As reported in the last edition of The Camp Verde Journal — and as many community members are no doubt aware — Chandler Plante’s dedication to his community is without comparison.
Only in fifth grade at Camp Verde Elementary School, Plante is the founder of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration — an event that recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, pulling together community members in one of the area’s largest such celebrations.
Even beyond this considerable effort, however, Plante’s life is defined by service. Every Tuesday after school, he volunteers at Rising Hope Food Bank, breaking down boxes, folding tables, moving milk crates and helping people shop and load frozen items in the pantry.
“I love volunteering because I like to help others,” Plante said. “I feel like I’m needed at the food bank because I’m younger and can move fast. I would hope I can inspire other people to volunteer so they can see how thankful people are to get food.”
This year, Plante asked volunteers in the MLK celebration to donate their time to residents of Haven of Camp Verde nursing home facility. In the process, he realized he wanted to dedicate more time there.
“We got to play bingo and board games and I know the people felt happy because they got to see kids,” Plante said. “I’m going to be visiting the people there every Friday.”
This is still not all, though: The MLK celebration includes an essay contest for sixth- through 12th-graders, as well as a bulletin board contest for kindergarten through fifth-graders.
“Each year, I organize a bulletin board contest to honor MLK. I want all students to know that it is important to have a dream, not bully and spread peace and love without fighting.
“This year’s contest was themed ‘I have a dream,’ and every class who did a bulletin board was fantastic. Two bulletin boards are outstanding because the classes are doing a canned food drive and organizing a team to help pick up trash around the community.”
This year, Plante has added yet another charity to his list: The Teens for Jeans program.
“Anyone can donate jeans, any size, and all the jeans will be donated to a shelter to give to homeless people,” Plante explained. “This is a nationwide program and last year over 80,000 members joined to get their communities involved. I hope to collect at least 300 pairs of jeans by [Monday] Feb. 29.
“I plan to go and talk to thrift store employees and see if they can donate some jeans. We have boxes set up at Camp Verde Elementary School, Camp Verde Middle School and Camp Verde High School and kids and teachers and parents can take in any used jeans.”
