Since Emma was a baby, she has been paying visits to the hospital to fix a few medical maladies caused by being born breech and tall. During those visits to the hospital, she saw sick and injured kids, which prompted her to seek out a nonprofit she felt a personal connection with to support. 

Emma, who is 12 years old and in grade seven, picked the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western WA & AK after learning more about our mission to provide housing to kids and families during their time of hardship.   

“No matter what age we are, we can still help out our community,” she said.

To support RMH families, she organized a donut social at University Village, where approximately 40 people, including students from her school, attended the event. “I worked on this fundraiser for two months and had to communicate with University Village and propose my idea to them. I’m very grateful that University Village allowed me to use their space for my event, being a great neighbor to the Ronald McDonald House. I set up a GoFundMe, did a bunch of write-ups explaining why this organization is important, and a sent lot of emails, but in the end, it was all worth it,” she said. 

Emma proves that youthfulness shouldn’t discourage or sway students from supporting a cause they feel passionate about but instead use it as an opportunity to dive deeper into a topic or project. After her donut social, she continued to share and spread the message and was able to exceed her goal of $3000.

“The more kids who help, I think the bigger the impact on our community will be,” Emma said.