FAYETTEVILLE — Ten-year-old Jared Daniel couldn’t join his 14-year-old sister in volunteering at Fayetteville’s homeless shelter last November due to an age restriction policy, but he wouldn’t let that prevent him from pitching in.
“I may only be 10, but I can help people,” said Jared, whose parents in Richmond and Cumberland counties share custody.
Jared went home and began searching the Internet and watching YouTube videos for ways a young person could help the homeless. Jared had a plan before his sister’s return home.
His first outreach project was to work small jobs to purchase and make snack items he packaged with water bottles and disposable utensils, which he then delivered on a cold December Saturday in the downtown area.
He was so encouraged by the kindness of those he met that he decided he didn’t want to stop there, his family said. Jared planned to make “blessing bags” that would include small snacks, warm gloves, hats, socks, and hand/foot warmers along with toiletry items.
Jared knew he could reach more people if — much like his comic-book heroes — he could join forces with others, relatives said. The boy began discussing his vision with anyone who would listen and would join his team for the mission at hand.
Jared first sought donations from his aunt’s local counseling office, A Peace of Mind Counseling, to encourage others to help themselves by helping others, as well as Dr. Tracie Vestal’s dental office in Elizabethtown, which donated more than 50 dental care items.
Other businesses have made plans to assist him on his third blessing bag assembly project.
Jared assembled 50 blessing bags with essential items on Feb. 27. He donated those bags the same day by visiting local homeless tent camps and other locations in Fayetteville. A camera crew from WTVD-Channel 11 shadowed him as he distributed the bags.
To help with Jared’s future outreach projects, email his aunt, licensed clinical social worker Laura Lawyer, at [email protected].