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Anoka-Hennepin Students Go Shopping For Kids In Haiti

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The road to We Day Minnesota takes us to Northdale Middle School in the Anoka-Hennepin School District. A student run group there is earning their way to We Day by serving people in Haiti, and in their own school.

We Day is a star-studded one day event coming to Minnesota Oct. 8. About 18,000 Minnesota students will pack the Xcel Center in St. Paul to celebrate service to others. And the only way in is to do one local service project and one global.

This is sight you don't see every day: A group of middle schoolers, all boys doing some serious grocery shopping. Many of the items purchased will help feed their fellow Northdale Middle School classmates. It's a local act of service.

"It just feels good because you're helping out your friends and people that you know," said student Tyler Young.

These boys make up the Youth for Change group at Northdale Middle School. They're buy groceries with money they raised from penny drives, bake sales and movies nights.

"We watched 'Toy Story' and yeah so that was a good turnout," said student Abraham Joseph.

Joseph, the group's co-founder, said they started out with an international focus to fight child labor around the world.

"Kids like me are doing things that I would never even imagine doing. Like terrible things like working in factories and things like that," Joseph said.

But that wasn't enough for these determined young men. So as they help people across the world, they don't forget those right here at home. It's a tradition of service group that Young, another co-founder, said will last.

"We're going to carry this on into next year and then the year after that to high school," Young said.

The boys aren't stopping with child labor and local hunger. The group has also raised money for clean water in Haiti.

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