Watch CBS News

Northdale Middle-Schoolers Helping Kids At Home, Abroad

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – On Monday, the Road to We Day Minnesota took WCCO-TV 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 on Oct. 8. Some 18,000 Minnesota students will pack the Xcel Center in St. Paul to celebrate service to others.

And as Edward Moody shows us, the only way to get in is to do one local and one global service project.

On Monday, a group of boys from Northdale Middle School did some serious grocery shopping. Many of the items purchased will help feed their fellow Northdale Middle School classmates.

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

The boys make up the Youth for Change group at Northdale. They buy groceries with money they have raised from penny drives, bake sales and movies nights.

Group co-founder Abraham Joseph says 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," Joseph said. "Like terrible things, like working in factories and things like that."

But that wasn't enough for the determined young men. So as they help people across the world, they don't forget those at home.

It's a tradition of service Young says will last.

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

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

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.