Yorktown Students Show Concern for Classmates Facing Loss

Yorktown Heights, NY, May 25, 2017 -- Yorktown students are continuing their tradition of helping local families by participating in a collaborative effort called the JennaJackPack Project.

The new charity seeks to “empower students to show concern and care for classmates who have experienced the unexpected loss of a parent or a sibling,” explains a statement on the project’s website.

Cathy Nolan of Mahopac, who lost her 14-year-old daughter Jenna three years ago, said the efforts of other children helped her son find comfort when his older sister died suddenly.

“The JennaJackPack Project is inspired by Johnny Bernardi, who delivered a basket of my son’s favorite treats to our home after Jenna passed. This simple, empathetic act really had a positive impact upon my son. One child helping another really makes a difference,” said Nolan. It was Johnny’s mother, Lana, who got the project off the ground. We have been working together ever since.”

The JennaJackPack Project is also named for Jack Egan Reyna, who died in 2012 at age 13.

This community service effort brought together eighth graders from Mildred E. Strang Middle School to work alongside Yorktown High School students.

Some of the juniors and seniors from Yorktown currently working on the JennaJackPack Project were directly affected by Jenna’s loss, as they were teammates a Yorktown Youth Soccer team.

“Jenna was part of our team,” said high school junior Kim Bourgeois. “We wanted to help others and to be a part of this project which helps honor Jenna’s memory.”

For Yorktown District students this is one of many community service programs that involve students and teach them that reaching out and showing compassion can make a real difference to others and connect them to the community where they live.

For more information on JennaJackPack go to the organization’s website at https://jennajackpack.org/

(Photos:

Cathy Nolan, left, thanks the students along with with 8th Grade special education teacher Veronica Hildinger, center left, and math and science teacher Jill Proskin, center right.

Yorktown students collected items for gift backpacks to comfort children facing a loss.
Shown here are 8th Grade students left side, front to back Jewell Richardson, Arianna Mata, Julia DiBenedetto, Pamela Giannopoulos and 11th Grade students, right side, front to back: Kim Bourgeois, Meghan Cegielski, Ellen O’Callaghan and Valeria Manent.