Southern Lehigh High School’s Sassy Massey Smiles club is already successful despite its recent start at the beginning of the school year. Junior Aisley Kimble is the president of the club and has a mission to donate money and toys to the Sassy Massey Smiles Foundation. Despite just starting, the club has already donated to the organization by orchestrating their own fundraising events.
“It’s really been like a rocket ship! Ever since the start, the club really took off and we’ve been very successful so far,” sophomore and social media manager Wyatt Adams said. “We’ve worked on three different main projects and a lot of side projects, and overall we’ve accomplished a lot.”
The Sassy Massey Smiles Foundation is a local non-profit run by the Massey family. Inspired by their daughter Jillian Massey, the foundation provides toys to hospitals across the Lehigh Valley. After Jillian’s passing in December 2017 at the age of 5, the foundation’s sole purpose has been to help children sick with cancer in the area by running toy drives, and other events that raise money for their cause.
Students and teachers generated massive amounts of support for the club. The club’s dedication to their mission is essential to their success. They already have a total of 29 members and are expected to grow over the next couple of years.
“The club has gained a lot of support from students and teachers and we’ve also gained tons of support from the Massey family,” Kimble says, “[Jillian’s mother] Jannelle has donated money to the Sassy Massey Smiles club, taken us on a shopping spree, [and] she came in to teach a lesson, and even planned a school field trip for us.”
Social media managers Adams and junior Colin Sarnoski created an Instagram account to generate online support, update supporters on the club’s ventures, and collect donations through their Venmo account.
“We post pretty much everything, like what we do in school and out of school,” Sarnoski said. “The people in the community just really love seeing what’s going on in the club, so when they see updates I feel that it’s usually an instant like, instant follow and instant support in general.”
Recently, the club has been completing toy drives in order to provide toys for sick children. The members usually go together to purchase the toys and donate them to local hospitals. The club completed a toy drive in October in order to prepare for the holidays and it was a great success. They helped shop for $15,000 worth of toys and box 56 boxes of toys for children spending the holidays in hospitals.
As for the future of the club, they aren’t slowing down. The club has more plans for toy drives and other events to continue the legacy of the Sassy Massey foundation.
“Some future plans for the club are continuing to work on more things for the toy drives because they are all year round events not just around the holidays,” says Kimble. “Also in March, around Jillian’s birthday, we will be working on raising more money for brain cancer research and we will be doing a “Go Gray in May” event, so the future is definitely bright for the Sassy Massey Smiles club.”
