LIFE

Kids give thanks for all you’ve given them

Thank you for your support of Central Indiana's children

Maureen C. Gilmer
maureen.gilmer@indystar.com

“For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Shelter. Health. Food. Love. We want all these things for our children. And more.

Thanks to you, thousands of kids in Central Indiana have been fed, clothed, housed, educated and loved.

Kids like Roxana, who attends Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center.

In a letter of thanks, she writes, “I love Mary Rigg because ... we get foodand they take us to school. I love coming because we get dinner and get to (go to) summer camp.”

And Carly, from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis, who says, “Without you, we wouldn’t have ... food to put in our bellys (sic). With your donation you help hundreds of kids here. Thank you.”

Central Indiana agencies step in every day to meet the needs of kids whose parents are unable to fully provide for them. With your financial support, The Star’s Our Children initiative has been able to be a part of the good work being done for children in our community, awarding hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants every year.

Consider these examples:

• We challenged you to donate $25,000 to expand Horizons at St. Richard’s summer academic program for at-risk kids. And you responded. We matched that amount, enabling Horizons to offer its reading, math and science lessons to more children by using available space at Butler University for its middle-school grades.

Quintez, age 12, wrote this about Horizons: “We get to go on awesome field trips like swimming and Conner Prairie. (We) eat lunch and breakfast. Thank you. It helps kids that don’t have so much.”

• You supported a $25,000 grant to Peace Learning Center that will help pay for a three-year initiative to spread a “culture of peace” among IPS students in high-crime neighborhoods, working with police, schools, parents and students.

Students at Kindercare in Indianapolis wrote, “We promise to be more peaceful members of society.” “Peace Up,” wrote another.

Our mission: Make the world better for Our Children

• United Way’s ReadUP tutoring program has about 1,000 volunteers who give an hour each week to help kids learn to read. IndyStar stories in the past few years have inspired many to donate their time and talent to the program. Today, there are 50 open spots throughout 31 ReadUP locations, primarily in Marion County.

Kaleea, a fourth-grader at IPS #56, is a big fan: “I really love that I get to come to ReadUP and read. I’ve learned a lot of new words from the books. Thank you for letting me write this letter. I just love ReadUP. I don’t want to leave.”

As you can see, gratitude is a gift even the youngest among us can give. On this Thanksgiving, children from several local agencies shared their thoughts in letters and pictures submitted to The Star. Read more of them in a gallery at IndyStar.com.

And thank you for your generous spirit.

Call Star reporter Maureen Gilmer at (317) 444-6879. Follow her on Twitter: @MaureenCGilmer.

Want to help?

Contributions made to the Our Children campaign will be matched by the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Go to IndyStar.com/OurChildren to learn how to donate online and to read stories about work being done to help children in our community.