Youth Philanthropy Council was started in 2017 by former WHHS student, Mary Kate Cusick. YPC helps local non-profit organizations by hosting raffles and food drives for them. An organization called Magnified Giving matches all money made from fundraisers. Due to the pandemic, the club has faced the challenges of finding safe ways to hold fundraisers and connect with non-profits. 

“We can’t do in person fundraisers anymore, so the pizza and bake sales and raffles within the school where we would be able to hand out tickets and stuff… but we’ve still been able to make it work with online advertising through our Instagram,” SENIOR Caelan McFadden-Grubenhoff said.

YPC also had a Valentine’s day raffle.This year YPC hosted a food and clothes drive for Maslow’s Army and City Gospel Mission.

 “I’m not sure the exact number of how many people came, but we got tons of items,” McFadden-Grubenhoff said, “I mean, we definitely got maybe like a dozen people to come and donate, maybe a little bit more and we got a lot of items from them which we’re really grateful for.”  

McFadden-Grubenhoff is the president of the YPC. McFadden-Grubenhoff said that YPC wants everyone to feel passionate about the nonprofits they’re raising money for.

“The goal of the YPC is basically just to help nonprofits in our immediate community and just to educate Walnut Hills on nonprofits…before I joined freshman year, I personally didn’t know how they worked or how I could help them even if I wanted to,” McFadden-Grubenhoff said.

Samantha Stephenson, a 7th and 9th grade English teacher is the club facilitator for the YPC.

“Non-profit visits are easier to arrange,” Stephenson said. “Though I wish we could meet [with] them in person, it is really easy to arrange nonprofits to visit us because it is virtual; they don’t have to drive anywhere, get into the building, etc. But, volunteering is extremely difficult to get students out into the real world and volunteer with nonprofits because of COVID-19 restrictions. This is one of our favorite parts of the club – helping our community – and it has been tough.” 

 YPC has club meetings through Google Meet every other Wednesday at 3 p.m. Nonprofits come to these meetings and give a presentation about what they do.

“With YPC virtual, everyone can attend without finding a ride home, or other conflicts that they usually deal with,” Stephenson said.

 YPC has about 15 leadership positions and 50 members. The club has seven groups of members that decide on which nonprofits YPC will raise money for.

“YPC will happen again next year. Usually we start recruiting people in September.” McFadden-Grubenhoff said.

For more information about YPC, visit their website:  https://whhsypc.wixsite.com/philanthropy