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02/17/2016 08:00 AMOne teen working hard to make sure teen cancer survivors and fighters get the support and attention they need has herself won a bit of national attention. The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, the nation’s largest national youth volunteer awards program honoring middle and high school students for their acts of volunteerism, recently announced its state winners and Madison student Alexandra Minutillo took a top prize.
A 15-year-old sophomore at Daniel Hand High School, Minutillo is one of two Connecticut winners. She established her own non-profit organization Smiles for Smilow in 2014. The organization works to raise money to buy gift for teens with cancer, an age group Minutillo says is often forgotten.
“I went to Yale and I talked to the child life specialist there and they said that they really needed donations for the teen population because they often go invisible,” she said. “People donate to the young kids, but they forget that teens are there, too. I decided that I wanted to fill that need.”
Having watched members of her own family face cancer, Minutillo knew this was an issue in which she wanted to be involved.
“I got inspired because both of my grandparents suffered with cancer and they battled through it,” she said. “I know how it has changed lives, so I wanted to make it a little less stressful for the kids going through it.”
To get the word out, Minutillo reached out to the town and got her fellow students involved, establishing a club at the high school that is now 40 members strong.
“I started by going to the town and I registered the name and then, once that was done, I was able to bring it to the school,” she said. “We do a bunch of bake sales and parades and big festivals, anything to get our name out there and raise money.”
Since 2014, the organization, a designated non-profit, has raised more than $10,000 to buy gifts for teen patients. The group has donated books, laptops, tablets, and in conjunction with a town fundraiser, was able to purchase and fill a new media cabinet for patients at Smilow.
Minutillo said one of the most rewarding parts of the work is when she has been able to see how their fundraising has made a difference.
“I really enjoyed the Yale survivorship picnic,” she said. “We were invited to be a co-host and, since the theme was the ‘Wild Wild West,’ we brought in two horses and give the kids free pony rides. The event was really to boost their spirits, so it was really fun to see their faces.”
The award Minutillo received comes with $1,000, engraved silver medallions, and a trip in early May to Washington D.C. where she will join the 102 other winners from across the nation for a recognition event.
“I was doing some research on community service scholarships and I found the Prudential Award and it really resonated with what I had been doing,” she said. “I felt that it would be a great award to apply for and I am so grateful that I won, it is amazing.”
Despite the award, Minutillo said the work her organization has done has really been a team effort.
“I couldn’t have done any of it without the people who have been volunteering and who have been spending their weekends working at the bake sales to help these kids,” she said.
Minutillo said she hopes to see the organization keep working long after she moves on to college.
“We have young underclassmen who are involved so I am hoping to be able to pass it on to them,” she said. “It is all about sticking your neck out there.”
To learn more about Smiles for Smilow, visit www.smilesforsmilow.org.