Wednesday, August 20, 2003
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Wednesday, August 20, 2003 |
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Disney spurs local kids to take charity into their own hands Fayette County's nine-year-old Megan Preston and her neighbor, ten-year-old Lauren Brann, really have an idea of what it's like to be good Samaritans. The two recently collected 130 food items for the Fayette Samaritans Food Bank not through a school or church sponsored program but totally on their own. According to Megan's mother, Leigh Ann Preston, Megan had been trying to figure out how to participate in the Disney Channel's VoluntEAR program but couldn't figure out what to do. "We live in a planned community so community clean-up volunteering wasn't really an option," Mrs. Preston explains. "And the animal shelter is too far away. So, we brain-stormed, came up with the idea of helping the local food bank and developed a plan of action." Megan and Lauren came up with the idea of distributing flyers throughout their Medford Manor neighborhood to let the neighbors know what they were doing. Mrs. Preston made copies for them and the girls distributed them house to house with help from two neighbor boys. They set the pickup date for about five days later. When the girls picked up the donated items from neighbors, there were several notes attached to the donations that praised and encouraged them to continue in the volunteer effort. There were, of course, a few cans that needed to be discarded because they bulged or were rusted but, all in all, Megan and Lauren collected about 130 individual "donate-able" food items. The girls have prepared thank-you notes for all the contributors and now say they plan on going to two additional neighborhoods to collect more. "I'm extremely proud of Megan," Mrs. Preston said. Both girls attend Spring Hill Elementary School, where Megan is in the fourth grade and Lauren, daughter of James Brann, is in the fifth grade. |
