A Kid Helps a Kid

"Back to school" seems to have become simultaneous with fundraising activities.  The kids have sold magazines, candy, coffee, wrapping paper... But my favorite is the one right now; the one where we not only raise funds, but we also raise fundraisers - our Impact Lives event.
Through the Impact Lives organization, our children raise money to buy food that they pack themselves before sending it into starving communities.  The more money they raise, the more food they can pack, the fewer people are left hungry.

Although we parents are highly encouraged to hand over currency for candy bars, coffee and magazines during our regular school-benefiting fundraisers, the Impact Lives monies are given by our children.  The students in our elementary school spend their spring, summer, and fall doing extra chores, helping neighbors, working lemonade and cookie stands, selling their toys at garage sales, even making/selling handmade jewelry, candles and baked goods to raise as much money as they can.

In mid-Novemeber, the Impact Lives team shows up, takes over our gym with long tables of food packaging machines and supplies.  Each grade lines up for their shift, donning funny-looking hair nets and gloves to form an assembly line, measuring rice, dried vegetables and broth, layering them into bags, sending the bags through a hot seal machine, and finally packing them in boxes.  What an awesome education!

John's book club, the Book Sharks, started fundraising collectively the same year they formed their club by participating in their own Read-a-Thon.  The collect pledges (per page, per day, or maximum pledge) and read as much as they can for 10 days.

It is so powerful and amazing and just plain wonderful to see how much these kids get it - I mean, really get it.  I was talking to one little girl yesterday who said she was given some money for her birthday and she wanted to go to Barnes and Noble and get this book she really wanted.  But the, she said, I remembered that we have libraries where we can borrow books for free and there's other kids who don't have any food plus they don't even have libraries.  So, she donated her book money.

Here's a link to a video that the kindergarten class made to help spread the word and raise funds - very cute!  Kindergarten Video