Jack Meilleur, a freshman at Nashoba, wants to make a change in the community. It all started when he was nine years old. Him and his family traveled to New York City and he saw a little boy and his family on the street corner with sad, gloomy faces. Jack asked his dad for money to give to the boy and his family. “I will never forget that little boy’s face that day,” says Jack. From that day on, he was inspired to help children in need.

Jack has been organizing charity work and helping out many children for the past seven years. When he was in 8th grade, he was chosen to join project 351. Project 351 is a nonprofit organization sponsored by governor Baker. The organization picks one ambassador from each town and recognizes them for their community service as Jack described. He says, “It is a great organization, he loves getting to know kids around the area and making new friends.” Jack is now an alumni from this organization and ran a clothing drive this year for their sponsor, Cradles to Crayons.

On March 23, Jack brought boxes into school asking people to go through their closet and see if they had any new clothing with price tags on it. His idea was for kids to get new clothes instead of used ones. There were boxes in the front office and in Mr. Emerson’s class. Jack says his science teacher would give kids five extra credit points on a test if they brought in clothing. All of the clothing is brought to Bj’s in Leominster. In the past two weeks, he collected 160 articles of clothing. “I was hoping that there would be a few more participants, but I still am very pleased with the outcome. Every little bit helps,” says Jack. He is very thankful for all the people who help to change many children’s lives by making donations to this clothing drive, and he hopes to continue helping out even more children in the future.