Meet UNICEF Ambassador Louisa Iacurci

ACCCOMPLISHMENT:  Even though Louisa Iacurci’s children are no longer in elementary school, this local mom is dedicated to working with Island Avenue, Jeffrey and Ryerson PTOs to keep the Madison Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program one of the most successful across the country. While Iacurri does not recall the exact dollar number that has been collected each year since she started volunteering, she says the first year she remembers Madison schoolchildren collecting about $4,000.

KEY TO AWESOMENESS:  Iacurci has been a relentless supporter of Madison’s Trick-or-Treat UNICEF program for the past five years, yet she shuns the spotlight and is quick to give credit to others who assist every year - Madison Public School’s Central office and the elementary school PTOs.  She does all the preliminary work – coordinating with UNICEF, obtaining Central Office permission and  delivering the little orange UNICEF collection boxes to each school – and it is the individual PTO groups that count all the donations and make sure the money gets to UNICEF. 

One thing that makes the PTOs job a bit easier is that while the dollar bills are individually counted, the coins can be put through the CoinStar machine at Stop and Shop and be designated as a donation for UNICEF.  A receipt is then printed out and sent to UNICEF to be added into the school’s total.  There is no additional cost to do this. 

 “If the PTOs didn’t agree to it we wouldn’t be able to do it,” said Iacurci.   

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF has been around since 1950. “…children across America were inspired to collect coins for UNICEF to aid children abroad enduring the after-effects of World War II,” says UNICEF’s website.  “It was not just a charity effort—it was a call to end the needless suffering of their more vulnerable peers around the globe. Since then, for generations of Americans, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF has been a powerful way to make a difference in the lives of the world’s children.”

Children helping children is exactly what makes this program appealing to Louisa. “For me the purpose is for the children to feel like they can make a difference,” said Iacurci.  “That this little bit of change that they are able to collect really can change a child’s life.”

INTERESTING UNICEF FACTS:

(http://www.unicef.org/index.php)

$1 protects a child from polio for life

$1 immunizes one child against measles

$2 can provide 66 children with vitamin A capsules for a year

$2.46 can buy school supplies, such as pencils, books, chalk, slate board and paper for one child for one year