Disney spurs local kids to take charity into their own hands

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.

Back

to the Top of the Page