The Batesville High School (BHS) EAST Lab will use a $500 donation from Citizens Bank employees to help fund its “Kups for Kids” program which helps alleviate child hunger throughout the area.
The program was created by EAST, an acronym for Education Accelerated by Service and Technology, which provides students the opportunity to have relevant, individualized, life-changing educational experiences, according to Jeanne Roepcke, the EAST facilitator at BHS.
“At the beginning of the school year, one of our elementary campuses expressed an urgent need to restock their supplies for their Friday backpack program, which provides food for students who might not have enough to eat over the weekend,” said Roepcke.
“Our EAST classes began bringing food to donate in order to give them a quick stock of food. The discussion then began about how we could provide more food for this program and any program in Batesville that might need supplies to help feed hungry children in our area.”
The result was “Kups for Kids” for teachers, students and visitors to buy coffee, cappuccino or hot chocolate in the commons area of Batesville High School each day. The project raises funds for hunger-related needs of children, but also provides money to sustain itself.
“To begin this program, we needed to acquire a cart and coffee machines as well as the supplies to make and serve the coffee,” said Roepcke. “All profit of the Kups for Kids cart will go to providing food for children of Batesville. However, the cart is not just for the high school; we will be glad to bring it to other events in the community. We welcome any opportunity to help gain proceeds for the food program.”
“It is precisely this kind of compassion that we seek to reward with our Citizens Bank Blue Jeans Fund donations,” said Joyce Prickett, who helps coordinate the fund for bank employees.
The Blue Jeans Fund has provided more than $21,000 in financial support to worthwhile causes and charitable groups over the past five years. The fund grows as Citizens Bank employees make $1 weekly donations in return for being allowed to wear blue jeans to work on Fridays. Whenever the fund accumulates $500 in donations, an employee committee selects an organization to receive a donation.
“Citizens Bank is always our partner in service, always willing to come running when we need help,” said Roepcke. “We hope our project will encourage others to find ways they can also help in the community. This might not be a huge endeavor and might not feed all the children of Batesville, but it is a start. If everyone in the community would just start small, imagine what a difference could be made.”
KUPS FOR KIDS – Promoting the service project are (from left): Ashley Engles and Jeffrey Freiert of Citizens Bank; EAST students Lily Gillihan, Lauren McDaniel, Madison Denham and Jack Allen; and Joyce Prickett and Tracy McClurg of Citizens Bank. / Image via Citizens Bank
