At age 13, Hunter Clemons impacted more lives this month than most of us do in a year.
When the eighth grader at Michigan Center Junior High heard about United Way’s Stuff The Bus, he decided to earn chore money and invest it in backpacks and school supplies for kids in need.
“One day my mom saw a post on Facebook about a fundraiser my aunt’s company was putting on, asking for donations for the Stuff The Bus challenge,” said Hunter, the son of Jamie and Tony Clemons. “Since our family already gives backpacks to our local school district, and since my aunt helps me with all of my sports and community fundraisers, I thought it would be good to support Aunt Nikki’s fundraisers. I usually do weekly chores and earn my money, but I decided to put my chore money for two weeks into the backpacks.”
“He saved up his money for two weeks to fill three complete backpacks,” Nikki Clemons said.
Hunter did the shopping himself, buying up notebooks, pencils, glue sticks and other items. He made his donation through LJ Ross Associates, where Nikki works. LJ Ross Associates was the presenting sponsor for this year’s Stuff The Bus.
“He has always been the kid with the big heart and always looking for a way to help others,” Nikki said.
Stuff The Bus gathered 12,132 back-to-school items this year for Jackson County students in need.
“Hunter’s act of kindness is inspiring because it gets to the heart of our work at United Way,” said Ken Toll, President and CEO of United Way of Jackson County. “Our work succeeds when people take a personal interest in transforming lives. That’s what makes Jackson County so special—compassionate people like Hunter who invest themselves in others.”
Hunter encouraged others to step up and help those in need.
“I just want to let people know that we should look for opportunities to help other people in the world,” he said. “Even if you don’t like that person, you don’t know how they could be struggling with money and even other family things.”
