Author Archives: Cecilia Hernandez

 Ronald McDonald House Charities, Orlando FL. Donation

Posted on by
Reply

 

On Saturday, September 30th, Project for Hope was able to make its first donation after two years (post COVID). In partnership with St. Margaret Mary Church and School, along with some students from Rollins College, we were able to collect a grand total of 215 stuffed animals.
The recipient of this year’s donation is the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) in Central Florida.
For those that do not know, RMHC allows families to have a place to stay together while their child undergoes medical treatment at nearby hospitals.

Christie Versace (right) and Cecilia Hernandez (left) standing next to a pile of stuffed animals.


As per my mission statement, I always worked to give hope to children who are afraid or lonely in their healing process. Just as RMHC works to help the families of children, I hope our small donation has the power to give comfort as well.
I also want to give a special thank you to Christie Versace, Holt President of Omicron Delta Kappa, and her daughter, Leighton, for helping me drive the donations to RMHC.

Ronad McDonald House Charities, Orlando FL


Additionally, I want to thank every person who donated to my Service Project, and those that continue to give support after all these years. When I started this project in 2012, I never imagined to have witnessed its growth and continuation 11 years later.

Common Questions (Update 2023)

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome to my website!

To those of you who have been with me since the start of my project, and to those who are just recently taking an interest, thank you for your interest. 
It has been a very long time since the last update, as many things have changed. This post will serve as an update on the changes and the future of this service project. 

Now to address some common questions:

Answers for long time readers:

Why were there no donations in the past two years?

The answer may be obvious, but due to COVID I could not continue my service project. This is due to possible contamination from the donations to the patients. Although every donation is sanitized before being received, I didn’t feel right burdening healthcare workers with the added stress of managing stuffed animals while in a code red environment. Additionally, I am sure many facilities would have declined any donations at that time, regardless of their status. 

Will there be more donations in the future?

Yes! Now that we are in 2023, I am hoping hospitals and other facilities will be ready to receive donations. However, this will be at their own discretion and based on their level of comfort. I am in the works of starting up another donation, in the hopes that COVID is less of a concern now that vaccines and boosters have been available for many months. 

Why was there a location change?

If you have read the new “Contact Me” page, you will notice that our donation area has changed to Central Florida rather than New Jersey. Through the years, this project has grown with me. Now that I am in college, my residency has changed and left me unable to donate to the facilities I have formed connections with. Due to this, it has become harder to figure out which hospitals would be interested in a donation. In short, if you are reading this, are in the central Florida area, are a representative of your facility, and want to receive a donation, please contact me through the “Contact me” page! 

For new readers:

Why are some articles different / have a major difference in wording compared to now?

If you have been following this project for a while, you will know that I started this website when I was only nine years old. The website was created by my father and I was in charge of writing articles, updates, and overall management. Many past articles were written by me at that age, leaving a large language divide. So if you found this website now, you may wonder why it sounds like a 9-year-old wrote the articles– that is because a 9-year-old did write those articles. I went back and fixed any major wording mistakes or repetition, however, I have largely left most of the contents alone. This is mostly for people to look back on and take notice that this project has grown with me. 

(For future projects): How are the donation funds spent?

In my last project at Holy Name Medical Center (the article before this one, done in 2020), funds were an optional donation instead of a physical stuffed animal. As prices have gone up in years, Kohl’s has maintained their $5 stuffed animals as part of their own service titled “Kohl’s Cares.” 100% of the proceeds from these stuffed animals goes straight to families in need. In order to do the most good possible, all donation money was given to Kohl’s in exchange for more stuffed animals. 

How many people work on these projects?  

This project is primarily run by me, Cecilia (as the website url suggests). If you do not know me, I am a current college student in the Central Florida area. I have been a previous winner of the Kohl’s Cares regional award and have been working on this project since 2012. More information about my mission can be found on the “about” page. For each project, I often rely on volunteers for help sanitizing, organizing, and donating to each location. If you are interested in being a volunteer, additional information will be added later on. 

I hope this answers everyone’s questions. 
Again, thank you for your continued support as I try to restart this project in a new area. 

2020 Donation; Holy Name Medical Center

Posted on by
Reply

After a long break, my Project for Hope was able to continue in March of 2020. 
On Valentine’s day, February 14th, 2020, donations were collected from St. Mary High School in Rutherford, NJ. This was in part of a schoolwide dress down day where students could donate a bear or $5 to take part. 

All of the money went to the Kohl’s Cares program. At Kohl’s, stuffed animals can be purchased for $5. All proceeds go straight to families in need. I thought this would allow us to do the most good possible. Additionally, I would like to thank my local Kohl’s in Clifton, New Jersey as they went above and beyond in helping us. Since the shelves often only hold 20 stuffed animals at a time, the workers helped bring boxes upon boxes to the front for us to purchase. The manager was beyond overjoyed and allowed us to buy some at a discount. 


As many of you already know, lockdown began in March of 2020. However, one week before COVID became a threat to our everyday lives, we were able to complete this donation at Holy Name Medical Center. This would have been impossible had lockdown started any earlier.
Although this article is long overdue, I wanted to take the time to thank St. Mary’s High School for their help in my service project. The teachers, students, and staff were all very ecstatic regarding this project and went above and beyond to offer their help. 
I also want to thank my friends who volunteered to help unload all the donations. So a special thank you for Bryan Rivera, Ryan McMullin, and Selena Kossup for their help.

A special thank you to the staff at Holy Name Medical Center who helped us with this exceptionally large donation. 


In total, we received our largest donation yet:

312 stuffed animals

Although lockdown will prevent us from any more donations for the foreseeable future, I want to thank everyone for their support throughout the years.