From the NH Kid Executive Council: Working at the Salvation Army

Day One:
My first day working at the Salvation Army was a success! Me and my mother were shown around the store by a staff member named Megan. Our first job was to make sure all the clothing in the women's’ section was in the right place (medium in the “M” section, small in the “S” section, etc.). Unfortunately before our work hours ended, I started feeling sick and had to go home. 

Day Two:
On my second day working at the Salvation Army, we got to visit a lot more of the store, and met two new people. Our first job was to take out all the clothes in the children's section that had blue tags. There we met a man that was also doing community service that told us about his life. Once we finished that, we went to the  “garage-like” area in the store, where we met a young woman who also told us her life story, and hung up clothes that were in donation boxes, then took them into the women's section to be distributed appropriately. Overall, my experience was I've learned it takes many people to run a store like this and a lot of time.

P.S. I’ve also learned that this computer’s voice recognition translates “to be” as “2B”, But it knows, “bro”...(

-Evelyn Ellis-Haines: 

May/June Blog

Hello. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far, I know I am! 

May was a quiet month and I didn’t really attend any events, but that is okay with me because June was an important and busy month. I am very proud to announce that I GRADUATED FROM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!! 

Graduation was awesome! First, all of our teachers made their announcements, then we got our certificates, and lastly, we had an ice cream social! I am off to middle school in the fall and although I will miss my old school, I am very excited for my new one!

Also, the Humane Society of Greater Nashua was kind enough to invite me and my family to attend their annual Gala. They have an annual Gala as both a fundraiser and as a celebration to reward the people who worked extra hard for the animals over the last year. 

This year the Gala was named Woofstock, and the theme was based on the 1960’s rock concert Woodstock. The Humane Society was having a costume contest, so my mom and I dressed like hippies. We didn’t win the contest, but I had tons of fun! There were games, auctions and food!

During the auction I got to go up on stage and present an award on behalf of the Humane Society to the Governor's Apprentice (the Governor couldn’t make it; it was his father's 80th birthday) for all the outstanding ways Governor Sununu has made animals a priority while he has been in office. I also got to speak to everyone about the money that we (at my elementary school) raised for the Humane Society from our Popcorn for Paws Fundraiser back in April. We were lucky to have a very generous audience member match our $330 in contributions, bringing our total donation to $660. YAY! 

Lola presents an award at the Humane Society Gala

So thankful for all of the generous, animal loving supporters and volunteers who have donated their money and time to all our pet friends! It was an honor to be included in the festivities.

I'm so excited to start my library tour in July! We hope to get kids excited about being the next Kid Governor of NH, and also hope to get more schools to participate in the program. If you would like for your school to participate please don’t hesitate to ask your educators to reach out for more information. See you guys soon. Bye for now!

From the NH Kid Executive Council: Evelyn Ellis-Haines

At first when my teacher, Mrs. Weick, announced that we were doing a politics activity I thought that I would give it a try, just to see if I could do it. I thought poverty was important, so I chose that as my platform. So, I just went through the motions of writing a speech and making a video. We all watched each other’s videos and voted on which we liked best—which we thought had the best shot at winning Kid Governor. After we voted, the next day, Mrs. Weick announced that my video had won. I was absolutely ecstatic, completely and utterly.

Mrs. Weick helped me make a final video that would be shown at the “elections” at the schools and online and at Saint Anselm College. A few days after making the video my entire class and family were at the event at the College where we stood up at a podium and listened to different people talk. The other two candidates and I had to answer the questions: How did we choose our campaign platform and what were we going to try to do as Kid Governor? We heard the governor’s wife, Mrs. Sununu, and one of the teachers from one of the candidate’s schools speak, and then voted.

When it was time to vote we all got in a line to a set of booths that had the governor for the state and the kid governor candidates. We voted for one adult candidate and one kid candidate, then waited for the event to end. We didn’t get the results of the kid election for many days.

Evelyn being sworn in to the

NH Kid Executive Council

One of the things Mrs. Sununu told me when she was talking to us during the event was that no matter who won, we should all go on to do our service projects. So when it turned out that I didn’t win, after being really disappointed, I decided I still wanted to do my project.

Mrs. Weick and my classmates were super supportive even though Lola won with her “Anti-Animal-Abuse” campaign. They helped me make posters for a winter clothing drive and put out donation boxes! Honestly my classmates seemed even more determined to go through with the plan than I was! 

When the clothing drive ended, my classmates and I had collected over 700 pieces of winter clothing, most of them for kids and all in really great shape. The next thing we had to do was fold it and organize it all. Luckily, we got through that without any problems.

The next step was to load the clothes into my mom’s van, which we also got through with ease. Then my mom and I drove the items to the local folks in Laconia, which turned out to be at the Salvation Army. The folks at this Salvation Army were so friendly and appreciative that I asked if I could volunteer there in the summer to get more experience in this area.

Evelyn delivering donations from her clothing drive