For many years, Heritage Middle School Guidance Counselor Jill Ponzi helped support an all- girl’s orphanage in Ukraine through a charity she founded called “StarfishNadia,” named after a girl she met there in 2006. A few years back her American friends in Ukraine returned to the United States, so Ponzi lost her pipeline to the orphanage. But she did not lose her desire to help others.
She recently applied for and received a $300 grant from the Bette Marschall Foundation to provide “Nadia Boxes” to all four Westerville middle schools, which contain small personal hygiene items for boys and girls in need. “I often find our students needing some basic items at home,” she explained. Ponzi was also contacted by a nonprofit organization called “Supporting the Girls,” which was started in 2010 by Westerville South High School students Hartlee Johnston and Sarah Leonard to increase the self esteem of disadvantaged females. That group donated bras to the Nadia Boxes.
Ponzi hopes each building will continue to support this effort on their own through group, staff or class projects. She plans to look for additional funding to eventually get Nadia Boxes into every school building in the district.