Karma for Cara Foundation awards microgrants to youths 18 years of age and younger who spearhead exceptional service projects in their communities. Meet Alannah (11) from Duluth, GA who used her award to provide care packages to seniors at the Hightower Manor Assisted Living Facility in Atlanta, Georgia. Alannah chose to summarize her project in her own words!

Two years ago, we gave gift boxes, performed and shared with residents on one of the seven floors of Hightower Manor in Atlanta, Georgia. On June 2, 2019, with Karma for Cara’s generous contribution, we were able to give gifts to the entire building!

My family and I really wanted to help the entire building because during our first visit, we saw how the other residents looked very sad that they were not included. The first time we did this, I was doing a community service project for my school called GMA, Giving Myself Away. I wanted the residents to feel like they were not forgotten and bring smiles to their faces.

To help us give baskets to more residents, I applied for a grant from Karma for Cara. I was very grateful and glad that we had the money to give gifts to the entire building. We also were able to get contributions from hotels for toiletries. Some of the hotels were Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Red Roof Inn, and others. Over fifteen individuals from my church, Life Enrichment Ministries, and a few of my friends helped prepare the gifts, hand them out and shared with the seniors. We purchased supplies for 150 gifts for residents and other elderly in the community.

The Wednesday before the event, we went to Bible Study and afterwards everyone there helped put the packages together. The day of the event during service, my mom, dad, brother and I put the bows on the packages.

After the service, we loaded Elder Grover Young’s truck and two cars to take the gifts to the facility. Once at the facility, we unloaded the boxes and thermoses, putting them in a nice formation. We added a huge car bow on the boxes afterwards! Before we passed out the packages, we did a 20-minute presentation. The presentation consisted of me doing one solo and one group dance with my friends. My pastor, Dr. Liza Hickman, also encouraged the residents. Afterwards, we all sang and passed out the boxes and thermoses.

Once we finished passing everything out we talked to the seniors. We gave some of the remaining boxes to elderly individuals at our church and will be handing the others out to other elderly as well. After it was over, my friends and I had fun popping the balloons from the display we had setup. The staff invited us to come back later this year!