Kids Helping Kids in Culver, Indiana

Culver Academies students, the first high school teams to take part in the prestigious “Impact Competition,” flooded their local Blessings in a Backpack program with ideas to raise money and awareness.

Among the ideas was raising money at a local grocery store by asking customers to round up their purchases and resuming a popular 5k run that hadn’t been run since the COVID-19 pandemic. Other solutions suggested by the six three-student teams were posting QR codes on posters around Culver and pizza boxes that would allow people to donate.

The Impact Competition, founded by Lance Breitstein, seeks to empower students to address their communities’ most pressing real-world social issues. Previously working with universities, Breitstein said working with Culver Academies was a no-brainer. “When we heard about Blessings in a Backpack and their mission and how what they do would resonate so well with the students, we knew we had everything we needed for success,” he said.