Lozafina Partners with iCAN KIDS Walter Payton, Ronald McDonald House to promote Youth Service Month

Photo curtesy of iCAN KIDS Walter Payton Chapter.

Story by Aniya Porter

Lozafina partnered with the iCAN KIDS Walter Payton College Preparatory High School Chapter to help amplify and promote its Youth Service Month initiative, iCAN Deliver Hope: Comfort Kits for Families, benefiting Ronald McDonald House Chicagoland & Northwest Indiana.

Held on May 1 at the Ronald McDonald House near Lurie Children’s Hospital in downtown Chicago, the youth-led service project brought together chapter members and students of the school’s National Honor Society to assemble and deliver comfort kits for families staying at the House while their children received medical treatment.

The effort was part of National Youth Service Month and was supported through a grant from Youth Service America and The Hershey Company through The Heartwarming Project.

The project ultimately engaged 175 teens, with students helping pack and deliver care kits filled with essentials, books, stuffed animals, socks, coloring books, and handwritten notes of encouragement for families navigating medical challenges.

What stood out most throughout the initiative was the intentionality behind the work. Students weren’t simply volunteering for hours or completing an assignment. They were actively thinking about how to bring comfort to people experiencing some of the hardest moments of their lives.

Sophomore Avery Maher, 16, described the experience as an opportunity to “spread love and support to those who need it most.”

“My favorite part of this experience was having the opportunity to be a part of a larger cause and having the platform to serve and spread love to our local Chicago community,” Maher said.

Seventeen‑year‑old junior Erika Mizhquiri shared a similar sentiment.

“I will always remember how our group came together and truly became a community,” she said. “Seeing everyone support one another while also advocating for people going through hard times made the project feel meaningful and bigger than just an assignment.”

Stefanie McCormack, who has led the iCAN KIDS Walter Payton Chapter for nearly a decade, said this year’s project marked the chapter’s largest partnership with Ronald McDonald House.

“I’m incredibly proud of our youth,” McCormack said. “Many students were serving as volunteers for the very first time. They showed up with so much enthusiasm.”

She described how students transformed their school into a packing operation before heading downtown to deliver more than eight bins of donations and 100 iCAN coloring books created by youth around the world and printed locally in Chicago.

At Ronald McDonald House, students toured the facility, learned more about how the organization supports families, and distributed handwritten cards and coloring books throughout common spaces and family mailboxes.

Jamison Kent, Volunteer Services Manager at Ronald McDonald House Chicagoland & Northwest Indiana, said the students’ work demonstrated the importance of youth involvement in community care.

“The care packages do a lot to help our families through a difficult time,” Kent said. “I hope this leads to the people involved in the project becoming involved with the organization in other ways in the future.”

For Lozafina, the partnership represented more than promotional support. It reflected the agency’s continued commitment to helping mission-driven organizations tell stories that center on community impact, youth empowerment, and meaningful service.