A teen in Maine has made it her mission to help her community’s homeless population. Shortly after moving to Belgrade, Maine, from Maryland last year, 14-year-old Madison Waldbauer started Madison’s Maine Mission to help provide basic necessities for homeless people in the community. The teen puts together backpacks filled with items that unhoused people might need like toiletries, blankets, warm hats, hand warmers, and even tents, and delivers them to local soup kitchens and shelters.
Madison’s Maine Mission is similar to a project the teen dreamed up when she lived in Maryland and was regularly traveling to D.C. to get medical care for a cyst on her brain. "I would go to the hospital a lot,” she recalls, “So I would see all the people on the side of the road and how they were asking for stuff and everything."
Madison’s mom, Lyndee Walbauer, is proud of what her daughter has accomplished and says that Madison does all the work — from the fundraising, to the shopping, to filling the backpacks. "She's been through a lot of things medically, and to see her come out on the other side, wanting to help other people, you know, I'm so thankful that she has that attitude and is going to continue to bring that to the world," Lyndee says. Since starting the project last year, Madison has delivered 65 backpacks to people in need in her community, but she’s only just beginning and hopes to start her own nonprofit one day.
Source: WMTW