Pay It Forward Movement News

Melissa Petry, now age 14, had an awakening after visiting a Ronald McDonald House and a homeless shelter. "I realized how blessed I am when I saw all those families in such sad situations," she says.

Soon afterward, her Girl Scout Troop attended a class in applying for community service grants. She suggested to troop leaders that they try for a grant to do work with the Ronald McDonald House. "We don't have time," they told her. "I couldn't stand the thought of not helping." she remembers. "I told mom and she said, 'If you want to do it that bad, do it yourself.' She thought that would be the end of it." But that was only the beginning.

Melissa called five friends and started her own community service group, Our Kids Care (OKC). Today, there are 35 kids and 6 adult supervisors involved with OKC. Melissa has teamed to make a charter, a budget, file papers with the IRS, and form a 501 (c) non-profit. The group has raised over $8,000 of supplies and medicine for the local shelter, and $5,000 for the Ronald McDonald House.

OKC has also taken on the broader need of the community--providing over- the-counter medicine for indigent children; donating computers, televisions, VCRs, and educational videos and games for homeless shelters; and providing Christmas gifts and food for poor families.

Melissa got the organization off the ground by writing over 50 letters to local businesses and organizations. She talked to managers of stores and presidents of organizations, and was soon able to link different organizations together. "That way, they were able to help me and I could help them," Melissa says. "I gained many mentors by doing this."

Next she filled out a grant application, requesting $1,500 from an organization called Youth As Resources. Melissa got the award. She then began to educate her new business partners in the community about the Ronald McDonald Houses. She especially wanted to make it clear to them that only 3 percent of the budget support for the Houses comes from McDonalds, and the rest must come from the local community. Melissa began by holding garage sales and car washes, giving speeches, and soliciting funds from local business owners.

In addition to her efforts for the Ronald McDonald House, Melissa continued to volunteer at the Presbyterian Night Shelter. One evening she saw a child who was running a fever. "They were out of the medicine she needed," Melissa remembers. "Then I heard another mother say her child had lice and she could either feed the child or treat the lice. She chose to feed the child, as she could not afford to do both. I knew then that I had to get some food and medicine for the shelter."

Melissa came up with an idea to make Trees of Hope and Joy. These were huge posters with stars on them. Each star contained a different scenario, like "I am two and have the chicken pox," or "I need Aveeno bath and some calamine lotion." She got permission to put the posters up in stores, then went to doctors' offices and asked for medical samples. She also did speeches for local organizations, asking for their help in raising money for medicated shampoo to combat lice.

"I have seen a great need to educate the community on some areas that people do not think about, or just do not want to think about, she says. "I want to make a permanent difference, not just put Band-Aids on these situations."

And she is making a permanent difference, not just in the lives of needy children, but for adults in the community as well. "I met a grandmother who told me about having her grandchildren abandoned to her, with no help from the parents," Melissa says. "She was raising the children on Social Security and love, but it was difficult. " So Melissa and Our Kids Care held a special drive for grandparents raising their grandchildren.

"Every time I find out about one great need, I run into another," she says. "For instance, I had low income kids in my group who really needed computers. So I had some old ones donated, and found a wonderful man to help me rebuild them. I may be a kid, but I can get things done!"
"The warm feeling you get is so incredible," she says. "If I could give this feeling to other kids, they would not need gangs or drugs because those things cannot touch the feeling you get from people when you touch their heart and they touch yours in return. Some of the people I have met will be with me all my life."

There is no doubt Melissa will always be in the hearts of those she has helped as well. Though many say that our young people are our future, Melissa is a prime example of the fact that young people can also be the salvation of our present.

-CARING MAGAZINE, December 2001