I am a Ripple Kid because: I started a collection drive to gather baby supplies for the babies at a local homeless shelter.

Here's how I'm taking action in my community (tell us a few more details about what you're doing): My family has always donated old clothing to a local homeless shelter, and I always wondered about who was taking care of the babies. When I was about 6 years old, I started collecting diapers and bottles to donate them. Eventually, it grew and I started a collection at my school. For two weeks every year, the kids in my class brought things they wanted to donate and then my mom and I took them to a local shelter.

Here's how I got the idea: I love babies and it seemed like no one was taking care of them at the homeless shelters.

These are the steps I took:

1. I asked my mom for help
2. I went to the school principal and asked if it was ok
3. I painted big red barrels (that were donated) and put them around our school. We made signs and sent home letters with the kids so their parents knew what we were doing.
4. We took all the things we collected to a local shelter.

These are the people who volunteer with me (check all that apply):

__I work alone
_X_My family
_X_My friends
_X_A group (please tell us who they are): my school

One of the coolest things that happened during my project was: One of the mothers that was in the homeless shelter gave me a huge hug and started crying because she was so happy to have diapers for her baby.

One of the most important things I learned was: that even if your project starts small, the important thing is that you do something, because you never know how big it's going to get.