com.