'It felt good': Jacksonville High School seniors help kids in new way with birthday cakes

While many teenagers are at home binge-watching Stranger Things and scrolling through TikTok, three Onslow County students are making a difference.

Jacksonville High School rising seniors Bree Ellenor, Cameron Askins, and Cooper Fisher have been volunteering with the Children Healthy Eating on Weekends (CHEW!) program for a couple of years now and they recently chose to add something to the cause...birthday cakes.

More: Onslow volunteers, community members honored for their 'significant impacts,' 'passion'=

CHEW!, a program through United Way of Onslow, assists children in the community by providing backpacks filled with child-friendly, easy-to-prepare meals over the weekend. Every week volunteers from the community pack the backpacks, which are distributed to children on Fridays.

Thirty-one Onslow County schools currently participate in the program.

Askins was being a normal teenager one day — scrolling through TikTok when he saw a birthday cake kit someone had created. It got him thinking about kids whose families might not be able to afford birthday cakes. After doing research, Askins said he and his friends found this hadn't been done in the community before.

"Every kid needs a birthday cake," Fisher said. "We thought it would be helpful. I was surprised to hear how many don't. When we did research on it, it was kind of eye-opening."

The three of them raised over $1,000 in about a week, reaching out to neighbors, friends and family. Askins said their families were happy to help.

"We made 100 of the kits, so we can give to many different kids," Askins said. "It really means a lot showing this hasn't been done before in the community, and every kid needs to celebrate their birthday in some sort, it's a special occasion."

Each birthday cake kit consists of cake mix, a soda, icing, sprinkles, candles, and a birthday card. Askins said they will be distributed closer to the start of school.

Community Impact Director with United Way of Onslow Shelly Kieweg said the kits will go directly to the school social workers that are their points of contact at each of the schools in the CHEW! program.

"It does feel good, because it's not something you really think about on a daily basis, and just getting it all together, it felt good," Ellenor said.

Although the three are now about to be seniors, and will need volunteer hours, the students said they didn't do this project for the credit.

"Me and Cooper have a class that we have to take, and we have a big service learning community service project," Askins said. "We didn't use this for that, we can use it for that, but we just wanted it to be a volunteering thing."

Ellenor agreed, saying it feels good knowing they can be a help to the community, and Fisher said it was a summer project they did "just because."

"You can always help the community in some type of way, always help giving back through raising money, not raising money, doing something like this, volunteer work," Askins said.

The three of them also mentioned how they were grateful to give back to kids who don't have everything they do, the things they take for granted.

For kids like these three that wish to get started in giving back, Fisher has a word of wisdom. "If you have an idea, just go for it," Fisher said. "You can do it if you really put your mind to it."

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Daily News: Onslow County students giving children in need birthday cake kits