San Marcos High students eager to add Subway High School Heroes contest earnings to Saturday's benefit total
By Tim Fucci, Noozhawk Intern | @NoozhawkNews | Published on 01.03.2012 1:11 a.m.
Fresh off victory in the Subway High School Heroes contest, students at San Marcos High are putting the finishing touches on Saturday’s annual Kids Helping Kids concert at The Granada.
The concert, which is sold out, features Grammy-nominated recording artist Sarah Bareilles, as well as opening act Tyrone Wells and live and silent auctions. Proceeds from the night will go toward the nonprofit organization’s goal of raising $100,000 to fund current projects.
Now in its 10th year, the Kids Helping Kids is run by San Marcos High School AP Economics students. In the past decade, the program has raised nearly $500,000 to initiate projects benefiting communities locally and globally.
In the past, Kids Helping Kids has raised money for orphanages and community centers in Rwanda. The organization recently set up a scholarship fund for underprivileged San Marcos High students to help cover academic fees from Advanced Placement exams and lab and music costs.
Kids Helping Kids was also instrumental in paying funeral costs for the family of Sergio Romero, the 15-year old San Marcos sophomore who was struck by a truck and killed in October.
“It’s unique in that it’s run by the seniors,” said Nick Carney, director of marketing for Kids Helping Kids. “It takes what we learned in the classroom.”
Last month the organization earned the $20,000 grand prize in the Subway High School Heroes contest.
“It was a really exciting opportunity,” said Kids Helping Kids CEO Kelly Shara. “I don’t think we imagined that we would even be able to win. Coming from a company, Subway, it was a good opportunity.”
The contest featured a competition between outstanding student organizations from high school throughout the county. Kids Helping Kids entered the contest after being nominated by general member Claire Burdick, and the contest’s preliminary stages took place on Facebook, where registered users could vote once a day for their favorite high school group. Finalists receiving the most votes were then grouped into categories based on school size.
“At first I was kind of skeptical, but I thought ‘What the heck, I’ll do it,’” Burdick said. “It was a quick little application process and two weeks later we got an email that said we were accepted, and we just kept flying through.”
The final task for the San Marcos students was to submit a video to Subway explaining the work accomplished by Kids Helping Kids and why they deserved to win the grand prize and national recognition.
On Dec. 19, Burdick was notified that the organization had emerged victorious from a pack of 20 finalists.
The grand prize from Subway is $20,000, which adds icing to the cake of Saturday’s Kids Helping Kids concert.
“I’m excited to have all of our work to be culminated at this event,” said Shara.
Click here for more information about getting involved in Kids Helping Kids, or contact CEO Kelly Shara at 805.252.5350 or kelly.shara@kidshelpingkidssb.org .
— Noozhawk intern Tim Fucci can be reached at tim.fucci@noozhawk.com . Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.