This week the Loukoumi Make A Difference Foundation received Tegna’s National Make a Difference Day All-Star Award, selected from projects nationwide, for its Make A Difference with Loukoumi project, for uniting over 50,000 children across the country on National Make a Difference Day.
As part of the project, Loukoumi, the lamb character from the “Loukoumi” children’s book series, and author Nick Katsoris also embarked on a school bus filled with children and supporters that day, all doing good deeds at various bus stops in the Westchester and Bronx area, including The Westchester Children’s Museum, Fordham University, Finding Hope: The New Yonkers Animal Shelter and Holy Trinity Church in New Rochelle. The children wore orange “Make A Difference with Loukoumi,” t-shirts, as orange is the color of bullying prevention in honor of Loukoumi’s partnership with Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center.
Contributed photo
One of the good deed projects recently brought the sport of baseball to a school on the island of Jamaica when 13-year-old Dean Katsoris had an idea to collect baseball equipment. The school, which lacked the resources for a baseball program, was identified by one of the Loukoumi Foundation’s good deed partners, The Joey Foundation, who has supported this school in the past, including raising funds to build a new roof for the school. And so, on National Make a Difference Day, Loukoumi teamed up with the Fordham Baseball team and Coach Leighton to collect baseball equipment during the Fordham/Georgetown Football game. Fordham was the second stop, organized by Dean Greg Pappas, on the annual Loukoumi Good Deed Bus Tour, which makes stops throughout the New York area on Make a Difference Day.
The project was so successful that enough bats and balls were collected for six teams and so the Loukoumi Foundation and The Joey Foundation are now sponsoring the Make a Difference Baseball League for the Primary Schools in Hanover, Jamaica.
“The Loukoumi Foundation encourages kids to make a difference in their own special ways for projects that mean something to them,” said Nick Katsoris, president of the Loukoumi Foundation, “and so when Dean [Greg Pappas] and I were discussing what to do for Make a Difference Day, since he loves baseball so much, we thought, wouldn’t it be great to help other kids enjoy the sport as well.”
Pappas and a team of Eastchester students also helped raise money for the project and were able to purchase six sets of bases for the league.
Ann Torcivia, president of The Joey Foundation, visited Jamaica this week to launch the league with an opening ceremony. “It was an amazing and emotional event,” said Torcivia, who has done countless good deeds for the schools of Jamaica and others with the Joey Foundation, named after her son. “I know my Joey is looking down and is so happy,” she said.
The national Make a Difference with Loukoumi project has also inspired The Make a Difference With Loukoumi Exhibit, which the Foundation has sponsored at the Westchester Children’s Museum in Rye. Here kids learn the importance of making a difference all year round and on March 25, The Loukoumi Foundation began sponsoring at the museum the Loukoumi Good Deed of the Month Club on the fourth Saturday each month. Similar clubs will follow at several schools this fall including The Anne Hutchinson School.
