Kernels of Kindness

On November 7, 2014 By BraedenIn 3B Outreach4 Comments

University of Delaware 3B Lecture — University of Delaware lecture

Yesterday, I got to be a guest lecturer for an undergraduate course at the University of Delaware. The course is called HDFS 347 Program Development and Evaluation. I am not sure how many people were in the classroom but it was pretty full. Everyone was very nice and they clapped for me and I felt happy. They asked me a lot of questions and some of them I couldn’t answer but my Mom was there to help. I told them about how 3B got started and how we raise funds and where I would like to see 3B go which was fun to talk about. A lot of the students asked for our contact information and they want to help us and I am very happy about that.

Speaking at the College School — Talking at the College School

And then last week I was able to talk at the College School. These students were all younger, they ranged from 1st grade to 8th grade I think. They also were very nice. and asked a lot of questions. I think the best part of it was that a lot of them seemed to be inspired to do things to help the community also. I am happy when I can empower other kids. I think that is one of the best things about spreading awareness about not only 3B Brae’s Brown Bags but also about food insecurity and hunger relief.

For both of the times I talked I tried to really let everyone know that little acts of kindness can go a very long way. I hope they know that it is true!

Jolly Time Kernel of Kindness — Thank you Jolly Time

I also got a great big package in the mail from Jolly Time and they gave me lots of free popcorn coupons and a really cool popcorn bowl and some bags. Plus they gave me a $1,000 Kernels of Kindness Awards. I mean it was all very generous. Jolly Time was celebrating their 100 year anniversary and to celebrate they gave away 100 awards they called Kernels of Kindness for people who were doing good things in their communities. I read a lot of the other winners profiles and they were all pretty great.

Me and my brother at the voting place — Me and my crazy brother Finnegan

Then on Tuesday my Mom took me and my brother and sister to vote on Tuesday. This is the 3rd time I have gotten to go in a voting booth and help her push buttons for the people she wanted to vote for and I liked doing that. I have my sticker from the first time we voted for President Obama! I have it on the wall in my room. It’s super cool! I can’t wait until I can vote, I can’t believe you have to be 18 years old!

More things are coming up in the next few weeks. I’m meeting with Senator Bryan Townsend and the Food Bank of Delaware next week to discuss their 2015 Hunger Conference. And then I have the Top 10 Movers and Shakers award ceremony! It should be a fun week!

An Evening in the Garden

On September 5, 2014September 5, 2014 By BraedenIn Real Life2 Comments

Last night I went to the Evening in the Garden at the University of Delaware. There is a garden for the community that the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources maintains and they donate produce to the Food Bank of Delaware. So all my Food Bank friends were there. I got to see Chad and Kim and everybody who went to Dover for the Food Bank Legislative day, even Pat Beebe. They are all so nice.

I also got to see the big garden and I was impressed. It was nice and I took a picture to show you. I tweeted it last night but I didn’t have time to write a blog post last night so you might have already seen it.

We had food made by the culinary students who are learning how to be chefs thanks to the Food Bank Culinary School. I had two slices of pound cake with a caramel sauce which isn’t very healthy but they were small slices and they were VERY good and I was standing when I ate them so I was working off the not so healthy parts.

Then my Mom bought raffle tickets and we actually won something! We won four tickets to see the football game tomorrow at UD against Delaware State and they gave us a parking pass, too! I can’t believe it and I am very excited that I will be able to go see a football game!

I talked with Chad Robinson for a little bit about the work I’d like to do at the University of Delaware with food recovery. He said he has heard about it and that UD has mentioned me in meetings recently which is really cool even if they aren’t so happy to be pushed by a 10-year-old.

People helping me, helping people

On June 13, 2014 By BraedenIn 3B Outreach, Real Life1 Comment

hero Wow, wow! I have a lot to say, I bet you are not surprised.

Well one things is I received another grant this time from the Start A Snowball Organization who “a non-profit organization committed to empowering kids to engage in philanthropy.” So a few weeks ago I asked my Mom what does Philanthropy mean? Because I see that word a lot on people I follow through twitter. And she told me it means giving and sharing of yourself and your ideas to help other people. So that is what that means.

And then I found out I was nominated for the JOLLY TIME Pop Corn Kernels of Kindness Award by a fan of mine who follows me through my Facebook page! Wow and thank you! JOLLY TIME is awarding 1,000 dollar grants to people who do good in their communities and the winners will be announced in late July.

And then I got a really cool award from “Kids Are Heroes” that certifies I am a hero because of my selfless generosity. Which made me think of philanthropy and so now I understand better. So Kids Are Heroes gave me an award and talked about me on social media and then invited me to their Young Leaders Summit at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Georgia on February 7, 2015. And I will get to speak to the people who attend and also share information about Brae’s Brown Bags! I have never been to Georgia! I have been to a leadership summit before but I didn’t get a chance to speak at it and so that will be exciting.

Before lunch today my Mom and I went to the Newark Empowerment Center on Main Street in Newark to drop off some of our Brae’s Brown Bags to their group. They were very happy to see me and I was happy to see them still helping people, too!

Meeting at UD Then this afternoon I got to meet Mr. Richard Rind, Ms. Sue Bogan and Ms. Lynn McDowell from the University of Delaware. Plus Bryan Gordan who works at Legislative Hall attended along with Senator Bethany Hall-Long and so we met and I shared a presentation with them and talked with them about some ideas I have for the University of Delaware. Really I just want to do whatever I can to help homeless people have more access to food. I think we’re going to be working with the Food Bank of Delaware. Nothing has been finalized but a lot has been talked about. There is a possible “Pilot” project in the works for the UD campus which I am VERY excited about. I hope I get to meet with everyone again soon and keep this ball rolling!

School is out for the Summer and now I’m all done 4th grade! Something tells me I will be keeping busy until 5th grades starts though.

It’s been a long month in this last week

On May 27, 2014 By BraedenIn 3B Outreach2 Comments

You might be thinking I haven’t been too busy since my last post was over a week ago. Also, I haven’t written to say that 3B Brae’s Brown Bags did not make the top 5 for the LEAD 360 Challenge Jefferson Awards. But like my Mom said, all 27 finalists deserved to win the trip to Washington, DC for the national ceremony. So it’s not a bad thing and it’s still really cool that 3B was in the top 27 across the whole country.

Last Monday I participated in the University of Delaware’s Day of Service. It was on the part of campus called the South Green. I talked to people about Brae’s Brown Bags and what the bags do and why I am involved in the project. But I also got to learn about other projects. One of the things I did was to paint a tote bag for a placed called Supporting KIDDS. It’s a center for grieving children and families. So to cheer up the kids we made tote bags to give to them. People drew smiley faces and used bright colors to make the kids happy.

14244102712_15ed590954_z I also wrote my name on a petition to stop the use of the “R” word. The poster said “R-word | Spread the Word to End the Word.” My Mom explained to me what it means and why it should not be used anymore. It makes sense. If a word hurts people then why would you say it? I don’t know why we even need to sign a petition. She also told me what LGBTQ means, because I made keychains with a group called Haven. Haven is a student organization that is geared towards members of the LGBTQ community which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer. I didn’t know what that meant. I mean, I know what it means to be gay, but I didn’t know why you would need an organization to raise awareness and my Mom said it is because a lot of them time people treat you different if they think you are not normal. And she said sometimes people think you are not normal if you are gay or that people might think you are weird. I said that was really silly. I mean, you are what you are. It would be like if someone treated me different for having brown hair. Well, maybe that is not the same, but still, I liked making key chains with those students. They talked to me and asked me questions and it was fun. We also made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which were to be delivered to the Newark Empowerment Center. My table was in between the PB&J table and the Haven table.

14079561710_81a50b0911_z A lot of people really liked my project and they were all very nice. I think the University of Delaware must be a good place to go to school.

So then on Tuesday I went to the Christina School District Board Meeting. I was given an Honor Roll award for my service and for having gotten the Governor’s Award. It was nice. Senator Bryan Townsend was there and he got an award, too. He even sat next to me AND he let me have his cheesecake. They gave him a slice because it was his birthday the day before. There were a lot of people at the board meeting. More than the last one I went to earlier in the school year. The woman who talked about me before I got my award, she said a lot of nice things, I felt really proud of myself.

And then on Thursday, Girl Scout Troop #34 donated a bunch of items and snacks and bags for Brae’s Brown Bags. In fact, I should be able to make a delivery to Family Promise, because they have taken work force bags from me before and thanks to Troop #34 I now have over 50 bags I can deliver that all have toiletry items in them. Thank you Troop #34 you girls are so nice and I really appreciate all you did.

The Leadership 360 Challenge Jefferson Awards

On May 6, 2014July 7, 2014 By BraedenIn Real Life1 Comment

Jefferson 360 Challenge Award On Saturday, May 3, my Mom and I went to the Leadership Summit in Newark, DE to meet other people who submitted projects to the 360 Leadership Challenge. Normally I have flag football on Saturday mornings but instead I got dressed up and went out to something called a “summit.” So I’m sure you know this wasn’t my first pick. But it ended up being fun.

There were a lot of college students there from a LEAD class at UD and they planned activities for us. I was part of Group 1 which ended up being because I’m in elementary school. Group 2 was middle schoolers and they joined our room, too. We did an activity where you are given dried spaghetti, I think maybe 20 pieces, and three strips of masking tape, some rope and a jumbo marshmallow. We were asked to build something that could hold the marshmallow on top. The grown ups were on one side of the room and the kids were on the other side. We were competing against each other, it was a timed activity.

So I’m sad to admit the kids lost. The grown ups built a tower taller than ours (which fell over) and it held the marshmallow. It wasn’t straight, it definitely leaned, but it didn’t fall.

We also did a magic carpet activity where we split into groups of three and we had to flip the carpet over without stepping off of it. This was tricky, but my group did a good job.

We made posters, too. I couldn’t think of anything to draw for my poster. I was tired.

There was an award ceremony. The Mayor of Newark, Polly Sierer, was there and so was Dr. Williams the superintendent of my school district. They handed out certificates to everyone who submitted a project. That was really nice. I thought maybe I wouldn’t get one because they didn’t call my name, but it ended up that I was in 1st place. When they called my named and started talking about Brae’s Brown Bags I was so surprised. My Mom looked at me and I looked at her and then she told me I should probably get up and go to the front of the room. We had no idea that I was winning anything. Really!

So they gave me a certificate and a heavy medal award thing that looks like a giant coin. It’s actually pretty cool, I like it, it came in a case to keep it safe.

I’m really proud that my project is doing good and helping people, but I’m also really proud of everyone else who was there on Saturday. I met new friends and learned about other projects happening near by that are really cool. Like the Zero Waste Team Delaware. I met three of the kids working on that project and they were pretty cool.

Spring has sprung and there’s much going on

On April 14, 2014April 16, 2014 By BraedenIn 3B Outreach, Announcements, Real Life3 Comments

First group of runners RACE AGAINST HUNGER

I’m trying to remember everything I have been doing so I can tell you all about it. I hosted something called a Race Against Hunger for the 4th graders at Keene Elementary School in the Christina School District on Friday, April 11, 2014. One of the enrichment teachers, Mrs. Utterson, helped me with it, thank goodness for her being so supportive. My art teacher, Mr. Graham provided supplies so I could make posters with some of my friends for the race. I wish more of the grown ups at the school had helped out or come out to see us run. It really did end up being a perfect day. No rain and very warm. My Mom said she did a reverse rain dance. It worked!

We’re closing fundraising for the Race Against Hunger this week but so far we have raised $500 and the money will go to Action Against Hunger USA.

So one thing I forgot to talk about was that I had another bag packing event with my friends in Alpha Phi Omega at the University of Delaware. It was the same weekend as my Mom’s birthday back in March. We packed something like 300 bags! I took 100 of them home to give out and they kept the remaining bags for the upcoming 5K they are hosting to benefit Brae’s Brown Bags. Definitely sign up to race with me for 3B on Sunday, April 27th.

Handed out 3B bags at the Emmanuel Dining Room

This past Sunday my Mom and my Dad took me to the Emmanuel Dining Room and we handed out 100 bags to the people who came to eat lunch at the soup kitchen. We decided to have 10 of those bags be for kids and the kids really liked the Spring activity booklet. I got those booklets from Mrs. Christine Sweeney as a donation. Thank you!

Today my 3B Facebook page went over 1,000 fans! It’s crazy! Thank you to everyone who encourages and supports me and the work I’m doing with 3B. I couldn’t do it without Y-O-U!

Plus tonight Reverend Paul Mast is coming to my house to interview me for a book he is writing. He said he was impressed with what I am doing and heard about me through the 2014 Governor’s Award for Youth Service. I’ve done interviews before but never for a book!

On top of the stuff I’m going with 3B I also started playing flag football at the YMCA in Bear. We haven’t done too much yet but I really like it. It’s fun to play and also fun to make new friends.

3B Bolt to End Hunger – 5K Walk/Run in Newark, DE

On March 20, 2014March 20, 2014 By BraedenIn 3B Outreach, Announcements2 Comments

Very fun news! I hope I can register to run/walk this event, but even if I can’t I’ll still be there to cheer on everyone and to let people know what Brae’s Brown Bags is all about. Every year I run the Delaware Mud Run, Jr. and it is very fun, but it is not a full 5K so this race might be a little bit harder for me. I think it is really cool that there is a race for 3B. I want to thank all of the students and people involved with helping to get this race put together. Alpha Phi Omega, they are just really the best people ever.

Registration is open now and you can register online, through the mail or in person. All of the information can be found on the Races2Run website.

The race will be April 27, 2014 at the University of Delaware and registration begins at 1pm but the race begins at 2pm.

My Mom made a graphic for me to put on my 3B Facebook page and I thought maybe if you want you can also use it to help get the word out about the race.

[ Download the Bolt to End Hunger Facebook Cover ]

This should be really fun.

I’m hosting a smaller race event at my school on April 11th but it is only open to students there so I’m really happy that Alpha Phi Omega has made this possible for everyone to be able to participate.

I have a table/exhibit at Ag Day on Saturday, April 26th from 10 until 4 also so it’s going to be a very busy weekend. It would be great if you guys could go to one or both of those events to help support 3B.

Thank you!

First Alpha Phi Omega Bag Packing Event

On November 19, 2013November 19, 2013 By BraedenIn 3B Outreach1 Comment

Do you see all these cool people in the photo? Those are my new friends, also known as, Alpha Phi Omega at the University of Delaware.

Mr. Kyle said that around 90 people helped out with our first joint 3B bag packing event. Their fraternity collected $1,000 worth of items to put in my Brae’s Brown Bags. We made our first workforce bags which included the toiletry items: toothbrush, toothpaste and travel size deodorants. There were 70 workforce bags made and I hope to give them to the Family Promise organization but I need to get them all together with inserts first.

We also packed 179 regular Brae’s Brown Bags, but I’m going to turn 30 of those into children bags where I will add a book for a school-aged person and I will be giving those bags to my school district, the Christina School District, this coming Friday so they can be handed out for Thanksgiving to some families in need.

My brother, my Mom and my Gram and Pop Pop all came to the event. It was in the same room where I gave a speech a couple of weeks ago in Purnell Hall. One of the girls who is in Alpha Phi Omega, I don’t remember her name, but she gave me a fist bump!

The whole afternoon was really great. It was kind of crazy with a lot of people but it was also really good because all of those people came to help.

When we went outside to pack the car with the bags we had to put some of them into my Gram and Pop Pop’s car because Mommy’s Jeep ran out of room.

Next up I will be going to Philadelphia to the Fox News station to be on the Good Day Philadelphia Morning Show on Tuesday, November 26, 2013! Be sure to watch!

Some updates DoSomething.org, Queen Latifah and Alpha Phi Omega

On November 11, 2013November 11, 2013 By BraedenIn 3B Outreach4 Comments

Remember how DoSomething.org gave me a seed grant for Brae’s Brown Bags?

Well they also went a step further and decided to feature me on their blog.

They asked me some questions, like an interview, and included my answers online.

So you should check it out and see what kind of super hero powers I would want if I ever became a super hero.

You can read the post on their website, “How This 10-Year-Old Is Helping The Homeless” I hope you like it.

Also, I don’t think I told you yet but I know I put it on Facebook. An Associate Producer from the Queen Latifah Show called and talked to me last week. She asked me questions about Brae’s Brown Bags. I don’t know if anything will happen from talking to her but it was still super cool that she called. It was funny because she told me she was calling from Los Angeles and she asked me where I was but instead of saying Delaware I said I was in my Gram’s basement! My Mom might tease me about that forever! Did you know Queen Latifah has an entire area called the Michelle Obama Lounge on her talk show. I should send her a copy of my photo with the First Lady!

Hope you all had a great weekend! Oh and on November 17th I’ll be packing bags with Alpha Phi Omega in Purnell Hall on the University of Delaware’s campus. My new friend, Kyle, who is part of the fraternity told my Mom they collected $1,000 of items to put in the bags and I am SO EXCITED!

Presenting to Alpha Phi Omega at UD

On November 3, 2013November 3, 2013 By BraedenIn 3B Outreach4 Comments

Today I visited Purnell hall at the University of Delaware and presented to their Alpha Phi Omega chapter about my 3B project.

I didn’t know what to expect. Last time I was on campus I presented to a group of about 10 people in a small conference room. So I was thinking it might be like that, but I was wrong!

Room 115 in Purnell Hall was an auditorium! Before I walked in there were girls sitting there who already knew who I was and said they love what I am doing!

There were over 100 people there to hear me talk. It was really cool and I thought it was amazing how there were so much people in that auditorium. The guy who coordinated me being there said that there were even more people who wanted to come but they couldn’t.

When I was done talking they all clapped for me and I can still hear them clapping if I think about it. When I was leaving some of the students told me I did a really good job.

They want me to come back on November 17th for a bag packing event which sounds like it will be a lot of fun. I’m going to bring my 3B stickers for the bags.

Even when we drove home I told my Mom I was still nervous, but it was already done.

Can you believe it? They were so proud of me but I was just excited they want to help and that they like what I said!