Mill Creek High School Teens Form Nonprofit to Serve Kids in Africa

B.O.O.K.S. With a Purpose (B.O.O.K.S.) will collect new and recycled school supplies at Mill Creek High School the week of May 15-19, 2017. The nonprofit seeks additional contributions from individuals or groups, including schools, churches, civic organizations and more. All donations go to schools in need of supplies in Africa.

For information on donating, contact Samantha Rahinsky,[email protected].

The idea for B.O.O.K.S. originated in the Marketing and Entrepreneurship course, taught by Mrs. Faith Davenport at Mill Creek High School in north Gwinnett County. “I gave my students a global entrepreneur project that asked them to research a need in a third world country and find a solution to that need,” said Mrs. Davenport.

Working on the project as a team, Samantha Rahinsky, age 16; Madison Watson, age 15; and Madelyn Deal, age 16, three sophomores in the class, discovered that students in many third world countries lack educational resources. As the next step, they were instructed to create a nonprofit that would take an item or group of items that are in abundance or taken for granted in America and donate it to a third world country.

The team of girls chose school supplies, including books, and wrote a business plan creating the nonprofit B.O.O.K.S. With a Purpose to collect supplies and books, and send them to kids in Africa. The acronym stands for Bringing Opportunities to Others through Kindness and Service.

Mrs. Davenport, motivated these young entrepreneurs to bring their business plan to fruition and create a working nonprofit organization.

They contacted various service-based clubs in their school to contribute to the collection and to volunteer to help sort the donated items. Clubs include FBLA, Student Council, DECA, TALON (a leadership club at Mill Creek High School), Beta Club, and FCA. After the first collection in May, the team will also be on hand the day before school ends to gather all discarded school supplies as students clean their lockers.

“We know that at the end of each school year many children simply throw away items that could be reused,” said Samantha Rahinsky. “We will be there to salvage, save and send those supplies to kids who need them.”

B.O.O.K.S. With a Purpose confirmed that eight additional local schools have expressed interest in helping with donations. Those schools are North Gwinnett High School, Osborne Middle School, ###a>Hull

“We know we can make a difference,” said Madison Watson. “We are targeting additional schools and organizations, many of whom have expressed interest in helping with donations or connections. There is no reason that we can’t take our vision to scale and make it a national drive, impacting thousands of lives.”

B.O.O.K.S. With a Purpose also reached out to two nonprofits for help. Books for Africa will provide warehouse storage and free shipping of all the items collected. Jump Africa will distribute the school supplies in Africa, specifically Cameroon for this first distribution.

“We believe that as servant leaders it is our duty to enhance others’ lives,” said Samantha Rahinsky. “We believe that by providing classroom necessities in the form of supplies and books such as we enjoy in our American classrooms, we will be able to create a love for education in those African countries. By so doing, it is very plausible that the students will use their education, find more opportunities and enjoy a better standard of living.”

When challenged to identify a resource that is abundance in America but lacking in third world countries, Samantha Rahinsky remembered a book that she read as a summer assignment. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is story of trial and perseverance by a young man who simply wanted an education. His story gave Samantha the inspiration to provide tools for education to children who do not have either the tools or the opportunities that privileged children living in America enjoy. She and her team came up with the name B.O.O.K.S. With a Purpose for their nonprofit organization.