CAMDEN COUNTY, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — A high school student in Camden County has started a nonprofit to help provide comfort for children in family court rooms.
Community service is part of the curriculum at Bishop Eustace High School. Junior Andrew Passalacqua, 17, whose mother is a judge, says a trip to her courtroom helped spark an idea to help kids through difficult situations in family court rooms.
“I was watching a legal proceeding, and there were two parents arguing, and in the stands of the court there was a 5- to 7-year-old kid, and I could not believe they were allowed to watch their parents argue.”
So Andrew set out to help by raising money to buy thousands of boxes of crayons and coloring books to pass out in family court.
“It feels great. Honestly, I could not have imagined it going this far and being this big.”
Passalacqua says he’s working to expand the Crayons for Courts nonprofit to other counties in the state and maybe even beyond depending on how well fundraising goes.