Rebecca Acri

Rebecca “Becca” Acri’s senior high school service project began with her twin cousins' 98-day stay in The Western Pennsylvania Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). During the summer of 2007, Becca's fourth year as a junior volunteer at West Penn, she served in the NICU, where she discovered that many of the 500 "preemies" cared for each year were discharged to homes where cute new outfits were not in the budget.

Becca determined that, to commemorate her cousins' life-saving time in the NICU, she would collect 98 new outfits to donate to needy families. In addition to volunteering at West Penn (almost 60 hours in 2007 and a cumulative total of almost 400 hours), Becca held a "baby shower" and clothing drive. On October 22, 2007, Becca brought to the NICU several huge storage containers containing more than 400 tiny outfits, separated by gender and each labeled with a tag describing her donation. She even brought the inspiration for her project—her twin cousins—to celebrate their 3rd birthdays with their NICU "family."