Ten-year-old works to raise $24,000 to feed orphans in Mexico

Ormond Beach Observer
Neighbors

Kieran Hale, 10, thinks big. She’s out to collect $24,000 in donations to feed 20 Mexican orphans for a year.

BY MIKE CAVALIERE | ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Kieran Hale isn’t like other 10-year-olds. When she gets bored, she doesn’t just sit around; she thinks about charity. And last month, she stopped thinking and got to work on a project to feed orphans in Mexico.

With a goal of collecting $24,000 through her Feed the Need project, Kieran hopes to raise enough funds to feed an orphanage of about 20 kids for a full year. In her first weekend of fundraising, displaying a board at Tomoka Christian Church, she collected $3,000.

Ten-year Ormond Beach residents, Kieran's parents, Scott and Meg Hale, got in touch with friends who work for a children’s advocacy group called Ninos de Mexico to get started. They began downloading information off the Internet and formulating a plan.

“We don't really have any specific ties to Mexico,” Scott Hale said. “I had worked with kids in Africa years ago, but Kieran has felt the pull towards Mexico all by herself.”

But she did have a little help. Kieran was brought up around charity and mission work her whole life, her father says.

“This charity to feed the kids didn’t exist previously,” he said, adding that Tomoka church does already donate to Ninos de Mexico. “But Kieran came up with the idea and the amount all on her own. This 10-year-old has taken it upon herself to try and help feed 20 other needy kids for a year.”

With no deadline currently set, Kieran’s fundraiser will send money off to Mexico in chunks, instead of waiting until the final goal is reached and sending a lump sum.

“The faster she can raise (the money), the faster the kids get fed,” Scott Hale said.

Kieran Hale is also looking into creating a website for the fundraiser, although the family is hoping for a little help on that front.

“We really have no idea how to start that type of thing yet,” Scott Hale said.