Helene Cody Foundation - PHS students organize HomeFront party

[wcody]

The Princeton Packet just published a great article on one of the activities of the Helene Cody Foundation. Many students at Princeton High School are spending time helping at HomeFront.

I want to thank all the people in the community who have supported the foundation to allow good work to be done.

Win Cody

PHS students organize HomeFront party
By Margaret Mattes and Susan Liao

Posted: Friday, December 18, 2009 8:05 PM EST

On Wednesday December 16th, a group of Princeton High School students made their way to Ewing to host a holiday party for underprivileged children in Mercer County. They did so in an effort to make a difference in the lives of the children who live at HomeFront, a non-profit agency which provides a network of services for the poor and homeless in Mercer County and houses close to four-hundred children in their Emergency Shelter programs. The party was held at the Marie Katzenbach School for The Deaf, the site of the Family Preservation Center branch of HomeFront.

These students were inspired to give back to the community by the memory of Helene Marilyn Cody, a Princeton High School student who passed away last October due to a brain aneurysm.

“Helene was such a great person in that she would constantly be looking for ways to help others; so what the Foundation tries to do is encourage people to get involved in different programs,” said Kelly O’Grady, a high school junior who helped establish the Helene Marilyn Cody Foundation in Helene’s memory. The Foundation’s mission statement is “to inspire youth to volunteer, to better their communities and themselves,” according to the Helene Marilyn Cody Foundation website.

“We don’t focus on one organization, we just try to help out everywhere and we encourage others to do the same,” O’Grady said. So far, the Foundation has created scholarships and awards for students and athletes, reinstated the annual Cranbury 5K in Helene’s memory, planned two parties for children living at HomeFront, and volunteered with other community projects, like the HomeFront winter party. The organization is active throughout the Princeton and Cranbury communities, serving as the collaborative program of the parents, friends and family of Helene.

[The rest of the article can be read at this link]

http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2009/12/19/newswire/doc4b2bf06fb03cf957054220.txt