When Alliance High School freshman Taylee Thompson’s family welcomed a 4-year-old foster child into their home in December, it was an eye opening experience for her. So much so, in fact, that Taylee and fellow AHS freshman Kealee Jelinek decided to focus their FCCLA project on helping local foster children. They ended up raising enough money, supplies and backpacks to put together 73 comfort care packages, which they recently distributed to agencies that work with foster kids in Alliance, Chadron, and Scottsbluff/Gering. The project earned Thompson and Jelinek first place at the district FCCLA competition and qualified them for state, but much more importantly, their project is giving local foster kids important basic necessities while also letting them know that they’re loved and cared for.
JEFF FIELDER Editor
ALLIANCE – When Alliance High School freshmen Taylee Thompson and Kealee Jelinek decided to do a Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) project together, they knew they wanted it to benefit their community somehow.
Among the ideas they came up with were organizing a soup drive or raising food for the local food pantries.
But while those certainly would have been good projects, Thompson came up with another idea in December after her family welcomed a 4-year-old foster child into their home. Thompson saw a need for supplying foster children with basic supplies, such as hygiene products.
“When my foster brother showed up at our house, the only thing he came with were the clothes he was wearing and his school backpack,” Thompson said. “I could tell he had come from a hard life. It made me sad to see that that’s all he had. He didn’t have any other clothes or toys – not even a toothbrush. I felt like we should do something about it.”
You can read the entire story in the March 2022 issue of Nspire Today! magazine. A one-year subscription (12 issues) is only $20. You may sign up for a subscription by sending $20 to Nspire Today!, P.O. Box 454, Scottsbluff, NE 69363, or you may pay with a credit card by calling 308-220-8865.
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