Area high school students split $20K amidst local nonprofits

For the past several months, high school students from Coal City, Morris, Gardner-South Wilmington and Seneca have seen presentations from multiple different nonprofit organizations from throughout Grundy County.

Thursday night, these same students selected which of these nonprofits they would donate their share of $20,000. Each group from the four high schools were given $5,000 to donate.

The students from Coal City High School chose to donate $2,000 each to the Coal City Backpack Program and Beans-and-Bites, a nonprofit cafe that helps individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities by providing work opportunities and building life skills. The students also donated $1,000 to Megan’s Mission, a charity organization founded in honor of Megan Bugg, who passed away in March 2022 after a seven-year fight with childhood cancer.

“Personally, I chose Megan’s mission because I worked closely with Megan her whole life and I knew their organization is helping people with childhood cancer,” said Coal City High School student Evelyn Wills.

Jordan Olson and Brady Ehman, fellow Coal City High School Students, said they chose both Beans-and-Bites and the Coal City Backpack program because they’ve each seen personally what those programs have done for their community.

The students from Gardner-South Wilmington also chose Beans-and-Bites, to whom they donated $1,350. They also donated $350 to the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office, $1,200 to Catholic Charities, $1,200 to the Court Appointed Special Advocates of River Valley, and $900 to the Gardner-South Wilmington Student Assistance Fund.

The Gardner-South Wilmington Student Assistance fund was founded by students involved in Youth Philanthropy four years ago to help its own student in need.

Gardner-South Wilmington students had similar reasons for their donation selections.

“Beans-and-bites are doing stuff for a good cause, and CASA really helps people in our community,” said Addison Fair. “And our Student Assistance Fund is a big one because it goes directly to kids in our school who need it. That was a big one for us.”

Morris High School students donated $3,000 to Court Appointed Special Advocates of River Valley, as well, along with donating $1,500 to the Grundy County Children’s Advocacy Center and $500 to the Morris Rotary club.

Seneca High School students could not be in attendance, as Thursday coincided with many prior commitments, but they donated $833 to Grundy Area Public Action to Deliver Shelter, $833 to the Grundy County Health Department for mental health services, $833 to We Care of Grundy County, and $2,500 to Court Appointed Special Advocates of River Valley.

Devan Gagliardo, the Program Director for the Community Foundation of Grundy County, met with students about once a month to see what they’re passionate about and what needs they feel their community has.

“We talk to them about what they see as needs in their community, what they see as strengths in their community, and what they think their peers are strugging with,” Gagliardo said. “The answers are different at every school, and unique to each school.”

Some of them, Gagliardo said, are very similar in a way that’s eye-opening.

“Youth get kind of a bad rap sometimes, that they don’t care or don’t like to do things, or all sorts of other things I hear about students,” Gagliardo said. “What I can tell is that none of them are true. Maybe for some students, but students are busy, and they’re very involved and active.”

Gagliardo said some students get to school at 7 a.m. and leave at 9 p.m.

The organizations involved have representatives go into the schools and talk about their organizations: They inform students about who they serve, what the organization does and what their needs are as an organization.