Matthew Jacko was a boy's boy, his mother said.

“He was all boy. (He liked) sports, you know, dirt, trucks,” said Carey Mynahan-Jacko, 41, of Monroeville. “He loved making people laugh and making people happy.”

Matthew died of a brain tumor at age 9 in June, but his legacy of making people feel good continues, friends and family said. Last year, he started a campaign to raise money to buy stuffed toy monkeys — Marble the Monkey — for sick children receiving care at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Lawrenceville, where Matthew received treatment.

The toy drive continues in his absence, as a group of volunteers attempts to raise money to buy 425 stuffed toy penguins, Paddy the Penguin, for children receiving care at Children's Hospital, said family friend and Monroeville resident Lisa Donnelly. She is a fundraising manager for New York-based beauty company Avon Products Inc., from which the stuffed animals are purchased.

“This will be an annual event in Matthew's memory,” she said.

Last fall, Matthew, his family, Donnelly and others collected sponsorships to pay for 500 toy monkeys. Exceeding their goal with more than 1,100 monkeys, they gave some of the toys to children served by The Children's Institute in Squirrel Hill and those in shelters and group homes.

This year, the group, assisted by the Central Catholic High School football team, is collecting sponsorships of $19.99 for Paddy The Penguin Grants Wishes. Of each donation, $11.25 goes to Avon to pay for the stuffed animal and the rest is donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses. Make-A-Wish sent Matthew and his family to Disney Word in 2012.

The group is 175 penguins short of its goal, but it plans to deliver what it has to the hospital Friday, Donnelly said. She has preordered 425 toy penguins, and will return to Avon those for which she doesn't get sponsorships.

“I just would rather have one for every child, rather than a portion of them,” she said.

Central Catholic's football team collected sponsorships for 85 penguins, Donnelly said. Last week, they helped with a table setup to collect sponsorships with Donnelly at a Shop 'n Save grocery store in Plum, and they have worked individually to get sponsorships, she said.

Every year, the football team's seniors lead a community service project, said football player Hunter Praksti, 17, a senior who presented the toy collection project to his team.

“And this year, the opportunity came about where we're able to do something with Children's Hospital and in memory of Matthew at the same time,” Praksti said. The team will help deliver the penguins.

The Praksti, Donnelly and Jacko families attend the same Catholic parish in Monroeville.

Matthew's family, including his father, Brian Jacko, 42, and sister, Jocelyn Mynahan, 19, appreciates the community's outpouring of support in the boy's memory, Mynahan-Jacko said.

“He would love it. If he were here, he would want to do it again for sure,” she said.

Matthew was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in April 2012, she said. His treatment mostly was outpatient care at the hematology/oncology clinic at Children's Hospital, but he was an inpatient from mid-April to mid-may 2012, and from there went to inpatient rehab at The Children's Institute, Mynahan-Jacko said.

Matthew was moved to help others. With a lemonade stand in June, he raised $700 that was donated to the Officer Rocco K-9 Memorial Fund, which used the money to buy two police dog vests; Animal Friends and a dog school that trained his service dog, Donnelly said.

His motivation for suggesting the toy animal drive was simple, his mother said. “Just to make other kids happy. He never really gave much of an explanation of why he did things,” she said.

Tory N. Parrish is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-380-5662 or tparrish@tribweb.com.

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