A Little Generosity Goes A Long Way
Susan Bass Levin, President and CEO of the Cooper Foundation, Isabella Knapp, Jessica Baals and Michael Goodman, MD. Chief, Department of Pediatrics
Toward the end of last school year, while most students were busy planning pool parties and other summer activities with friends, 12-year-old Jessica Baals from Minotola, NJ, had something else on her mind — giving back.
In May, Jessica and her friend Isabella Knapp, 12, both students at Notre Dame Regional School, held a yard sale for a school fundraising project. Together, the pair gathered books, toys, and clothes to sell to their local community. All of the proceeds from the yard sale, $120, were donated to The Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper at a special check presentation on Tuesday, August 31, 2010.
A former patient at Cooper, Baals had two kidney surgeries as an infant and her family credits her recovery to the exceptional medical care of the physicians and nurses at Cooper. Although her home is 45 minutes away, Baal’s parents said they would choose no place other then Cooper to receive care.