To most 12-year-olds, doing charity work means dropping some cans off in a collection box or tagging along to the soup kitchen with their parents once in a while. Avery Davidson is thinking bigger than that.
The Roslyn sixth-grader is determined to raise $12,000 to benefit the Irving Roth Holocaust Resource Center at Temple Judea in Manhasset.
Specifically, she wants to help preserve the center’s collection of Holocaust artifacts. Avery is doing this by selling sweatshirts emblazoned with a simple message: “Let there be love and understanding among us.”
The quote is an excerpt from the Jewish Hashkiveinu prayer, which she says is her personal favorite.
“It’s about… giving each other shelter during hard times and giving a comforting shoulder,” she said. “I think that it’s a very nice message to be spread.”
The current project is for her bat mitzvah, but this is not the first time that Avery has set her sights high. When she was 10, she managed to raise $10,000 for the charities set up in honor of Roslyn High School tennis players Drew Hassenbein and Ethan Falkowitz, who in 2023 were tragically killed in a car accident by a drunk driver.
She raised the money by holding a bake sale and selling shirts, wristbands, sweatbands, and other accessories on the side.
“This tragedy happened right before her 10th birthday, and she wanted to do something for these boys’ foundations,” said Dana Davidson, Avery’s mother. “She’s an inspiration to me.”
When she was 11, Avery surprised her whole family by cutting off 11 inches of her hair and donating it to Locks of Love, a nonprofit that gives custom wigs to disadvantaged children who deal with hair loss from conditions like alopecia or cancer treatment. The hair had taken years to grow.
To her mother, Avery has always been inclined to help others. At times, she’s even had to pull her back from taking on even more ambitious goals.
“She wanted to do 12 different projects,” her mother said, “but it’s a lot of work, and I think she really focused on something that meant a lot to her.”
So far, Avery has sold about $3,000 worth of sweatshirts, which cost $36 apiece. She has already sold out of them twice, and a third order is on the way. Most of the sales have come from word of mouth, with some help from social media.
As for what the future holds, the sweatshirts are just one part of the plan.
“I definitely want to grow this,” Avery said. “But next year I also want to do something different because there are other places that need to be helped.”
Through it all, though, she has not lost sight of why she took on this project.
“The Holocaust was a very important mark in our history, and I want to help preserve all of the artifacts,” Avery said. “I think that by everyone supporting this cause, there’ll be a lot more love in the world.”
