Merion Mercy Academy’s Madi Resnic is Main Line Student of the Week

Published: Thursday, December 04, 2014

By Bruce Adams

A junior at Merion Mercy, Resnic and her father Michael began their non-for-profit organization, Clothes-Pin – Clothes for People, at the 2007 Philadelphia Marathon. Clothes-Pin’s mission is to cloth the people in need of Philadelphia and surrounding areas with cast off clothing from running races. Since then, Clothes-Pin has collected over 200,000 articles of clothing and roughly 10,000 pairs of sneakers. The organization has reached the West Coast, participating in collecting sneakers at the San Francisco Marathon’s Expo for the last three years. This year, for Clothes-Pin’s first official year in collaboration with Merion, Madi organized 40 volunteers from Merion’s Ministry Team to participate in collecting clothes at the Philadelphia Marathon Nov. 23. At Merion Mercy, Madi also is involved in the Ministry Team, National Art Honors Society, Ricordia (the school’s online newspaper), and she is a CSC (Community Service

Core) Leader. She also is an avid actress. Q: Tell us a little bit about how you and your father came up with the concept of Clothes-Pin – Clothes for People. A: Seven years ago, my dad and I attended our first marathon, the Philadelphia Marathon, as spectators. We are not runners ourselves so the experience was new to us. After all the runners were off, we noticed the absurd amount of clothing being discarded into trash trucks. I said to my dad, “This doesn’t seem right.” He agreed and that day Clothes-Pin was born! We grabbed a pile of clothing and washed it at our home, which we brought to a local shelter. Q: Now, runners in the Philly Marathon throw you their clothes. Tell us a little about the experience in this year’s Philly Marathon, which now includes 40 volunteers from Merion Mercy. How many clothes did you collect – did you collect more than the 15,000 articles gathered in 2012? A: Yes, we have developed this cool relationship with the running community especially in Philadelphia. They know who we are, so runners will make sure to bring clothes. Because of the volunteers’ enthusiasm and energy we collected 565 trash bags of clothes, which is about 21,000 articles of clothing. Q: Your organization is partnered with several companies such as Athleta - what aroused their interest in your organization? A: We are connected with a few companies such as Athleta, LuLulemon, and Under Armor. Athleta and Lululemon both hold similar events that involve yoga and fitness sessions in their stores or at other location where they encourage participants to bring either clothes of sneakers for Clothes-Pin. They also set baskets in their stores at certain times in Philadelphia and King of Prussia for collections. Under Armor sends Clothes-Pin clothing to distribute to organizations we see fit. Last holiday season, I was able to deliver Under Armor sweatshirts, jackets, and other sorts of apparel to a teen shelter in the area. That was one of the most memorable experiences for me because the recipients were not much different from me or my friends. Q: Clothes-Pin also does sneaker collections at the Phillies 5K and the Flyers 5K. Can those used running shoes be useful to someone in need? A: Running sneakers that are “old” to runners are still in great condition for homeless people in need. Runners tend to only use sneakers for a short period of time so we collect them and distribute them to shelters along with people in Haiti. Q: What is your favorite book, and why? A: My favorite book(s) changes a lot, but right now I am between The Fault in Our Stars and Wuthering Heights. I love romance novels. The Fault in Our Stars was a pleasure read that was so well written and has made me love John Green as a writer. Wuthering Heights was part of my summer assignments for a British Literature class but became one of my all-time favorites.

Malvern Prep senior Andrew Stetser is Main Line Student of the Week

Published: Monday, December 29, 2014

By Bruce Adams

A senior, Stetser has been named to the All-Catholic Chorus team each of the past four years. A member of the Malvern Theatre Society, he played several roles in Malvern’s production of The Laramie Project. He is active in Christian service, and did his senior service project last summer in Peru. He also is co-vice president of the Diversity Awareness Club at Malvern. Q: What was the most memorable part of your experience over in Peru – can you share it with us? A: Seeing the poverty that the people of Chulucanas live in was moving, yet what was even more powerful was the sense of love and family that came out of that poverty. They had nothing (in material worth), yet they had everything any family or community could wish to have. I really saw in each of the citizens the Augustinian virtues of Caritas (Love), Unitas (Unity), and Veritas (Truth).

Q: What was the most meaningful activity that you performed over there, and why? A: While I was in Chulucanas, the most meaningful activity for me was visiting an orphanage. We went there many days, and played with the children and helped out painting the facility. This orphanage housed the children and the mother's whose ages ranged from 14 to 70. Most of the mothers were around my age, and were the subject of abuse and rape. Seeing how these mothers did so much for their children under unfortunate circumstances, and still retained an optimistic view of life was beyond belief. The kids were adorable too. Q: Tell us about the two main roles you play in The Laramie Project – Doc O’Connor and the Baptist Minister. A: Doc was, in a sense, one of the “comedic reliefs” in the play. These have always been my favorite characters to play, and my favorite character was King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar my freshman year. It was really hard to, as my English teacher and counselor says, “bring the funny” to such a powerful and thought-provoking show. I loved Doc because he challenged me to understand every line I said, and use that dialogue to give a sense of levity to the show. The Baptist Minister was also a great role to play, yet also challenged me as an actor. It was hard to say some of the things the Baptist Minister said, because most of them, to me, were horrible, and went against my moral code. I guess this is what I love about theatre the most; that I get to see the perspectives and opinions of others by portraying them on stage. Q: For your theatre class, you’re writing and producing a show which will be put on at Malvern in January called “Through a Child’s Eyes” – tell us about this production. A: It’s basically about the five concepts I didn’t understand as a kid: Birth, Family, Drama, Sex, and Death. Each of these concepts are shown through how a child would view the concepts. I’m really excited about this. Q: Tell us about your experience with the choral program at Malvern. What are some of your favorite performance songs? A: In Liturgical Music, we get to do amazing songs and venues. It's awesome to be singing songs from Styx, The Who, The Bee Gees, etc., every morning and during chapel services. In Men’s Chorus, we’re doing a Motown concert this year, and I’m really excited about it. As for a favorite song in Men's Chorus and Litmus, some of them have been “Nights on Broadway” by The Bee Gees, “Do They Know it's Christmas” by Band Aid, “For the Longest Time” by Billy Joel, “Last Month of the Year” by The Kingston Trio (but we were closer to the version done by The Blind Boys of Alabama), and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by Bruce Springsteen.

In October 2014, 6 ABC Action News

covered a WMA world hunger service project.

http://6abc.com/society/montco-students-pack-20000-meals-for-the-hungry/336105/