Andrew Leavitt, a UMass Amherst alumni who graduated in 2010, is also the founder of non-profit, Ellen’s Heart and Soul. Leavitt was inspired to start up the organization after his mother died of breast cancer in 2005. The non-profit is devoted to providing cancer patients with relaxation time and a healthier lifestyle through two initiatives: “Music for the Heart and Soul,” which provides cancer patients with iPods during treatment and “Meals for the Heart and Soul” which serves cancer patients and their families organic and fresh food.
“My entire life I have fundraised for breast cancer non-profits. When my mom was sick it was a great way for me to deal with my own feelings about her diagnosis and I think it is the same now. When I plan an event for Ellen’s Heart and Soul, I am always thinking about her. Now the organization is just a personal way of keeping my mother in my heart and soul,” said Leavitt, 22, who named the organization after a line his mother, Ellen said to him every night before bed, “I love you with all of my heart and all of my soul.”
Leavitt started Ellen’s Heart and Soul when he was a senior undergraduate at UMass Amherst and came in contact with a diverse group of students who wanted to help, including current Finance Director, Wesley Locke, and On- Campus director, Valerie Kravis. The organization came from humble beginnings, with students in charge of every component. “I was a finance major, so I handled that side of things and Andrew was the guy who put everything together,” said Locke, 22. “We also employed both a legal and marketing major, so we had someone in charge of each aspect. It was really helpful to have students from different backgrounds,” said Locke, who credits the group’s success in its diversity.
It took a lot of work for them to reach the non-profit’s current status. The group started out by raising money for the Virginia Thurston Healing Garden— a park in Harvard, MA Leavitt’s mother frequented while going through chemotherapy— but Leavitt and his friends had bigger plans. They wanted to start a non-profit that meant something to them and that other young people would support and get excited about.
“I love the fact that there are thousands of different breast cancer organizations, but there were none that related to me and I wanted to bridge the generation gap,” said Leavitt.
Leavitt’s desire to appeal to a younger audience led to Music for the Heart and Soul. With donated iPod’s, Leavitt decided he would hand pick songs from his extensive music collection, upload the tunes to the iPods and provide the cancer patients with them. “It’s a lot harder for kids today, especially with the economy being how it is to give away $20. It’s almost easier to give something, like an iPod, that is worth more money, but may be sitting in the back of a drawer,” said Locke.
“There are a lot of great non-profits out there raising millions of dollars looking for the cure. When my mother passed away there was no cure, there still isn’t” said Leavitt. What she did have was a great network of friends and family who shared love and support with her. Those are the core values he wants to build Ellen’s Heart and Soul around: providing aide to real people who need assistance and using the available resources to make a difference.
Leavitt and his friends quickly realized that in order to fulfill this mission, they needed to become a legally recognized non-profit. “Without being a 501(c)3 [non-profit] you can’t raise your own money and put it to your own cause with your own initiatives,” explained Leavitt. The process of applying to be a non-profit included creating a board of directors, a mission statement, goals to help local hospitals and under-privileged women battling breast cancer, and establishing programs which became Music for the Heart and Soul and Meals for the Heart and Soul.
Regardless of their official status, the group still has a lot of work to do in order reach their goals, as their initiatives require donations.
Ellen’s Heart and Soul has their UMass undergraduate interns busy collecting iPods on campus, while Leavitt does so on other college campuses. The non-profithas already placed iPods in Tufts Medical Center and have five more hospitals lined up to participate in this project over the next three months. “[Tufts] wants to run a study once the program has progressed to see if music therapy while in the chemo-chair reduces stress and helps with the healing process,” said Leavitt. “That’s years down the road of testing and research, but I’m excited to see how it turns out.”
In the meantime, the Meals for the Heart and Soul program are also in need of funds in order to meet Leavitt’s vision. In order to receive funding, Leavitt and his co-workers are selling shares to organizations and individuals for $500 apiece, which is enough to feed five people for two weeks at a time. Through these shares and various other fundraisers, Leavitt hopes to raise $25,000 by this coming March in order to put the Meals for the Heart and Soul initiative in full swing and be able to feed 25 families for two summers in a row. During those two summers, Leavitt will continue to fundraise, so that families can be provided with healthy meals for as long as they need it.
One of the group’s main fundraisers will take place right on the UMass campus: the Second Annual Metawampe Stompe Rail Jam.
On December 9th, one hundred and fifty tons of snow will be dropped next to the Mullen Center Arena on the UMass Amherst campus. The snow, along with $25,000 worth of lighting and professional disc jockey gear as well as rails and ramps, will be donated by local businesses to create a rail jam right on campus. UMass students, as well as ski and snowboard teams from as far away as Quebec will compete for $500 worth of prizes and bragging rights for the rest of the year.
Ellen’s Heart and Soul will be raising money through a variety of ways including the actual rail competition and fundraisers happening during the event. Contestants will pay an entrance fee of $20. Local sponsors including, Party Excitement of Woburn, Gateway Productions of Newbury Port, UMass’ Ski and Snowboard club, the Student Government Association and the motor-sports club will receive advertisements during the event in exchange for monetary, lighting or snow donations. One place that these businesses will receive advertisements is on Metawampe Stompe “koozies”—cloth beverage holders that will be sold to attendees for $5 allowing them unlimited hot chocolate throughout the event.
This year, Ellen’s Heart and Soul has another fundraising idea for the day that relates more directly to its cause. Pink ribbon will be sold for one dollar per foot. People who purchase the ribbon are encouraged to write their name or a message to someone they know affected by breast cancer. “We will then be tying all of the ribbon pieces together,” said Leavitt. “We are hoping to sell enough ribbon to wrap it around the perimeter of the rail jam tied to stakes in the ground.”
With all of the fundraising ideas settled, the members of Ellen’s Heart and Soul are expecting this event to be much more successful the second time around. “We learned a lot from the event last year, and there many things we will do more efficiently this time around,” said Locke.
Leavitt agrees and plans on the event having around 5,000 attendees and earning at least triple the $2,300 it earned last year. ”We want to keep it at UMass, have it continue to grow there and see how large we can get it,” said Leavitt. “We’re going to just keep pushing the envelope.”
Leavitt plans to do the same with Ellen’s Heart and Soul, which he wants to continue as his full time career. For now, he is solely living off of the money he earned as a DJ, but monetary payment is not his primary concern. “I want to see how far I can push it. There is a lot I want to do with Ellen’s Heart and Soul. Meals for the Heart and Soul and Music for the Heart and Soul are just the first steps in my plan,” he said. “I want to create a new style of non-profit; one that cares about helping the women that truly need it. Going through breast cancer is a hard and challenging moment in a woman’s life. I want to be there to help them.”