Girls sell bracelets to raise money for Hurricane Michael victims

Kristina Podlasek said she had to help after what she saw what Hurricane Michael did in the panhandle.

“We designed these bracelets to help hurricane victims,” Kristina said. “We saw pictures on the news and we realized that the houses were just flattened.”

“She kind of just said, ‘what can we do,'” Brian Podlasek said, her father. “And then we’re like, we can do bracelets.”

“We ordered 2,500,” Kristina said.

Kristina, 13, then recruited some of her Canterbury classmates.

“When she told us her idea, we all decided to pitch in,” Maya Shuster, 13, said. “We’ve been helping her sell. All of us actually went out to Sanibel Island and sold bracelets and we raised $427 dollars.”

The $427 turned into more than $2,000 in less than two weeks. Money that was directly helping families in need.

“On December 9th [we] are going to drive up to Mexico Beach and deliver all the money we raised straight to the families,” Ellie Appelgren, 12, said.

“100 percent,” Kristina chimed in.

Hurricane Michael devastated Mexico Beach when it struck the area on Oct. 12. It was the most powerful storm to hit the area since record keeping began in the mid-19th Century.

Since then, there have been additional devastating natural disasters throughout the country, such as the wildfires in California, which have killed nearly 50 people, leaving many homeless.

Kristina has big ambitions to help those areas, as the bracelets are just the beginning of the Podlasek’s new ‘Kids Care Disaster Relief‘ effort.

“We don’t want this to be just a one and done thing,” Ellie said. “We want to do this for every natural disaster that impacts families across the United States because I feel like helping. People is what all of us really want to do.”

“I hope maybe other parents understand that you can spend time teaching your kids something else to do with social media,” Brian said. “Use it to help.”

Because these kids continue to use social media and their time to raise relief for those in need.