news-record.com

After hearing about a family friend’s medical mission trip to Nicaragua, a Greensboro fourth-grader has taken up a mission of her own.

“They told me about how a couple kids down there didn’t have any clothes,” 9-year-old Cheyanne Harris said.

That story, paired with how she saw people come together to make a difference on the television show “Extreme Home Makeover,” inspired her to help.

“I thought I’d donate some clothes, and then I want to do a clothes drive for them,” Cheyanne said.

The first order of business was to go through her own closets and drawers.

She and her family “found a bunch of things we didn’t need or want, and we started the drive,” she said.

From there, Cheyanne’s family took to Facebook and good, old- fashioned, face-to-face networking to solicit donations for the drive.

“We collected so much that we couldn’t get it all down there,” said Cheyanne’s grandmother, Robin Clayton.

The things they couldn’t ship to the Central American country were Freecycle’d in Greensboro.

The Freecycle Network allows people to give away things that can be reused as an alternative to throwing them away.

Though they’ve already sent a lot of things to Nicaragua, Cheyanne and her grandmother are preparing for their next drive.

“We’re going to collect shoes and books,” Clayton said.

“But we’ll take clothes, shoes and books of all sizes for all ages.”

Harris is using a storage room at her job to store donations as they come in.

Although this initiative will do some good for the recipients in Nicaragua, Clayton is most thankful for the lessons it has taught her granddaughter.

“The best thing is her realizing how blessed she is,” Clayton said.

Contact Tiffany S. Jones at 373-7157 or tiffany.jones@news-record.com