Meet Elizabeth MacDonald
A Club member for six years, Elizabeth is described as an upbeat role model who demonstrates scholastic excellence, integrity, fortitude, and strength of character. Elizabeth is someone her friends and family can count on. The qualities of reliability, maturity, grace, and compassion have helped her get through a very difficult adjustment when her family left its suburban home for Charlestown to be closer to her father’s cancer treatment center.
When Elizabeth’s father was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma five years ago, Elizabeth had to change schools, say goodbye to childhood friends, and adapt to city life.
She rose to the challenge, maintaining excellent grades and developing leadership skills. “Throughout this ordeal, Elizabeth has been my rock,” wrote her mother.
In facing the challenges of living with a chronically ill parent, more often than not Elizabeth has had to postpone her own hopes and plans to take on adult responsibilities and tasks for the overall benefit of the family. This speaks to her ability to see beyond herself; a generosity of spirit that is rare in teens her age.
Elizabeth says that because life at home was sometimes difficult, the Club was her safe haven. She calls it, “The best thing that has ever happened to me.” She participates in College Club; Keystone Club, a teen leadership program; and Teen Community Action Group, with which she traveled to New Orleans for Katrina relief in 2007. She also volunteers at a soup kitchen, packs boxes of canned goods to take to shelters, and helps with park beautification projects.
At Mount Saint Joseph Academy, where she is a senior, her teachers consider her an exceptional student who takes pride in getting good grades. She has been named to the National Honor Society, and is an active member of the sports programs, including Junior Varsity softball.
As she plans for college, she looks forward to exploring subjects she is passionate about, and knows that it will further inspire her love of learning. She plans to study psychology and become a social worker so that she can “perfect my trade and provide help for children in need.” Those who have supervised her work with youth comment on her outstanding capacity to understand young children and communicate with them, and her deep compassion for others, particularly struggling and shy individuals.
“The Boys & Girls Club is a huge part of my life,” she says. “I am there every single weekday, working, volunteering, or going to one of the various programs that I am involved in. It is a place to hang out, have fun, and feel comfortable. It is a safe place where I can be my best self.”