Leading From The Heart

Severna Park High School (SPHS) seniors Sydney Wilson-Johnston and Samira Ibrahim partnered with local nonprofit Services from the Heart and the Backpack Buddies Program to complete the students’ Leadership 3 project. Leadership is a three-year course taught at SPHS to help students become future leaders. During the last year of the course, students participate in a fundraising project where they select an organization to partner with and raise money, volunteer time, or raise awareness for that organization. Services from the Heart is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides weekly food backpacks to 120 students at three Anne Arundel County Public Schools elementary schools who are at risk of hunger over the weekend.

To fulfill their project goals, Sydney and Samira led a group of fellow students and volunteers at one weekly food packing, coordinated two holiday food packing events to provide over 90 families with full holiday meals during Thanksgiving and Christmas, hosted a food drive, designed and sold Services from the Heart T-shirts and created Christmas holiday cards for backpack recipient families. They also raised a total of $493 in donations with the help of the SPHS Student Government Association spirit week. Their natural leadership shows how individuals can make a huge impact in our community.