With the money you find in between your couch cushions, you could save a child?s life.
Local radio station Mix 106.5 hosts an annual charity programcalled Change Bandits. Organizations are asked to donate loose change to give to the Johns Hopkins Children?s Center, which provides medical care to more than 90,000 children a year.
“The center has received tremendous financial support because of the Change Bandits,” said Paula Shell, a development coordinator at the center. “The program usually pulls in between $20,000 and $30,000 per year.”
A portion of the money collected from the Change Bandits goes toward the kickoff of Mix 106.5?s Radiothon, which during the last 17 years has raised nearly $10 million for the center.
Bel Air resident Erinn Ragan is no stranger to the Johns Hopkins Children?s Center. Her son, Moses, was born premature last year and required the help of the doctors at the center. “He was transferred there for open heart surgery,” she said. “The surgery was successful, but Moses was too tiny and he didn?t survive. This surgery was the only hope for Moses to have a chance for survival. My husband and I were so grateful for the doctors and nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.”
Because of her personal experience with the center, Ragan, a third-grade teacher at Ring Factory Elementary School in Bel Air, decided to ask her second- and third- graders to become Change Bandits.
The students raised more than $1,000 to donate. “The first day, we had $300. I was literally in tears. In a world where there is so much selfishness, these children serve as our examples of selflessness,” Ragan said. “I was utterly blown away by the generosity of these children and their families.”
