Sussex Tech students honored by Jefferson Awards Foundation
Sussex Tech students were honored June 28 at the 46th annual Jefferson Awards Foundation National Ceremony in Washington, D.C.
The awards celebrate individuals, organizations, schools and companies making positive contributions to their communities.
Under the Jefferson Awards Foundation Students in Action program, Sussex Tech students created their own volunteer organization, Ravens with a Cause, to support local organizations in keeping with their chosen theme, “Year of the Child.”
Ravens with a Cause members worked with other school groups to hold monthly events and fundraisers to support community groups.
“We grew from five to 25 members this year,” said recent Sussex Tech graduate Kaitlynn Adkins.
The group held food drives, a giving tree project to benefit school children who need winter clothes, and events to improve awareness of birth defects and autism.
Teachers Margie Booth and Nancy Massaro served as advisors for the group, which volunteered over 3,000 service hours, impacted over 5,000 lives and had a financial impact to the community of over $66,000 in the 2017-2018 school year.
They participated in the annual Rock Your Socks campaign on World Down Syndrome Day. About 50 Sussex Tech students volunteered to mismatch thousands of socks to sell for $1 a pair to benefit the Down Syndrome Association of Delaware.
Students held a Jump Rope for Heart competition in the school courtyard to raise funds and awareness for the American Heart Association and partnered with Altitude Trampoline Park to host a Sussex Tech fundraiser night.
Adkins and fellow graduate Amy Craft are interning with the Jefferson Awards in Wilmington this summer to make business connections and promote the Jefferson Awards’ Buckets of Love program, launched by two Dover sisters to provide buckets filled with toys, art supplies and other items for homeless or sick children in need.
Adkins heads to Eastern University this fall to study business management and minor in finance, and Craft will attend Towson University’s honors program, majoring in speech audiology/deaf studies with the goal of being an audiologist in a pediatric hospital.
“I volunteered at Nanticoke Memorial Hospital’s OB section and got to do hearing tests for babies, and I have family friends who are deaf,” she explained.
“They’re truly improving the lives in our community,” Massaro said.
