A Heart for Service

High schooler Ellis Sharpe sported a very special t-shirt at the Shores this summer. It didn’t feature the logo of a favorite college or sports team. It wasn’t something she purchased in a trendy store. Instead, Ellis’s shirt displayed the name of a special non-profit organization—one founded by Ellis herself.

“I have always had a heart for service,” says Ellis. “Serving others and giving back to others… I enjoy seeing the blessing that it is to other people.”

A long-time Pine Cove camper, Ellis decided to take that heart for service and use it to raise money to benefit others. At just 14 years old, Ellis founded DUO: Do Unto Others, with the goal of promoting “thoughtful actions while also providing a means to give back.”

Every six months Ellis, now 16, creates and sells a t-shirt featuring DUO’s distinctive acronym with the help of a local t-shirt company. Then she donates 100 percent of the profits to charity. Past recipients of DUO donations include a boys and girls home and a Down’s Syndrome organization.

The next cause Ellis is looking to support? Pine Cove’s scholarship program, Project 319.

Ellis first learned of Project 319 when she was a camper at the Timbers. She remembers watching a video about a scholarship recipient during closing celebration.

“Getting to watch the video… it touched me, and I was able to see how much camp and Project 319 can impact kids and bring kids to the Lord,” Ellis recalls. “Seeing how [Pine Cove] works in their lives… I guess it sat on my heart for a while.”

Ellis just completed designs for a new, Pine Cove-themed DUO shirt, which she’s selling for $20. She’s eager to raise money to benefit Project 319 so that other kids can have the same amazing experience at camp that she did.

“Pine Cove is a special place to me. It’s the week I look forward to every year, and so to be able to give back to y’all is a huge blessing,” Ellis explains. “For me, looking forward to it makes me want them to experience it even more.”

Each year more than 3,500 campers rely on a Project 319 scholarship to come to Pine Cove. If you’d like to help support these campers through Ellis’s organization, you can buy a t-shirt on the DUO website.