Boy collects donations to help those in need

Sometimes the most heart-wrenching problems may have a solution that is right under our noses.

Chase Camarena, 7, understands this, and he has taken up the challenge of fighting poverty and food insecurity in his community and beyond.

When he learned that some people don’t have enough food, he asked, “Why can’t we just feed them? Why can’t we just help them?”

And he started asking his family, friends and the community to help him do that.

Chase’s mother, Jenice, said, “We had family and friends bring granola bars, gift cards to the deli, and Amazon wish lists for bulk notebooks and tissues and you know. Usually for the winter stuff, we send stuff to our wishlist.”

Their supplies depend on who is donating and at what time of the year.

“We rely on neighbors, friends and family to donate. We buy the half-gloves and scarves and the snacks, and as people donate, we have extra things we can do, such as tissues or a snack pack of cookies,” Jenice said.

As Chase’s Charity gained attention, it began to receive larger donations. “We had someone last year Paypal us $1,200 and that nearly tripled the amount of care bags we could make,” Jenice said.

This year, for the first time, the donations exceeded the demand.

With more donations, they needed more people to fulfill orders for the charity’s various missions.

“We had a conveyor belt of helpers to make sandwiches. Chase was in charge of cookies, while his brother was in charge of bags of chips,” their mother said.

She contacted other nonprofit organizations to offer their surplus of their donated goods.

“I called three places. Project Self-Sufficiency was the only one that got back. I told them it was my 7-year-old son’s charity and he has 51 extra notebooks he wants to donate.”

Bruce Tomlinson, development director at Project Self-Sufficiency, invited Chase and his mother to visit. “We were very happy to meet Chase and his mother, and we hope we can continue to help with these efforts.

“We’re very happy and impressed that a 7-year-old would donate to Project Self-Sufficiency and distribute supplies to students and give them to people to start their new school year.”

Chase and his mother said they want Chase’s Charity to become a recognized nonprofit.

“Our plans for the future are us registered as a nonprofit. It will be streamlined so that people can donate with a click of a button,” Jenice said. “With just 10 bucks, we can fill a whole backpack.”