PARSIPPANY — Jacqueline Smith, 16, a Parsippany resident recently completed summer service projects for Eleventh Hour Rescue and the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets program.
Smith a rising junior at Mount Saint Dominic Academy in Caldwell, conducted two events during the Parsippany Adult and Communication Education’s (PACE) “Wide World of Summer” camp program held at Central Middle School. “Wide World of Summer” is an eight-week camp program filled with outdoor sports and indoor activities, educational enrichment programs and field trips. Smith is a third-year member of the camp’s Counselor in Training leadership program.
Eleventh Hour Rescue is a local non-profit focused on saving pets from kill shelters, and educating the community about the animal overpopulation problem and the importance of spaying and neutering. Smith’s camper education program included a service dog presentation from the FBI Bomb Detection K9 unit, and included a pet food and shelter supply donation drive for the group’s headquarter facility in Randolph.
Smith’s second program raised money for the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign. The campaign aims to prevent malaria, a leading cause of death among children in Africa by purchasing and distributing long-lasting, insecticide-treated anti-mosquito nets, and educating families on their use. Smith’s fundraising activities included a soccer goal shootout, basketball shooting contests and a collection jug for spare change. She raised $510 in donations, equal to 51 lifesaving nets. This was her third event for Nothing But Nets, and she has now raised a total of $1,740 for the organization, enough for 174 nets for families in affected countries. Smith was named to the Nothing But Nets “Champions Council” for her efforts, and will travel in February to Washington DC for the group’s global conference as a student representative to share her work and gain ideas for future fundraising efforts.