“Every penny counts…”

This is a special guest blog post from our friends Mercera and Madeleine, “two fifth graders who wanted to make a difference,” and chose to support Operation Gratitude! We are so very honored and grateful!

Here’s what they did and how they did it:

One afternoon, we were talking to a good friend of ours about her son who is in the Marine Corps. She was telling us how he had been away for a whole year serving in Japan! She was so excited that he was finally coming home for the holidays. She said that some Marines couldn’t fly home due to the expense and really missed home. We really wanted to do something to help and an idea was born! Cents for Soldiers!

First, we started planning! Our parents helped us find a great cause to donate to – Operation Gratitude! They provide care packages and letters for service members, veterans and first responders. Perfect! We also decided it would be good to involve the school. We talked to a great teacher to get some advice.

Next, we made a poster and presented our idea to our principal. He approved of our ideas and helped us take the next steps. The school secretary made a great flyer (at left) that went home to all of the students asking them to bring any spare change they could to donate to help the soldiers. The class that raised the most money would get 20 extra minutes of recess – supervised by the principal.

We also asked the kids in the school to write cards and letters to send to the soldiers. We used decorated shoe boxes and delivered them to each class to collect the money. Every day we made an announcement over the loud speaker at school reminding kids to bring in their change and letters! A few days into the collection, we updated everyone on which class was in the lead. There were A LOT of coins to count! We got some friends to help!

After about 10 days, the collection was over. We had so many coins; it had to have been at least 20 pounds!!! We would probably still have been counting them now, but we decided to take them to the coin counter at the bank! Phew! When a bank customer saw what we were doing, she even gave us $5 on the spot!

In the end, we and our school raised $1,844.81 and wrote close to 30 letters! This was enough for 123 care packages for soldiers! We were surprised and so happy and proud!

Here are our tips for other kids to help make a difference in their own community:

• Plan ahead. Write your plans down. Get help from a trusted adult, friend or friends!
• Stay organized. We kept careful notes and checked them often.
• Get your school or community involved. (Don’t forget to ask permission.) You will be amazed how many people care.
• Contact the organization you want to donate to and let them know what you’re doing.
• Work hard, be patient, and don’t let any problems stop you!
• Every penny counts! Even small amounts can make a difference.
• Just because you’re a kid doesn’t mean you can’t do it! If we can do it, so can you, too!
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Thank you, Mercera and Madeleine, for all your hard work and generosity to support our cause! Your work will continue to have an impact because you’ve inspired us to begin a new Operation Gratitude program called “Cents for Service” so others may follow your wonderful example.

Have ideas about ways in which you’d like to support Operation Gratitude? Please contact us by email at: Info@OperationGratitude.com

Thank you!