Jared Heather of Mendon is making the world a better place by bringing joy to homeless children. Over the past two years Jared has worked with Birthday Wishes, a non profit organization whose mission is to provide birthday parties for homeless children.
Jared, an 8th grader at Miscoe Hill, started working with Birthday Wishes for his Mitzvah Project when he was in the 6th grade after learning about the difficulties homeless families faced.
“I chose Birthday Wishes because I know how much I like celebrating my birthday and I felt bad for kids who could not celebrate theirs and I wanted to change that,” Jared said.
“I wanted to create many birthday boxes for children,” he said. “So I asked friends and family if they could donate toys, cake mix, forks, balloons, frosting, napkins, plates, and more.” After collecting all the items he delivered the birthday boxes to Birthday Wishes.
The following year Jared wanted to continue the project, “I wanted to continue to help the organization and I wanted to help in a bigger way so I got the town and schools involved,” he said.
He set up boxes at Miscoe Middle School, Clough Elementary, and Taft Library where students and residents could donate items for the birthday boxes. Miscoe turned the drive into a contest. “The homeroom that brought in the most items won a pancake breakfast served by the Vice Principal,” he said.
Jared said, “The drive turned out to be a huge success.”
UPTON DAILY 