Today we want to highlight an awesome young person who is making a difference in her community.  Bea is a young lady who decided that she wanted to do something to help foster kids. 

  She came up with some questions and interviewed Ashley Berdine, the foster care coordinator at Caring for Kids, Inc., an adoption and foster care agency that works with foster children in her state to find out what the greatest needs are for foster children in her area.

Children coming into foster care usually arrive with only the clothes that they are wearing.  Bea decided that she would like to make care bags to help alleviate some of the stress that they face when they first come into care. After talking to Ashley, she realized that she wanted to focus on the older kids because those are the ones that get the least attention.

There is an nonprofit organization called Kids2Kids that does projects that allow children to help other children in need.  Bea approached Irina, the director in her area, and did a PowerPoint presentation on her project idea.

She came up with a list of helpful items to put in the bags, helped fundraise, bought many of the items, organized the bag stuffing, and delivered the care bags.  Each bag has about twenty items in it. Things like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, socks and underwear.  Bea and her friends ended up raising about $1,600 and making many bags.

The project ended up being a lot more work that she thought that it would be, but she just broke it down into little steps.  Those little steps combined to make a big difference.  She is looking forward to doing another project in the future.  She said the best thing about it was being able to work together with others to do something good.

We are so proud of you Bea and all that you accomplished!  Many kids going through difficult times will feel a little better because you and your friends cared enough to take action and make a difference. 

Do you agree with Bea that every kid can make a difference? If so, make sure you schedule some time on your calendar to get out there and do something to help others.