Hometown Hero: Our Children Making Change Celebrates its 10th Summer
By Krystle J. Bailey
Our Children Making Change, a local non profit organization founded by Laura Dulac, wrapped up its 10th summer by donating over $20,000 to local charities. 150 Atlantic County kids worked throughout the summer to raise money through various forms of fundraising and collectively, were able to donate over $4,000 to each of the five chosen charities. This year, those charities included Special Olympics of Atlantic County, Family Promise of Atlantic County, American Migraine Association, The Rustic Ruhl, and Marine Mammal Stranding Center.
The inspiration for Our Children Making Change came 11 years ago when Laura Dulac’s oldest two daughters began donating their piggy bank money to the local food bank. It was that year that one of the food bank trucks had lost its entire stock of turkeys in an accident. The girls were determined to help raise enough money to replace the turkeys that were lost. They began bake sales and various fundraisers to collect the money and ended up raising $4,000 that year.
What was inspiring to Laura was the way the children in the community began bringing their piggy banks to contribute at the soccer field and the playground. They were invested in making a change at a young age. Laura spent that Spring researching where her kids could get involved and volunteer their time but came up short, as many organizations required kids to be older.
On their summer vacation that year, Laura and her daughters got to talking about creating a way to volunteer and raise money for the causes that they were excited about. That is when Our Children Making Change was born. The idea was simple. As a mom of three, Laura didn’t want herself or any other parent to feel overwhelmed with the task of making this a successful endeavor so she broke it up into manageable pieces. The idea was one adult to every ten kids. Each kid would take on the task of raising $100. 10 adults, 10 kids each at $100 each would mean at least $10,000 for local charities. The first summer started with 100 kids and has grown to 150+ in the local area.
Not only did the local Atlantic County chapter begin to grow, but Our Children Making Change began to grow in other cities. To date, there are chapters in Harrison NJ, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Boston.
As the 10th year comes to an end, awaiting the closing of the Baltimore chapter’s fundraising season, Our Children Making Change has raised over $475,000, 100% of which has been donated to local charities.
Some of the children who began the original 2009 summer are now in high school and college and have created leadership teams of their own. Every single year, Laura and the other leaders are inspired by the growth in the kids that they know, and especially in the amount of kids they’ve never met coming out to get involved. Seeing the kids bring their favorite charities to the table and present why they feel strongly about raising money for them is one of the most rewarding moments for Laura in her quest to create young philanthropists.
“The kids get so excited when they see what they’ve done. They get to see that it didn’t take much to make $100 but that together, they have raised thousands.” says Laura Dulac, founder of Our Children Making Change.
To get involved for Summer 2019, reach out to Laura Dulac at 609-335-4530 or OurChildrenMakingChange.Org.
