Nashua Catholic eighth-grader organizes basketball tourney in three weeks to raise money for food pantry

Heading up her first service project through Nashua Catholic Regional Junior High School’s Hearts to Hands Service Club taught 13-year-old Emma Williams two important things: Even if you don’t raise the amount of money you hoped to raise, every dollar raised does count, and everything someone does to help your project, regardless of how small it is, ends up being a big deal. However, the eighth-grader more than realized her financial goal with the Hoops to Hearts basketball tournament in late October, raising $2,200 and collecting two full tables’s worth of canned goods to distribute to the Corpus Christi Food Pantry. Emma realized that regardless of what the tournament raised, any funds that resulted would make a difference for someone somewhere. She was also able to see that every contribution of time, of canned goods, of talents in creating posters or helping to get the word out about the tournament made a significant difference in the overall impact of what she was trying to achieve with her project. These were big lessons for a first-time effort, and especially for an event that came together quickly with maximum results. Each year, Julie Parolin, longtime adviser for the Hearts to Hands Service Club, asks the students to brainstorm on ways in which the club can raise funds and get involved in service efforts throughout the year. Parolin said the projects are reflective of the kids in front of her each year. “Seventh- and eighth-graders have such compassion,” Parolin said. “It’s astonishing to me. Fifty-five kids in one classroom for the club, and every month it gets larger.