Cedartown juniors lend help to community with fundraisers
Cade Dingler and Zane Barrow join forces on Facebook for monthly fundraisers
The way that Cade Dingler and Zane Barrow look at it, Cedartown and Polk County as a whole have been good to them over the years. Individuals and businesses have given money and time to ensure that they were able to take part in travel baseball. Fans have cheered them on from the sidelines from youth baseball upward to their high school careers.
So the pair of juniors at Cedartown High School decided it was about time they started giving back. The best friends formulated a plan and took their cause to Facebook to start fundraising not for themselves, but for other organizations.
Over the past couple of months and into this one, Dingler and Barrow lent their name and online marketing efforts toward helping non-profits with donations they weren’t expecting.
They were able to meet their $2,000 goal in January to help the Samaritan House, and in February gave back to Our
House Women’s Shelter. Barrow and Dingler even setup a donation box at Livewire Surplus in Cedartown for items that might be needed at the women’s shelter.
During the month of March, the pair is raising money to help the Cedartown-Polk County Humane Society.
“The idea of starting these fundraisers goes back to December when we were doing events for less fortunate kids in the Chick-fil-A Leader Academy,” Barrow said. “We realized how we could change the lives of other people by doing simple things.”
Those simple things the pair recognized were needed in the community, and they want suggestions for other organizations to help as the year continues.
Additional fundraising efforts are already planned for April, when they’ll raise money for Dylan’s Chance, a local Autism non-profit that provides help with sensory and behavioral therapies for children with autism. In May, they’re looking to help with the fight against Cystic Fibrosis.
“Long term, we are primarily trying to have a big effect on the local nonprofits as well as the whole community,” Barrow said. “We are hoping the fundraisers stay successful, and the word gets out more over the next few months.”
Both are trying to put some criteria on how they choose which organizations to help, specifically looking for non-profits who need additional fundraising help on a local level and wanting to ensure that their efforts are being put to good use.
Dingler’s mom Jill said that she was proud of what the pair had accomplished so far, and with the best friends slated to head off to college in 2021 that it was good that they were taking time out to give back.
”They volunteer a lot in their school, they keep their grades up and participate in sports. But it makes me feel good that our kids want to give back,” she said. “Myself and Zane’s mom Christy — we’ve taught them a lot and tried to instill in them that you do what you can to help others.”
Check out the latest fundraising effort for the Humane Society here, or search for their posts on Facebook.