St. Joseph's student 'pays it forward'

She may not be Haley Joel Osment, but 11-year-old Alexa Henning plans to do her part to "pay it forward."

The St. Joseph's School student and her sixth-grade classmates received a challenge at the beginning of the school year - change the world. Henning said the project is based on the 2000 movie "Pay It Forward" about a social studies teacher (Kevin Spacey) who assigns students to come up with some idea that will improve mankind. A young boy (Osment) decides that if he can do three good deeds for someone and they in turn can "pay it forward" and so forth, positive changes can occur.

How the students decided to change the world was up to them, but Henning knew right away what her project would be.

"I knew I wanted to do something for animals," she said. "I'm allergic to [animals] so I can't spend much time around them, so I decided to raise money for an animal shelter instead."

Henning and her mother, Amy Bates, looked through the telephone book and searched the Internet before they settled on the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem.

"They were thrilled," she said of her phone call to the shelter. "They're a non-profit organization so to them, getting food and toys for the cats and dogs is a miracle."

In November, Henning jumped into her first effort to raise money by getting a table at her school's annual Holly Fair. Henning's table drew in a crowd of people buying cat and dog ornaments, as well as homemade cat and dog treats Henning herself was responsible for baking.

After all was said and done, Henning scored more than $300. That money, said Ann Lindsay of the animal shelter, has been put into the general fund for the care of the animals still waiting for adoption.

"I thought maybe in the whole year I would maybe have $200, but I never thought I would get $326 in three days at the Holly Fair," she said. "I never dreamed we could get that much money."

But as if the fair weren't enough, Henning quickly formulated her next plan - buckets. She went around the Medford Square area and asked if she could leave buckets asking for change donations for the shelter. Five businesses - Bestsellers Cafe, Medford Toys, Medford Optical, a local dry cleaners and a veterinarian's office - agreed.

So far, Henning said the buckets have reaped about $100 in change.

"Some people drop in $1 bills," she said. "Sometimes, we even find a $5 bill, but mostly its change."

Life's a carnival

Despite her success with two previous fund raisers, Henning is ready to tackle the biggest one of all - the Medford carnival.

Earlier this year, Henning wrote a letter to Mayor Michael J. McGlynn telling him she was raising money for charity. She outlined a plan where she wanted to have a dog day at the local parks, where owners could bring their pets.

"I read the letter and I thought there were some problems," McGlynn said. "We set up a meeting and she came in."

McGlynn said after speaking with Henning, he suggested she take his booth at the annual April carnival. McGlynn said every year since 1992, carnival owners save him one booth, which he usually ends up turning over to a local charity group for the duration of the carnival.

"I suggested that she should get some good prizes and hold a raffle," McGlynn said of the booth. "Then she could take the money and donate it. If the weather is good, she could make a lot of money."

Following her conversation, Henning and her mom came up with a form letter to ask local businesses for donations. Although Henning said it was her mother's idea to get the items, Bates said she did none of the work.

"All I did was ask for the manager of the store and then she did the rest," Bates said. "I told her that it was her project so she was the one that needed to ask."

Henning said asking was a lot harder than she thought, but she got better at it.

"Some of the businesses said they couldn't do it because they already sponsor something else," she said. "But we did get a lot of stuff."

Now, with a living room full of donations from local businesses such as Left Field Sports, Medford Co-operative Bank and Medford Toys, Henning is finalizing her plans. She has already ordered raffle tickets from the Internet and drafted her family members into manning the booth while she is out taking a spin on a ride or two.

The raffle drawing will be Sunday, April 25 at 3 p.m. with McGlynn picking the names of the lucky winners.

Bates said she's OK with helping at the booth, especially since her daughter has done the major work on the fund raiser.

"I'm very impressed with her," she said. "When she wrote the letter to the mayor, I told her to go ahead. I thought maybe she would get a letter back, but then the office called and here we are.

"I think this is really fantastic," Bates continued. "She's really doing something good for a worthwhile organization and that fact that she wants to continue to do things after this project is over is great. If she wants to keep doing it, I say let her keep doing it."

Henning, who smiled hearing the compliment, said she definitely plans on marching forward after the school year ends. However, she won't have as many fund raisers and plans only to attend the Holly Fair. She added the donation buckets will stay in place as long as local businesses don't mind.

But despite all the hard work, Henning said she learned a lot by doing this project and what it means to "pay it forward."

"It's been hard," she said. "But I feel really good giving the money to them and in the end, that makes me feel good about myself."