Imagine having the empathy to want to help kids in need. Now imagine you're also a kid, and when you learn that some children in your town of McAlester, Oklahoma didn’t have any toys under their Christmas tree you do something about it!
That's what Reed Marcum did. A shy kid who was bullied in school, Reed remembered the moment very clearly, since he was no stranger to feeling left out. Even though his parents divorced when he was just 7, there were people who stepped in to make his Christmas time special. For Reed, finding out that his fifth-grade friend would have nothing under his Christmas tree, was tough to hear.
Reed then asked his mother to hold a toy drive, similar in structure to a backpack drive they had organized the year before. Reed’s mother, Angie Miller, posted a video on Facebook explaining her son’s intentions and asked for donations of toys or money to buy toys for a giveaway that Reed had decided to do as a 4-H project.
The response was overwhelming and after nearly 9-years, has become the norm with thousands of kids in Oklahoma and in Texas receiving Christmas gifts.
To date, Reed has donated over 54,000 toys to kids in need, but wait... there's more!
Reed is now a sophomore at Oklahoma State University and continues his philanthropic deeds by giving away back-to-school supplies.
This week Reed's foundation donated 6,000 book-bags and school supplies! In the nine years of the giveaway, more than 33,000 book-bags and more than $1.3 million in school supplies have gone to kids in need!
Because of his unbelievable work, Reed was the winner of the 2024 4-H Youth In Action Award!
Congratulations Reed!