Girl’s birthday wish: Help feed the needy
When Megan Hansen’s mom asked her what she wanted for her birthday this past summer, Megan answered, “I have enough stuff, so I want to do something to help kids who don’t have enough.”
When her mom asked Megan who she would like to help, the fifth-grader from John F. Kennedy Elementary School recalled a little boy who had been in after-school daycare with her last year.
“He had a backpack with him, so I asked him what it was. He told me that he takes a backpack home with him on the weekends so that he has food to eat, so that’s what I decided to do. I was going to ask people to donate to the backpack program, instead of buying me presents,” she said.
Through Megan’s generosity and some help from her parents in communicating her plan to family members and friends, she raised more than $400 in cash and eight grocery bags full of food items and school supplies for the Kettering Backpack Program.
“Megan was so excited when she came to me and told me what she had done,” says Tracey Nissen, JFK’s school counselor. “I think this got to be so much bigger than she had expected, and she was — rightfully so — really proud!”
The Kettering Backpack Program began in 2006 as a Kettering Leadership Academy service project. In its first year, the KBP fed 15 students at John F. Kennedy Elementary School.
Today, through donations from individuals, service clubs, faith-based organizations, corporate donors, Kettering City School District employee payroll deductions and ongoing major support from Fairmont High School’s Spirit Chain, the Kettering Backpack Program feeds more than 600 students in 16 schools every weekend when school breakfasts and lunches are not available.