BMC Senior Combines Love of Dirt Bikes with Christmas Project for Kids
By Cheryl Shuffler
Burke County
Burke Middle College senior Jackson Crump went outside the box to create a service project that combines his love of dirt bikes with a desire to help less fortunate children. Jackson spent two Saturdays in late October collecting boxes for Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child shoebox drive. He called his project “Dirt Bikes for Tikes.”
Jackson said, “I am a competitive dirt bike rider and have learned to network with other people in this sport, so I decided this past summer that I wanted to organize an event that would combine my two passions. I came up with ‘Dirt Bikes for Tikes,’ a day where I would encourage others to pay kindness forward.”
Jackson’s first step was to provide 50 fellow dirt bike enthusiasts who visited a popular mountain trail with Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes. Jackson had filled the shoeboxes with chicken biscuits Chick-fil-A donated, as well as a granola bar, pack of crackers, chocolate chip cookies, water, and a soda. Also included was a flier explaining how the recipient could take the box of goodies for themselves and turn it into something good for others. The information asked the bikers to take their box, pack it with things such as crayons, coloring books, flip-flops, hygiene items, socks, and craft items and return it the next Saturday. 
Jackson is well on his way to meeting his goal of collecting 50 boxes and delivering them to Samaritan’s Purse later this month. In addition to the Chick-fil-A donation, he also received an anonymous donation of $500 for his project, which will help pay the $9 shipping fee for each box. He said, “My hope is that somehow this contribution will give some kid a sparkle of that Christmas joy.”
Jackson said one particular Christmas morning when he was younger was the inspiration for his project. He wrote in an essay about the project, “Every kid feels that tingle of excitement Christmas morning. The smell of the tree. The twinkling lights. The aroma of cookies drifts through the house. And most importantly to any kid, the mountain of presents under the tree. Growing up, I felt all of those, too, until one morning when I didn’t. As I looked at the presents, I felt an overwhelming sadness. A sadness for all of those kids in the world that did not have what I did on Christmas Day. I sat down and cried. I was seven years old. You see, my mother always taught us the importance of giving to others, especially when we have been blessed. Every year she took my sister and me to shop for kids like ourselves who didn’t have the pile of presents or maybe even socks for their feet. Every year, my sister and I would fill the Samaritan Purse Shoeboxes with crayons, toothbrushes, Matchbox cars, pencils, and toys–hoping that our choices would bring that little bit of Christmas joy to another kid somewhere in the world.”
Jackson is currently looking into colleges and is interested in the engineering schools at NC State University or UNC Charlotte and wants to be a mechanical engineer.
__________________________________________
Cheryl Shuffler is the Public Relations Officer for the Burke County Public School System
__________________________________________
Read more good news here.
