Student collects toys for kids in ER SV grad earns scholarship
CRANBERRY TWP — A Seneca Valley High School graduate gathered toys for UPMC Passavant Cranberry to give to children brought into the hospital's emergency room to help them ease their fears.
Kelli Moon of Cranberry Township completed the Cranberry Township Community Chest's Student Community Service Project with her toy drive for pediatric patients.
She is the first student to completed the project and earned a $500 scholarship for her efforts.
The award was presented to her Monday afternoon at the hospital off St. Francis Way by community chest board members Roy Wagner and Terry Pearce.
Dr. Ravindra Vajjhala, director of Emergency Medicine, UPMC Passavant Cranberry campus, said, "It is truly wonderful to see young people involved in volunteer service and contributing to our society. It is a pleasure to see Kelli presented with this award for helping our hospital."
Moon is attending Penn State University in State College this fall and majoring in biology, where she also plans to get a teaching certificate.
This was the first year for the student service project and the return of the community chest's commitment to provide scholarship awards to high school graduates.
Bruce Mazzoni, president of the community chest, said the organization in the past had given out scholarships via an application process. But that had ended because of a lack of funding.
However, Mazzoni said because the community chest board believed a scholarship program was an important component of its service, it was reinstated this year via the student community service project.
Diane Gloor, UPMC Passavant's director of volunteer services, said the toys will benefit the children who go through the emergency room.
Twenty-five percent of the approximately 21,000 people who are brought to the emergency room each year are children.
Moon collected several large boxes of toys that included small games, puzzles, coloring books and crayons, small books, stickers and gift cards for items such as Happy Meals at McDonald's. She presented all those items to the emergency room staff Monday.
Kathy Smith, unit director of the UPMC Passavant Cranberry Emergency Department, said coming to the emergency room can be a traumatic and scary experience for children. A toy helps distract them, and then they can take it when they go home, she said.
Moon worked with community chest representative Brian Hroncich to come up with her project.
She initially proposed collecting toys for Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC because she had been treated for leukemia there, but she decided to collect the toys to help benefit children in the Cranberry community.
UPMC still is accepting donations of toys for its emergency room pediatric patients.
To donate, call the UPMC volunteer office at 724-772-5815.
