By Amanda Jess
The Kings County Advertiser
Two boys from the Sunday school at the West Brooklyn Baptist Church tried to help the homeless by giving a significant donation to Open Arms earlier this year.
Tanner Lockhart, 11, and Kameron Myles, 10, raised $1,101 for the charitable organization through teas, bake sales, penny jars and other fundraisers.
“(I learned) that there are people out there that don’t have some of the stuff we have,” Lockhart said.
“There are people that don’t know if they’ll eat,” Myles added.
It took approximately two months for the boys, aided by Sunday school teacher Doris Kelly, to raise the money.
Open Arms is a non-profit charitable organization that refers to themselves on their website as “a Christian street ministry to those in crisis.”
They offer many services including helping those in need find housing, food, clothing, furniture as well as assisting with employment, health, social services and training.
After the donation was given to Open Arms in March, the boys visited their resource centre to learn what happens there.
“They had an eye opener,” Marlene Myles, Kameron’s mother, said, adding that they hadn’t realized just what it meant to be homeless before the experience.
The Sunday school was teaching the boys about those that are less fortunate this year, and got them involved with many projects, including visiting an elderly man in a nursing home and supporting a local school’s breakfast program.
Marlene Myles and Peggy Wells, Tanner Lockhart’s grandmother, were both impressed with the boys’ compassion. They said it was great to see such young boys caring so much.
“There’s not enough of that,” Marlene said.
