My name is Arjo Stolker. Back in November I remember watching a video about the children of Haiti and it made me sad. I asked what had happened. I heard there was no food, no power and lots of people had nothing. I was pretty sad when I heard and saw all of that and I knew I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to go to Haiti and bring everyone back to Grand Forks because we have hotels and other things they need. There is peace here.
I knew I needed to get money to help out so I came up with the idea of a bake sale. We went to the Credit Union in town, spoke to a young woman there and I told her what I was thinking of doing. I asked if I could use some space there at the Credit Union and she agreed that I could.
I also thought I needed help to run a bake sale so I asked my self-advocate’s group if they would help. A self-advocate group is one that talks about how we can make our lives and our community better.
They were all excited and agreed to help with the fundraiser. I got busy and made some posters to advertise the bake sale and the group placed the posters around town.
I phoned different people I knew to ask if they would donate cookies and muffins and other baked goods. We held the bake sale at the Credit Union; lots of baked goods were donated and the sales added up to $339.
The next week I went and bought items for girls and boys to put in a shoebox to send over to Haiti. I filled four boxes full of cool things for the boys and girls. I realized I had money left. I thought what could I do with the extra money? I went online and found out that I could also donate the extra money to buy a goat that will provide milk and food to a family.
I felt good about my decisions because I love giving.
Submitted by Arjo Stolker, supported by Sunshine Valley Community Services