Leyden helps with Lydia Home

Students+supporting+Predovichs+special+project.

Courtesy of Christopher Brito

Students supporting Predovich’s special project.

Akur Kuanyin-Agoth and Sandy Sanchez

This year, one Leyden ACCESS group will not help the young, sick, or elderly. Instead they’ll help a fellow teen, giving him a last hand before he turns too old to be in foster care system.

This project is being managed by Ms. Kari Stutzman’s freshman ACCESS as part of a larger project introduced by Leyden senior Kerri Predovich last year. It was as a child that Predovich first became involved with the Lydia Home Orphanage, but it wasn’t until she heard that not all the kids at the orphanage were receiving gifts for Christmas that she decided to take action and bring the program to Leyden. For the past two years, Predovich has asked members of our school to help with her family tradition of helping.

Last year, the partnership quickly proved successful as it marked the first year in a long time that all the orphans received a Christmas gift. Predovich explained, “Christmas is a time of giving, so I thought it would be appropriate to get my friends and faculty at the school involved. This is not a Leyden run program, but Leyden has been a huge help for me with this project.”

Lydia Home is a safe home that was formally established in 1995 as a non-profit organization. Their mission was to, “help towards ending violence by being a place of healing and a voice of hope for abused women and their children.”

In 1996, Lydia’s house opened its doors with one full time staff member. The first residents who prospered from this opportunity moved into their own home in 1997. In 1998, Lydia Home received outstanding funds that gave them the chance to purchase a multi-family apartment complex. This organization was then able to proceed in creating programs and development activities for Women and their children for additional support. As of today, Lydia’s house is improving and strengthening their opportunities and living conditions with the help of its: donors, volunteers, and community partners.

As it’s approaching the holidays, this is a great way for the students at Leyden to get into the giving spirit. Senior Iris Villasenor said, “Christmas is a day for everyone to make time for each other, to give and enjoy each other’s presence.”
The giving all starts with Predovich getting the names/profiles of the children: the child’s name, ID number, race, shirt size, pants size, shoe size, coat size, bra size, if they have their ears pierced, favorite color, favorite character, favorite team, needs/wishes. From there, each Leyden group that’s helping gets assigned a child or two, and Predovich makes sure the gifts are delivered.

Stutzman’s ACCESS was particularly drawn to the story of Sean (name changed). Sean is a 17 year old boy who has been orphaned since a very young age. Once a person reaches 18, he or she is unable to stay at an orphanage any longer. Sean will need to search for close or distant family members or other temporary housing.

Stutzman’s class is trying to help Sean receive all the necessities, to make sure he has all the supplies he needs to perform daily tasks. Although he’s struggling through greater obstacles than the average teen he is not much different from the rest of us. He’s a huge Bulls fan and is a very artistic kid. He enjoys playing video games and loves listening to music.

Villasenor is one of the mentors in Ms. Stutzman’s ACCESS class. She says that working together to help Sean is helping the freshmen develop as people: “I want them to be aware that some of things that they have on a regular basis [are things] other children struggle to get.”
Beyond Stutzman’s ACCESS, other groups that Predovich interacts with have also become involved, primarily the Senior Class Board. Sponsor Mr. Jerome Patt explained his appreciation for the Leyden students: “I love seeing our kids bring in all the gifts and seeing their happy faces.”