These 3 Washburn Rural students put compassion into Topeka Blessing Boxes

Keishera Lately, Topeka Capital-Journal
·4 min read
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These Washburn Rural High School students wanted to lend a helping hand as they worked on a school project.

Naledi Mackenzie, Sienna Hamilton and Megan Weis, seniors at Washburn Rural High School, began their junior year in the high school's International Baccalaureate program, which requires students to pursue a Creative Arts and Service project.

That's when they began their work with Bee the Blessing Inc., a nonprofit organization that operates for the sole purpose of coordinating food distribution to the Blessing Boxes in Topeka, its website said.

Mackenzie, Hamilton and Weis began going out and documenting the state of blessing boxes around the city for the nonprofit and highlighting which boxes needed to be replenished.

Washburn Rural students, from left, Naledi Mackenzie, Sienna Hamilton and Megan Weis are part of the Bee the Blessing group, which replenishes more than 40 Blessing Boxes across Topeka.
Washburn Rural students, from left, Naledi Mackenzie, Sienna Hamilton and Megan Weis are part of the Bee the Blessing group, which replenishes more than 40 Blessing Boxes across Topeka.

Grant will allow nonprofit to consistently replenish blessing boxes

"We pretty much visit every one under the organization. There's 44," Weis said.

In March, the group received a first-place award of $7,500 from the Topeka Youth Commission, with assistance from the Topeka Community Foundation with its Stay785 grant. The program was created to fund community projects designed and directed by youths in the Topeka and Shawnee County area.

Camryn Crawford, Topeka youth commission chair, said they're excited to see how the latest Stay785 projects make Topeka's younger residents feel more welcomed and included.

“It has been incredibly inspiring to see how young people continue to want to help the community around them." Crawford said.

Weis, Hamilton and Mackenzie said they often stock the blessing boxes. The grant money received will help them stock for a longer time at a more consistent basis.

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"Knowing that we have the amount of money that we do to pretty much fill every box seven times," Weis said, "it feels really good to know that we can actually do something and we're not like, 'Oh, we'll help you, but we don't really have any way to help you.' We can really help them this time."

Second-place winner of the Stay785 grant was Jaiden Wen who received $2,000 for his Mosaic Horse Project, and third-place winner was Allie Sexton, who received $600 for her math competition project, a news release said.

There's a hope to see more underclassmen involved in the program

The three students will graduate in May. Underclassman of the International Baccalaureate program will be involved with Bee the Blessing, but the seniors hope to see more youths across the city get involved.

"We're trying to work on getting more underclassmen to take on the project and stuff," Mackenzie said. "So, maybe in the future, there could be the creation of more boxes or spread to also trying to spread to maybe different schools and different schools. So, that's something that we do see in the future of this project.

Washburn Rural students, from left, Naledi Mackenzie, Megan Weis and Sienna Hamilton fill up a blessing box on the corner of S.W. 32nd Street and Burlingame Road Monday afternoon. The trio are part of the Bee the Blessing group, which received grant funds to replenish more than 40 boxes around town.
Washburn Rural students, from left, Naledi Mackenzie, Megan Weis and Sienna Hamilton fill up a blessing box on the corner of S.W. 32nd Street and Burlingame Road Monday afternoon. The trio are part of the Bee the Blessing group, which received grant funds to replenish more than 40 boxes around town.

"Once we go to college, I don't think that we're going to stop community service and wherever we're at, we're going to continue to try our best to make initiative within the community."

Hamilton said Bee the Blessing has been exciting and also a good experience to learn how to balance their time.

"I think what was really cool about starting this project is we all are really busy, obviously," Hamilton said. "So, this project we're able to work at our own pace. We're able to find days that work for all three of us to go out and actually work on the project.

"So, that was the main thing when we started doing this is we wanted to have that flexible schedule, so we were able to fit the volunteering into our busy schedules. And I think we've been able to balance that pretty well throughout the two years."

Replenishing blessing boxes is an eye-opening experience

Mackenzie said she the experience has shown her how much help is needed.

"The other day we passed a blessing box and I see people taking from it," she said, "and I feel like it's important for you to know that their efforts and their initiative matters and all of the work we're doing is for a reason. And there are people that greatly appreciate it and some people need the things that we're doing."

Weis said the project has helped her understand what people are going through.

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"We go through our day-to-day lives and we see people, we don't really consider to what extent they're going through," she said. "So, seeing that even just this kind of little act of kindness, just putting it out there, it really helps them lift their spirit and gets them through their day.

"It makes them feel like people are caring for them."

Keishera Lately is the business reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. She can be reached at klately@cjonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @Lately_KT.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Washburn Rural students get grant to help stock Topeka Blessing Boxes