Alpha Omicron Pi
Pi Delta Chapter at the University of Maryland
Kayla Libby Memorial Page
From the time she was a young child in elementary school, she has had a passion for helping others. Every year when a new school year began she would come home and tell me about the new kid in the class she befriended as they knew no one else. So many of the kids she took under her wing came from difficult family lives and Michaella loved to bring them to the house and share her family with them.
In high school Michaella continued to take the new kids in school under her wing and offer our home as a sanctuary. She also found a love of community service when in ninth grade she and a few friends organized a bowl a thon for cancer fundraiser that raised over $4000. She went on in the next few years to participate in many walkathons and sports tournaments that were fundraisers for various causes.
When Michaella arrived in Maryland, it was difficult being far from home but once she joined the AOII sorority it was like she was home! Joining brought so many opportunities of community service and helping others. She loved being with so many girls that shared the same interests. In the spring of 2011, she worked on Terp Thon, Strikeout Game, Spaghetti Dinner and AOPie in the face to raise money for arthritis and TKE sweep. Come that fall and loving life in the sorority house, she was the VP of Academics assistant, tutor at Kid Power Tutoring, and on the AOPie in the face and Parent’s Day Brunch committees. Away from the sorority, she was part of the Global Medical Brigade and Model UN. Both of these organizations led her to feel that ultimately she would like to work for Doctors Without Borders when she graduated. She also was a member of the Students Helping Honduras and had planned to travel to Honduras and help build a school.
Michaella did more in her 20 years than most people do in 80 years. We were so honored when the tutoring program at Kids Power was named for her- “Kayla’s Kids.” The Students Helping Honduras program put a plaque in her honor on the schools she was to help build. The plaque’s quote speaks of Michaella’s short but giving life- “only a life lived for others is a life worth while.”
-Erin Walsh-Libby
"I am proud to call Michaella my daughter."
Students of the Benedicion Elementary School
Kayla will always be a part of our Pi Delta family. Her philanthropic values are an inspiration to us and we continue to honor this in a number of ways. Every spring we have the HonduRun in Honor of Kayla Libby- a 5K event with Students Helping Honduras to raise money for various schools and supplies in Honduras. There has also been a Pi Delta scholarship established in Kayla's memory. In the fall, many sisters attend a 5K and high heel dash known as Miles and Smiles for Michaella in her Massachusetts hometown. And every day we strive to better ourselves and make Kayla proud.