Good News

February 6, 2010

Student’s act of caring brings help to ailing kids

By Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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HANOVER TWP. – Michael Ridick was at a crossroads at the beginning of his senior year at Hanover Area Junior/Senior High School.

Ridick, 18, of Zack Street in the Hanover Green section, was searching for a topic to perform his senior project, a requirement for all seniors to graduate.

Unable to decide on a task, his father, Matt Ridick, suggested The Jared Box Project.

“I heard about the Jared Box Project from a friend of mine who is ill with cancer,” Matt Ridick said. “I told my son about it because he was looking for a project for his senior year.”

Matt Ridick planted the idea and his son ran with it, just as he did on the gridiron for the Hanover Area football team.

The Jared Box Project was started in 2001 by children at Our Lady of Victory School in State College to honor their classmate, 5-year old Jared, who died from an incurable brain stem tumor on Nov. 12, 2000.

Boxes are placed in schools, restaurants and businesses to collect donations of toys and other gifts to give to hospitalized children. Then, the toys, games, gifts or cards and put in a decorated shoebox-size container to deliver to the ill child.

Ridick placed several large boxes in Lyndwood Elementary School within the Hanover Area School District during the month of December. He drafted a letter detailing his senior project, and with the help of Lyndwood Principal William Jones, the letter was sent home with students seeking donations of small gifts, toys, cards and games.

Ridick said he only expected to receive 50 or so toys considering the Christmas season.

To his surprise, Ridick said more than 300 toys were donated, overfilling the large boxes he placed in the elementary school. He also received monetary donations from the Fraternal Order of Police and District Judge Joseph Halesey.

Ridick plans to deliver the toys, including blankets and board games, to chronically ill children hospitalized at Hershey Medical Center in Hershey on Thursday.

“It hurts me to see ill children in the hospital, that’s why I did my senior project on the Jared Box Project,” Ridick said.

Ridick said he selected the Hershey Medical Center because the facility treats cancer stricken children.

“It was quite an undertaking, but well worth it,” Ridick said.

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