Shining Star

At 6:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning in 2015, Josephine Hollander, then a fifth grader living in Los Angeles, began sorting through trash bags filled with clothing. As the morning went on, the piles of bags grew to about the size of small houses, but Hollander, along with her friend Keira and Keira’s mom, weren’t deterred. They continued sorting through the bags, placing each item into its designated spot by season, size and gender. They chose to spend their morning volunteering at a community-wide event called Big Sunday, and Hollander was hooked.

“They closed down an entire street, and people dropped off these big trash bags full of clothing, DVDs and other things,” she remembers. “I quickly realized what an amazing environment it was – these drives were big. There were probably about 1,000 people sorting through the bags. Everyone worked for hours, digging through piles and trying to organize clothes in 90-degree weather. And even though it was Thanksgiving, everyone was there to give back, and it was amazing. On that day, I knew I wanted to get more involved in that environment.”

While sorting, Hollander struck up conversations with several older volunteers and eagerly listened to their life stories. 

“It was a pretty powerful place because not only were we helping out, but we were learning about others; it definitely inspired me,” she says. “I remember one woman talking about how she had taken clothing donations before, and so she’s glad that she can help others. She was about 70 years old, and she was volunteering with her adult son.”

They spent six hours volunteering that day, and Hollander says she would’ve stayed longer if she could have. 

“There was a jazz band playing, and I was really into jazz – I really enjoyed the experience, and I knew I wanted to go back,” she remembers. “And that night, I remember going on their website and trying to find other events they held so I could get involved again.”

Junior ambassador

That Thanksgiving was not Hollander’s first time volunteering. When she was eight years old, she and her friend Graysen began serving as junior ambassadors for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. They were the youngest junior ambassadors in the group; the others were at least 12 years old, but that never deterred them.

“We raised about $2,000 every year,” Hollander says. “We would do fundraisers and a lot of events at our school to raise money that helped kids who were in the hospital. We sold water and snacks, and we made a lot of food. We held fundraisers about twice a month, and we even made our own signs.”

“We’d also go out into the community to sell things because it was a very populated area,” she continues. “We would walk around, carrying baskets. We were really trying to make the cause known.”

They also attended meetings at the hospital three times a year, as well as an annual convention, where they learned about different ways to fundraise and get more involved. And they heard stories and updates about the different therapies and procedures the children received because of the group’s fundraising efforts. 

“I learned how important it was to give back,” she says. “That experience taught me that it’s important to always think about others and the situations they might be going through. No matter what your circumstances are, it’s important to be aware of your surroundings.”

Disaster relief

The Malibu wildfires in 2018 motivated Hollander to check out Big Sunday again. When she’d gone to their website after that Thanksgiving event, there weren’t any upcoming events she felt passionate about, but she remembered them during the wildfires, and wanted to see how they were helping.

“In California, the wildfires were a very important event; the city was up in smoke, and everyone’s goal at that point in time was to help each other out,” she remembers. “Big Sunday had a bunch of events to help organize essentials like toothpaste, toothbrushes, and food for people who just lost their homes in the fires. It really spoke to me.”

She lived close to a volunteer facility, so she asked her parents to drop her off whenever she could find the time. Like the Thanksgiving event, they were not required to register ahead of time; volunteers simply showed up and were placed where they were needed. 

Once again, Hollander was one of the only kids there, but she didn’t mind. She didn’t even ask a friend to join her. Hollander just wanted to help. 

“I would just walk in, sign up and sit down at a table,” she remembers. “They’d have all the items laid out – travel-sized shampoos, conditioners, toothpaste, deodorant and feminine hygiene products – and I would put them in plastic bags for women and teens who had lost their homes.”

In addition to the wildfires, she helped with clothing drives for the homeless. 

“Homelessness is a really big problem, specifically in the radius where I lived,” she explains. “They would send out emails about the specific events they were having, and whenever I was available, which was not very often at all, but whenever I was, that was my favorite thing to do. I loved going over to Big Sunday and helping out.”

Besides being a middle school student with lots of homework, Hollander was president of her seventh and eighth grade classes, played basketball, had “very serious piano lessons,” took voice lessons, participated in musical theater in and outside of school and spent hours with a vision specialist and a tutor to help her with her dyslexia.

Finding her place in New York

Hollander’s family moved to Mount Kisco in 2020, a week after she finished eighth grade. She was excited for a new start and attending class in person, but it was a culture shock. 

“My middle school was in the middle of Hollywood, and there were homeless tents on the gate on the other side of our yard,” she explains. “Homelessness was normalized. When I moved here, I didn’t understand how it wasn’t normal. It was such a crazy concept to me that homelessness doesn’t really exist here.” 

That fall, she became a freshman at Fox Lane High School on a hybrid schedule.

“I didn’t know any of the kids in my classes,” she says. “I only met a few from my hybrid classes, where we would social distance across the room from each other.”

She knew she needed to get involved, so she began exploring the school’s clubs. The first one to catch her eye was Habitat for Humanity. 

“I went to every single meeting my freshman year, and I had a great time,” she remembers. “I met a lot of new people, and I also really liked the idea of building houses and helping out. It felt really good after being inside for so long. It felt so good to know that I could help others in a new place.”

She also joined the yearbook club and student government that year as other ways to meet people.

As a sophomore, Hollander remained part of student government and yearbook, studied music theory outside of school, joined the track and field team (shes’ a high jumper) and became one of the founding members of the Pound Ridge Partnership junior board. By mid-year, she didn’t have time to continue with Habitat for Humanity, but volunteering with the junior board filled that sense of purpose. It was there that she found the sense of community she’d been looking for.

“When I first learned about the junior board, I thought it sounded like a great way to get involved in the community,” she says. “But most importantly, what I was more excited about was meeting people in and around the area. I didn’t know a lot of people, so it really gave me a sense of settlement. It made me feel like I had moved into a community. I immediately got to know a lot of the families in the area.”

As a junior, things fell into place. She became editor-in-chief of the yearbook and had a “pretty good season” in track and field, competing in a sport she’d never tried until the year before.

“I usually got third, second or first place at every meet in the county,” she says.

And she became a member of Foxapella, her school’s all-female acapella group.

“I’m a beatboxer, and I sing soprano,” she explains. “I’m also a member of the Tri-M Music Honor Society. We help out at school music events throughout the district and local concerts.”

Now in her senior year, Hollander continues to volunteer for The Partnership, is of the yearbook for the second year in a row, competes as a high jumper, sings with Foxapella and works at Bedford Playhouse.

“I work in concessions or the box office, and I love it there,” she says. “I love entertainment, music and media, so I really like how the arts are a very big part of the culture. And I really like the creativity behind some of the events they hold and the diversity between the events. Plus, I love my co-workers.”

“And I get to see the first five minutes and the last 10 minutes of every movie,” she adds. “Because I’m cleaning up the popcorn.”

Now, she has her sights set on college, where she hopes to study music business. 

“I’m not sure about exactly what I want to do in the industry, whether it’s going to be creative or on the business side, but I know that I definitely want to be in the industry,” she says. “I just want to do something that I love every day. I want to be in a place that I love. And I want to be around people that give me that sense of community.”

This article was published in the November/December 2023 print edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.