Maddie's Story
Maddie started her mitten march at 10 years old when she saw some of her peers going without proper clothes and mittens during the winter months. From that point on she's made it her goal to try and help those in her community who are less fortunate while encouraging others to find and solve issues in their own communities.
Maddie's Story
How we started
The idea for Maddie's Mitten March (MMM) started when Maddie was 10 years old. Like many 10-year-olds, she got bored one day and decided that she "wanted to do something". After discussing it with her family, she started thinking about doing a food drive. Maddie had done food drives in the past with the Girl Scouts, but she wanted to do something different. She thought about what she wanted to do and looked for a cause—and found it when she saw other children in her school without winter gloves and mittens. So Maddie came back with the idea to have a mitten drive. After talking it over with her family, they decided to expand that idea into a winter clothing drive. The very first drive Maddie ever did was a door-to-door pick up which collected over 200 donated items. Maddie then donated those items to Schneider Elementary School, homeless shelters, and the City of Aurora Alderman's Office. Since then, Maddie and the MMM team have expanded the charity, and we continue to help our community in our own way.
Maddie's Mitten March uses two busses to collect, hold, and distribute our donations. Both busses were purchased for their scrap value of $1,000 from St. Charles School District. We were given this generous opportunity through the Assistant Superintendent, John Baird, who has always helped us. The first bus—named "Left Mitten" after Maddie's left-handedness—was purchased when Maddie was 15 years old and a sophomore in high school. The second bus—named "Right Mitten"—was purchased in 2018. Maddie signed the title on the busses and wrote the check herself.