A few months ago, a bright and entrepreneurial high school student named Cailey Cummins, sent an email to our Director of Volunteer Services, Rosemary Jones. In her message she asked how her club at Douglas Freeman High School, LitWorld Teen Advocates, could support Peter Paul. LitWorld Teen Advocates is a service club whose purpose is to promote literacy and self-empowerment in challenged communities around the world. Cailey came up with the idea of holding a car wash to raise funds for the Center and its monthly birthday celebrations for students.

A long-standing monthly tradition at PPDC has been to celebrate the children who have a birthday each month. Students are celebrated during their respective birthday month at a special birthday party. Thanks to a number of groups, we have begun this celebration at our Fairfield Court Elementary School satellite program, although at Fairfield all students attend a quarterly birthday party. The kids, teachers, and hosts sing “Happy Birthday” to the honorees and everyone enjoys cupcakes, ice cream and a  refreshment. As a gift, students receive a book to promote reading. Douglas Freeman’s LitWorld Teen Advocates car wash efforts resulted in a $574.40 profit. These funds will be used to host the Fairfield Court celebration on June 4. We are truly grateful for the hard work and commitment of this group of generous and big-hearted teens. They will bring so many happy birthday smiles to the faces of our students!