NICK’S KIDS
Amosland Elementary students seek national audience to shine light on Ridley roots of HEADStrong Foundation
RIDLEY TOWNSHIP >> Students in Heather Wilson’s third-grade class at Amosland Elementary School want the whole United States to know about their school and the HEADstrong Foundation, an organization with Ridley roots dedicated to helping families impacted by blood cancers.
So what better way to get their message across than on national television, via “Good Morning America,” the “Today Show” or the “Ellen DeGeneres Show?” One, two or all three shows will be just fine. But Wilson said the class will settle for one.
Wilson came up with the idea of sending a “lipdub” video involving the entire school to pop star Sara Bareilles’ “Brave,” which is the song chosen by Lee Ann Wentzel, superintendent of Ridley schools, as the district song for the 2017-2018 school year.
The video, along with a “surprise box” decorated with pictures of the school and the students and filled with HEADstrong Foundation items, Ridley School District pins, hats, posters, a DVD of the “lip-dub” video and hand-written letters from the children, spotlighting the foundation. Bareilles will also get a box. Wilson said the project is not asking for donations for the foundation, but rather is concentrating on raising awareness about the foundation and the work it does.
“A lot of kids wrote about Nick’s House,” Wilson said of the letters in each box. “They were especially interested in the fact that families of sick people can stay at the house for free.”
Nick’s House is a twobedroom apartment in the Holmes section of the township that is available to anyone needing a place to stay while a loved one is undergoing cancer treatment at one of the area’s medical centers. It is named for Nick Colleluori, who was a student at Amosland and who died of a blood cancer at age 21 while attending Hofstra University in New York. The foundation was a vision Nick had while undergoing treatment and whose family took up the cause after the young man’s death.
The HEADstong Foundation has raised more than $9.5 million over the past 10 years and provides direct financial aid to families with a loved one in treatment who need a helping hand during a time of crises. The foundation has acquired a larger house in Swarthmore and renovations are underway for a second lodging facility. Nick’s brother, Mike, is featured in the last shot of the video.
Third-grader Camryn Gavin, 8, said she wrote to Ellen DeGeneres about the HEADstrong Foundation.
“I told her how HEADstrong helps people. It gives them free lodging,” Camryn said.
Michael Delacy, 9, was very proud about the work he and his classmates have accomplished.
“We got to participate in this (surprise boxes) because we were the only class to do this,” Michael said.
The entire school is gearing up for the annual April 28 HEADstrong Foundation walk throughout the Amosland neighborhood to raise awareness and funds for the foundation. Wilson said her students especially like the fact that the walk takes them past the Hutchinson Terrace house where Nick lived while attending Amosland.
Camryn said her mother, Jen Gavin, started the walk and both she and her mother will be walking this year.
The students at Amosland have been bringing in spare change to raise money for the foundation.
“One time I brought in all the money in my piggy bank,” Michael said. “I don’t know how much it was, but it was a lot.”