Now a senior at North Catholic High School, Jessika Boyle began her community service and commitment to HCEF in the fall of 2001. She was only twelve years old. That fall, Jessika organized her first of four fundraising drives to help provide Christmas presents to children in some of the organization’s homeless shelters. Jessika collected money, shopped for presents for the children at two shelters, wrapped the gifts, and delivered the presents in time for Christmas. HCEF recognized her efforts, making her the youngest recipient of their annual Champions for Children Award in 2002. Jessika also assisted the Homeless Children’s Education Fund with their backpack drive in 2002 and 2003, providing backpacks and school supplies to homeless children.
Her volunteer efforts have continued ever since. In addition to continuing her annual Christmas drive, Jessika served as an event co-chair to HCEF’s Champions for Children Benefit in 2005. This year, she designed special thank-you favors for the pre-benefit auction party, worked on benefits, favors, and volunteered at the event. She has also volunteered her time at the annual fundraising event for one of the HCEF-supported centers, HEARTH, a homeless shelter for mothers and their children. But Jessika’s commitment to her community extends beyond the HCEF organization. During the summer of 2002, Jessika, then thirteen years old, served as a student volunteer at Western Pennsylvania Hospital. She volunteered 106 hours of her time, serving lunch to patients, taking supplies to operating rooms, confirming appointments, working with nurses, transporting patients, and much more. She returned to Western Pennsylvania Hospital in 2003 and logged an additional 125 volunteer hours. For this effort, she received the President’s Student Service Award for Outstanding Community Service.
Extremely close to her grandfather, a World War II veteran, Jessica wanted to do something to thank him and all the local veterans for their sacrifices in WWII. In 2002, she obtained donations of 400 water bottles from Crystal Springs Bottling and turned them into vases. She then solicited donations of nearly 800 carnations from local florists for her homemade vases. She found an appropriate poem, added it on one side of a note card, and on the other she included names of all the donor businesses. On Veterans Day, 2002, when most students her age enjoyed the day off from school, Jessika spent the entire day picking up the flowers, and then delivering her completed “thank-you” package at two veteran hospitals in the Pittsburgh area.
Jessika Boyle gives almost all of her time to community service, whether working in outreach programs for senior citizens or WWII Veterans. She never seeks attention for her deeds, but our community has honored her. In 2002, Jessika received the Homeless Education Fund's Student Champion Award. She received the President's Gold Award for Service in 2002 for her volunteer service at Western Pennsylvania Hospital. Jessika was also selected to take a group of World War II veterans and others from the Greatest Generation on a three-day odyssey to Washington, D.C. for the unveiling of the WWII Memorial. Jessika considered this a tremendous honor, and gave still more of her time in documenting the WWII veterans’ experiences, helping preserve for new generations the personal histories of some of The Greatest Generation’s most heroic soldiers. My daughter, Jessika Boyle, is a caring, loving, and incredibly humble child. She does not seek out recognition for her efforts. She has a tremendous heart and her good will never fails to amaze me. She is an inspiration to others, and she is my hero!
Read More Hero Stories >
