Coatesville youths honored for their philanthropy work

Several high school students were honored at the Coatesville Area Youth Philanthropy award ceremony on Wednesday.

Alyson Ferguson, Coatesville Area Youth Philanthropy Program manager, explained that the 15 high school students made all the decisions, including which organizations to help, and they fulfilled their roles while thinking like a board of directors.

“Over the last nine months we have become a family,” Ferguson said. “This is the most cohesive group I have had. We are really open and transparent about our biases and our differences and we talk about them and celebrate them.”

The Coatesville Area Youth Philanthropy Program, an initiative of the Brandywine Health Foundation, recognized two nonprofits that provide behavioral health and resiliency building programming to the greater Coatesville area. This year they worked with The Point and the Lincoln Center. Each year the youth in the program have $15,000 to disburse to nonprofits they have selected.

The ceremony was held at Citadel Federal Credit Union, at the Thorndale branch in Caln Township, which is a sponsor of the program. Citadel Senior V.P. Michael Schnably told the students that businesses and all environments are filled with “too many rules to remember,” so he lives by two rules that he encourages his employees to follow. The first rule is to always do the right thing. His second rule applies to their parents, which is to “brag as much as you want about your children.”

He told the students that people will look at them differently now because they are leaders and he encouraged them to have confidence in their ideas. He advised them when people offer to help them, let them.

“Together we can do really great things,” he said.

Student Jullian Maurer said she realized how impactful their community service was and they had valuable experiences as they learned about the business world. The program teaches students how to become a philanthropist.

“Coming into the program we all knew about

GINGER RAE DUNBAR – DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Citadel Senior Vice President Michael Schnably congratulates the Coatesville high school students for their efforts learning to be philanthropist and helping area nonprofit organizations as part of the Coatesville Area Youth Philanthropy Program.