Jacinta Meir
For the Observer
Rushing Rivers 4-H club has just held awards night. We had a potluck dinner and we handed out lots of awards.
But the awards aren't the most important part of the 4-H program.
"Names on a trophy will become just that — a name", Jessica Meir, Junior Council President said.
4-H is a youth development program, and the main aspect is to shape responsible, caring citizens. And to shape caring citizens we have to introduce them to charitable works.
Chalice is a charity that helps children in third world countries. Our 4-H club handed out Chalice cans to our members to put spare change in at the start of the year. At our awards night we added the money together and counted it. There was a total of about $80.
We put that money in our bank account, and then wrote a cheque for $100 to a child named Albert in Mombasa, Kenya.
Albert is 14 years old and he has a little sister who is sick. He has a single mother because his father was violent. Albert is a child sponsored by our family through the Chalice program. We thought collecting money to donate to charity would help the kids to think about and care about other people, especially those less fortunate than ourselves. The kids in our club were very excited about giving this money to Albert.
Our club will probably be active in donating to charity in the future. Helping others gives you a feeling of joy, especially during the Christmas season. Think about how nice the world would be if everyone knew the joy of giving to others less fortunate.