KYLEE'S KARE KITS FOR KIDZ TRANSITION TO BRIGHT EYED THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

 

In 2012, when I was ten years old, I had a vision of helping the food insecure children in our community. I began thinking that I would be helping 10 children at my elementary school. Today we provide kare kits to over 550 children within the community. The past 11 years of our mission, to provide kare kits of food to children in our community, has been the most rewarding thing that my grandmother, Lori Bateman, and I have ever done. It has been an incredible honor to be able to serve the children in need. It has been an amazing journey.

Over the past couple of years, we had started talking about how we might transition the mission if we were not able to continue it. I am going to be graduating from college in December. In January I will be continuing my education, working towards my Master’s Degree, while working full time. I am not sure where this will take me. This and the fact that my grandmother is approaching retirement age made us come to the realization that we needed to have a transition plan to ensure the children were provided for.

We spoke with our team members as to whether any of them would want to take on the responsibilities to manage the mission and no one was able to take that on. We did have a volunteer, Christopher Hurlbut, who voiced his and his wife, Tiffany’s, interest in starting a non-profit of their own similar to Kylee’s Kare Kits for Kidz. We were in support of this. Last summer (2022) their nonprofit, Bright Eyed, came to fruition. Since their family is from Lunenburg we made the decision to allow them to take over the Lunenburg schools from us and last summer (2022) they began providing food to the students in Lunenburg.

In January of this year (2023), we reached out to Christopher to discuss our concerns about a transition plan and he notified us that they were looking to expand their mission. Over the past few months my grandmother and I began to have conversations with Christopher about them taking over the rest of the schools that we work with.

We were not sure if we were quite ready to give up our entre mission but after many long heartfelt conversations the decision was made to transition Kylee’s Kare Kits for Kidz over to Bright Eyed. We were fearful that if we didn’t take this opportunity to ensure that our kids would still be provided with their kare kits, that in the future, if it came to the time that we needed to transition that we may not have anyone interested in taking on the mission. This was a difficult decision to make but felt we had to ensure that our mission would continue for the children.

We are working with the Attorney General’s Office, the superior court and Bright Eyed to have a smooth transition over the summer of 2023. Bright Eyed will begin to provide kare kits to the students at the start of the school year in September 2023. We felt that would be the best time to make the transition.

At the beginning of next school year (2023) families will have the opportunity to register their children to participate in Bright Eyed’s program. The guidance offices at each school will have the waiver forms that families will need to complete in order for their children to participate.

Both myself and my grandmother plan to volunteer with Bright Eyed to help ensure a smooth transition. We realize that as difficult as this decision was to make that it is in the best interest for the children. It would be devastating if something happened to my grandmother or myself and the mission came to an abrupt end.

We would like to thank everyone who has helped us over the past eleven years. As a ten year old I certainly never was able to envision how my mission would grow. We never could have accomplished all that we have without our amazing team, the volunteers, schools, donors and the community as a whole.

I would like to thank you all for your tremendous support of my mission to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry. I will be forever grateful to everyone involved for their support. We would also like to thank Christopher and Tiffany Hurlbut for being willing to take on our mission and want to wish them the best in their journey. We would like to ask that you give them the same support that you have given us over the past eleven years. They can be reached at www.brighteyed.org

 With warmest regards,

Kylee McCumber, Founder

OUR KASTLE SHELVES ARE FILLING UP

Thanks to the support of the community the shelves in our kare kit kastle are filling up from the donations from our 8th Annual Fill A Truck event. Thanks to our team members Laura & Kevin for stocking the shelves.

THANK YOU TO OUR COMMUNITY FOR THE TREMENDOUS SUPPORT OF OUR MISSION TO END CHILD HUNGER

We would like to thank our team members for their hard work and dedication this weekend during our annual Fill A Truck event. We would also like to thank Market Basket and Mr. Frank Parreira & Mr. Nick Sevatis for there support during this event. A huge thank you goes to all the members of our community that came to Market Basket and purchased food for our kids!! We could not do what we do without all of the amazing people in our community and beyond who continue to support our mission. Thank you all!

SETTING UP FOR OUR 8TH ANNUAL FILL A TRUCK EVENT AT MARKET BASKET

Thanks to our team members who helped prepare the tote bags filled with food for our annual Fill A Truck food drive. We greatly appreciate the support of Mr. Frank Parreira & Mr. Nick Sevastis with our 8th annual Fill A Truck event. The event will be held on Friday, July 15th & Saturday, July 16th at the Leominster Market Basket. Please help us fight child hunger in our community by supporting this event.