Annapolis High School junior cofounds nonprofit with her mom designed to help vulnerable communities

Gemma Love’s first taste of philanthropy came when she was an elementary school student, and her mother Diana was a member of the Annapolis Rotary Club. Watching her mother’s work with the century old civic organization ignited a passion for helping others that still burns bright years later.

“My first community service project was a book fair while I was at West Annapolis Elementary,” said Gemma, a 17-year-old junior at Annapolis High School. “After I did it once I kept doing it each year and I also expanded my projects.”

A Band-Aid drive and a movie night fundraiser soon followed as daughter and mother eventually cofounded Whole Lotta Love, a nonprofit charity organization, in 2020.

This year, Gemma launched a pajama drive after learning that students whose families can’t afford heat at home sometimes double up on pajamas to sleep in or to use as a base layer when it’s cold out. The drive, which ended last week, had an initial goal of collecting 125 pajama sets. By the end, the nonprofit had tallied 794, with donations flooding in from Annapolis High faculty and other local organizations. One company donated $1,000, Gemma said.

That successful campaign came on the heels of a toy drive in November for Tyler Heights Elementary School, where a significant number of students live below the poverty line. Instead of identifying key students in need, the Loves threw a party for the school. About 500 toys were donated, Diana Love said.

“We made sure every kid got a gift,” she said.

Gemma says a lot of the projects she hosted early on were aided by her principal at the time, Alexis McKay.

“I couldn’t have done any of it without Mrs. McKay,” she said.

McKay, who is now principal at West County Elementary, said she knew from the first day she met Gemma in kindergarten that “she would make our world a better place.”

“Her dedication to helping others started back at West Annapolis Elementary when she approached me about starting a book drive for those students in need,” McKay said. “I love seeing all of the community service she has continued to engage in throughout the years. She is truly a passionate, dedicated, strong, and empathetic young woman.”

Gemma has gone on to complete several projects around the Annapolis area and has no intention of stopping. She often quotes the phrase, “If not me, then who?” to describe her work.

“My greatest motivation is just showing people how easy it is to help,” she said. “So many people are going through things that we will never know. I get a lot of joy from helping those people.”

In addition to her work with Whole Lotta Love, Gemma is heavily involved in her junior ROTC program and hopes to attend The U.S. Naval Academy next fall.

“It’s a really great way I can serve my country and they have lots of amazing service opportunities, too,” Gemma said.

Gemma is happy that she has had the opportunity to help so many people and looks forward to seeing how many more people she can help. Mostly she just wants to motivate others to help out, too.

“Once you start, you realize it’s not that hard,” she said.

Her favorite project took place last year during the holidays, Gemma said. Children in one neighborhood wanted bicycles for Christmas but their families couldn’t afford them. She and a group of volunteers got 200 people to donate and they were able to buy 15 new bikes for the kids.

“We just pulled up to their neighborhood with all those bikes and the kids were so happy and the parents started crying,” she said. “It was just amazing to see. All these people coming together to help me at 16 was amazing to see.”

Joanna Bach Tobin, a member of the county school board, says Whole Lotta Love is a great program that deserves attention.

“I started getting wind of their organization during COVID,” Tobin said. “It’s incredible the level of support they have received, especially with so many of their sponsors being teachers. It’s a beautiful example of what a community can do regardless of resources.”

Katie Cooke, a philanthropist and long-time volunteer and donor to Whole Lotta Love efforts, says she is most impressed with how active Gemma is.

“She’s a high school kid who could be doing a lot of other things with her time,” Cooke said, “but instead she sees problems and doesn’t just identify them, she fixes them.”