Author Spotlight
Ada Lillie Worthington
Junior Ella Hargens scrolled mindlessly through different projects on the SHARE Chair Google Form — Pack of Pals, Nourish KC, KC Pet Project. Despite the many options to choose from, none of them stuck out to her. She had never been a SHARE Chair before and wanted to choose a project she’d be passionate about.
Suddenly, Hargens stopped when she saw one project. Variety KC — a foundation focused on creating inclusivity in the Kansas City area. She remembered how her late neighbor Olivia Bloomfield used to volunteer with them. She scrolled down further to the bottom of the Google Form where there was an option to select “Other Organization” and add a description of a new project idea.
Hargens finally found what project she could be passionate about — The Olivia Bloomfield Foundation.
Juniors Hargens, Mae Audus and Clara Burdick created the new SHARE project for The Olivia Bloomfield Foundation — created by Olivia’s parents Sara and Matt — to continue Olivia’s legacy in the East community.
“When Olivia passed and Ella brought up the idea to add The Olivia Bloomfield Foundation to the Shawnee Mission East share program, it was meant to be,” Audus said. “It almost felt like we needed to do it.”
Olivia Bloomfield was three months old when she was diagnosed with congenital muscular dystrophy — a disorder that causes a lower life expectancy due to muscle weakness usually first seen in infants soon after birth. But her diagnosis didn’t stop her from improving her community. She worked with Variety KC and other Kansas City-based organizations to help provide inclusivity in places such as the Corinth elementary school playground. Olivia continued to better her community until her death in July 2022 — she was 10 years old.
The foundation was created after Olivia’s passing and focuses on continuing her legacy to better the community’s inclusivity. In addition, the foundation raises money to expand research on congenital muscular dystrophy.
“Olivia was a family friend of ours, and [the foundation] is working to make places more inclusive and raises money to make [accessable] houses of kids who have disabilities if they can’t afford an upgrade in their house,” Hargens said. “They raise money to buy them an accessible bathroom and accessible home entrance and they work with organizations around Kansas City to make more places more inclusive.”
SHARE volunteers for the Olivia Bloomfield Foundation project will help organize fundraising events for the foundation. These events include Olivia’s Garden in October, the Cure a Gift Gallery in November and Olivia’s legacy seats at KC Current in the spring.
Hargens, Audus and Burdick watched Olivia grow up from Hargens seeing the Bloomfield family move in across the street in third grade to Audus meeting her at her 5th birthday party.
“I think the personal connection helped a lot because running a charity for school is hard, especially if you don’t have an inside connection,” Audus said. “We know Sara, so it felt like the right thing to do.”
So far, the Olivia Bloomfield Foundation project has over 100 participants in the GroupMe — a significantly larger number than the three girls could’ve imagined.
“I think that a lot of students know who she is,” Hargens said. “Especially at the SHARE Fair, we had a lot of people come up to us and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I know her’ and ‘So glad you’re doing this.’ It really felt good.”
Hargens, Audus and Burdick hope that through their new SHARE project, more people will become aware of the community around them and help spread Olivia’s spirit.
“I’m hoping that next year, we can do this project again, and it becomes part of the list of signups even after we leave the school,” Hargens said. “Our main goal through working with this charity is to set it up as a legacy. I know Olivia meant a lot to us, and I know that there are kids behind us that Olivia meant a lot to too.”
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