30-Day Team Charity Challenge

This last Wednesday I traveled to Redfield, Iowa to speak to some middle school students. I was invited by their teacher, Jacque Crouch shortly after the Des Moines article about Give(3) was printed. Before my visit I brainstormed different activities that I could share with the students. I came up with three ideas. The first handout asked the students what they would buy with 100 million dollars. It also asked how they would give with 100 million dollars. As you can imagine I got a lot of responses. The students would buy anything from a red Ferrari to a lifetime supply of Twix. Most of the ideas that they came up with for giving included donating money to places like St. Judes, or food banks. Then I asked the students how they would give if they didn’t have even a penny. I thought this exercise was important to show the kids that even if you have no money you can still give, and help others. The class came up with a long list of ways to give, and we recorded them on the blackboard. The second handout asked the students to basically create their own charity. Find a problem, and create a non-profit to solve the problem. The handout asked them what the problem is, how they plan to solve the problem, and why. I created this handout to get ideas from the kids, I also wanted to see what they viewed as problems. Lastly the third handout that I gave the class was a 30-Day Team Charity Challenge. I explained my 30-Day Charity Challenge, and said that they could complete the same challenge as a team. They plan on using the list of ways to give that they came up with during the 30 days. I spoke to two different classes of about 25 students so they will be working on 2 different challenges.

I was surprised how locked in the students were on what I had to say. I feel like I made a real impact. While I was speaking about my favorite charity, which is Meals From The Heartland, I was amazed by what occurred. I explained that $1.20 can make 6 meals for someone in need. I mentioned that these meals go to people who sometimes go days without eating. Just then 2 different students gave me a total of $5.25. The crumpled up dollar bills, and assortment of change is enough to make a little more than 26 meals. I was amazed that these two students, Deven Kromrie, and Riley Byrns gave me their money to donate; they are much more generous than I was at their age. I have a feeling they will be great leaders during their classes challenge.

I plan on keeping in contact with these students. I had so much fun visiting with them and I hope I can visit more schools in the future. To finish up their 30 days I am planning a mobile hunger fight to take place at their school. I hope to get all 200 students to help pack meals for Meals From The Heartland. Once I get approval from the school I will begin fundraising so the students can pack our goal of 10,000 meals. This will be a fun event that will teach the students that a little time and effort can make a huge difference in the world.