Passionate packers

The tears just can’t be held back.

They come from Chrissy Krieg and Breea Liette and Aylin Montes.

These aren’t tears of sadness, of frustration, or even of joy.

These tears flow from a different source.

Passion.

It wasn’t something they necessarily had last year when their predecessors were preparing for Jay County’s first Feed My Starving Children MobilePack. But then they took part in the event.

“All of us were at the pack and participated, and loved it,” said Julia McClung, one of a group of nine Jay County High School National Honor Society officers this year. “And I think that’s one of the reasons a lot of us chose to be officers this year. … I saw last year the community coming together, and I thought it was amazing what they did to bring the community together to help people around the world. … It helped so many people, and it was just amazing.”

“I just felt so happy the whole time,” said Aylin Montes. “I knew that I was making someone’s life better, because these kids are dying. … It just brought so much joy to my heart.”

Liette couldn’t wait to share the experience after she and hundreds of other volunteers packed more than 130,000 meals April 29.

“I went home and I told my mom and I was like, ‘Oh my God, Mom, this is so exciting. I have to be a part of this,’” she said.

That amazement, that joy, that passion led Amanda Ferguson, Hannah Link, Holton Hill, Hanna Ault, Lucy Laux, Noah Hummel, Liette, McClung and Montes to decide to focus their energy this year on hosting another MobilePack through the Minnesota-based organization.

The group is different, but the goal is the same as a year ago: Raise $25,000 in order to be able to pack 100,000 meals that Feed My Starving Children will distribute to the most impoverished communities around the world.

Fundraising for this year’s MobilePack — scheduled for April 7, with online sign-up for volunteers to begin about two months in advance — is already well underway and has surpassed the $13,000 mark. Some of that money is leftover from donations that came in after the deadline a year ago, but the group of officers has also been working to bring in funds since school began.

The first step in the effort was a trip by Liette, Hummel and Link in August to visit Dunkirk’s Kiwanis Club. Last year, that group gave $500. This time, they bumped it up to $1,000.

It’s a pattern the entire group has seen this year, a community even more excited to help after taking part in last year’s MobilePack.

“Many of the same organizations that were helpful last year are pitching in this year,” said Krieg, Jay County’s NHS advisor. “I think they saw their first donation that it was for sure a worthy cause.”

Other fundraising efforts have included holding a Fun for Food night during the fall, selling posters at the sectional football game and cotton candy at various athletic events, taking part in the Delta Theta Tau craft show and hosting a carnival at the school Monday that brought in more than $600.

Next up is a taco dinner prior to the Patriot girls basketball team’s game Saturday against Fort Recovery. The event, which costs $6, will run from 5 to 7 p.m. with the students serving a dinner of tacos, rice, refried beans, a dessert and lemonade.

This year’s group of officers chose to focus on Feed My Starving Children as their service project, but that hasn’t stopped them from being a part of other community projects. They helped with tornado relief after dozens of homes were damaged last month, the Salvation Army and the Secret Families program to purchase Christmas gifts for the underprivileged.

“Each year I become very emotional about the kids who go through these projects, because they’re the change-makers,” Krieg said. “We think about the future, and we think about what we would want our world to be. And each year when I have a group of kids come through, I feel better about the future of our community and of our country and of our world because I know there are hearts here that want to make a positive impact. And this group is doing that.”