Students at East Clinton High School granted $1,750 to Sugartree Ministries, a local nonprofit, through the Magnified Giving program.
The students involved in East Clinton’s Magnified Giving after-school program joined roughly 2,600 students in the Tri-State area who learned about the importance of philanthropy and giving, visited and volunteered at local nonprofits, and ultimately awarded $1,000 or more to the nonprofit of their choice.
This is the eighth year East Clinton High School has partnered with Magnified Giving to award grants to local nonprofits.
East Clinton High School librarian and Magnified Giving advisor Casey Curtis commented on the past school year.
“This year has been difficult. We haven’t been able to do our normal fundraising and had to slow things down a little bit, but we’ve been able to give more of our time this year,” said Curtis.
Magnified Giving teaches that philanthropy is about giving of your time, talent, and treasure. While fundraising this year was tough, students at East Clinton learned the valuable lesson that serving others with your time can be just as valuable as supporting them with treasure.
East Clinton High School student Tessa Bosier also commented on the struggles their after-school program had with COVID-19.
“One week we would be in school, and the next week we wouldn’t be. It was hard to plan in advance,” said Bosier.
Nonetheless, the students persevered through this difficult time and East Clinton High School was still able to raise an extra $750 for Sugartree Ministries.
During the Giving Ceremony, Bosier told what they did.
“We held a toiletry drive and ended up making [filling] 150 bags for the homeless. We also visited a second-grade class where we helped their land lab and helped mulch. Throughout all this I learned that small projects can help the community. Overall, we had a blast,” she said.
Sugartree Ministries’ mission is to reach out to the poor, broken, lonely, and addicted. It provides meals and groceries to the underprivileged, and additionally it hosts weekly recovery meetings.
The Magnified Giving award ceremonies or “Giving Ceremonies,” via Zoom this year, are held to celebrate students and schools as they present checks to their selected charities in front of friends, family, and the community.
Magnified Giving, based in Evendale, Ohio, was started in 2008 by philanthropist Roger Grein to help young people recognize needs in the community, and show them how to use their own time, talent, and treasure to address those needs.
Magnified Giving involves students in the grant-making process, touching their hearts and minds in the process, and ultimately supporting dozens of nonprofits each year with passionate student volunteers and Magnified Giving funds.
Although this past year was a year like never before due to the pandemic, Magnified Giving was still able to award approximately $148,000 to local nonprofits in need through the hands of students. Participants from the 2020-2021 school year were empowered to award grants to a total of 98 charities.
