Oceanside student provides youth with necessities

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Oceanside High School junior Leah Koeppel and her friends Sara Zacharia and Ally Ferber, of Calhoun High School, have partnered with youth led non-profit Balance Boxes to provide local children with care packages containing healthy snacks and monthly themed toys and school supplies.

On March 13, the three girls and more than a dozen of their fellow students gathered in the OHS cafeteria, assembling a chapter record 250 boxes and packing them with dinosaur, winter, princess and foodie-themed snacks and toys to send to Long Island Head Start. The student volunteers broke into smaller groups and methodically assembled and packed the cardboard boxes.

Koeppel’s aunt told her in June of 2020 about an organization called Balance Boxes that was formed in Illinois in response to the pandemic. Balance Boxes is a youth led registered non-profit organization that sends themed gift boxes with items such as books, games, toys and school supplies to students in low-income communities. Koeppel got in contact with the organization, which was looking to grow nation-wide, and formed the New York chapter about eight months ago in July. Zacharia and Ferber, childhood friends of Koeppel’s, reached out to her that same month and been hard at work since.

The three high schoolers have used their social media savvy to contact businesses and charities that could help provide the goods needed to put the boxes together.

“We probably [direct message] about 100 companies a day,” Koeppel said.

Their persistence has paid off, as the girls were able to get a Home Depot store to donate the cardboard boxes that the girls pack monthly. It has also helped them spread their outreach to help communities in Suffolk County through Long Island Head Start. Additionally, the contents of each box come from excess toys, food and games donated by organizations Koeppel, Zacharia, and Ferber have contacted via social media.

In addition to the school supplies shipped in each box is an informational flyer instructing recipients how to contact a tutoring non-profit group called “Learn to Be” that schedules virtual tutoring sessions for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

“We think it’s really important to give kids a variety of different things to do,” Ferber said.

Though the organization was started in direct response to the pandemic, the girls said they are confident that their work and the work of Balance Boxes at large will continue once it has passed. Koeppel cited the fact that the organization has 23 chapters stateside and another 23 internationally as example of the incredible need being experienced right now. All three girls said they plan to continue their work through their senior year and into college so they can continue to spread outreach across the country.