Kids Who Care
Victoria Matthews, 11, and her brother, Zachary Matthews, 14, have formed a new group, Kids Who Care, to spearhead relief efforts for victims of the tsunami disaster in South Asia. ##M:[more]## “We were watching the news and we thought it would be a good idea to raise money for the victims,” says Victoria. “Our parents (Kristina and Ken) are being very supportive of our project.”
“After watching the news, Victoria looked online for information about CARE (the humanitarian organization fighting global poverty), and called them (in New York),” says Ken. “They told her to have a fundraiser.”
“We chose CARE because of the high percentage of funds going directly to the cause,” says Victoria. “People are already stationed on location and they are ready to dispurse supplies..” She coordinated her friends — all students from Hawk, Grover, and Community Middle School, many of them teammates on the Wild team in the WWP Soccer Association.
As of press time, the group has collected over $8,”500 in less than a week and has also made national headlines.
Victoria is a sixth grade student at Grover Middle School. Zach is a freshman at High School South. Together, they have invited other kids to join and now have a group of 13 members in their new CARE chapter. Jenna Carlen, Megan Chisman, Allison Chisman, Sidney Turchin, Olivia Haase, Stephanie Burns, Michelle Morris, Kayla Carlin, Johanna Schutzer, Sarah Carlin, and David Lee, are helping with making posters, phone calls, behind-the-scenes work, and collecting funds.
The New York Post ran an article about the efforts on Sunday, January 2. “The New York Post called CARE to see if they had any interesting stories about people collecting money and were told that a girl in Jersey is collecting a lot of money,” says her father. “We did not contact them.”
The kids were driven into New York to be interviewed on Fox News. NBC Nightly News interviewed them at home on Monday night, January 3, and aired the piece on Tuesday evening. People Magazine did a phone interview with them late Monday night. They were interviewed on MSNBC Wednesday, and they have been invited to appear on the Tony Danza show, Friday, January 7.
“This story is not about me,” Ken says his daughter told him. “It’s about the people in South Asia.” The family is not accepting any more publicity for the group.
“We’ve been receiving many phone calls from all over — including North Carolina, Long Island, and Monmouth County,” says Ken. “It sounds like there will be a new subset of CARE.”
“”I am so proud of what the two of you have accomplished,” Geoffrey C. Charbajian, associate director for development of CARE New York, wrote to the group. “Not only have you raised money to help the people of South Asia, but more importantly, you have raised awareness. Because of your unselfishness, hundreds of children all over the country want to take part in your campaign, Kids Who CARE.”
Collections at supermarkets in the area took place at McCaffrey’s in West Windsor, Acme and CVS in Lawrenceville. The group will be at Sam’s Club in West Windsor Saturday and Sunday, January 8 and 9, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. The first donations will be sent to CARE, based in New York, on Monday, January 10, and the group plans to continue to send checks every Friday. Checks payable to CARE may be sent to Tsunami Relief, WWPSA, Box 757, West Windsor 08550.
