South Valley Elementary School students Silas Wixted, Ryan Kovach and Beau Degener completed an assignment for their third grade class that involved raising money for Buffalo Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin’s charitable fund, The Chasing M’s Foundation.
The news of Hamlin’s recovery after suffering a cardiac arrest during the Bills’ Jan. 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals coincided with Wixted, Kovach and Degener learning about the human heart in their class. Their teacher, Kathryn Morken, invited students to sell heart-shaped cookies and donate proceeds to Chasing M’s community toy drive through GoFundMe.
The three Moorestown students set up a table in front of the National Karate Institute on Main Street and sold hot chocolate, muffins and cookies to residents. Within a few hours, they raised $601 that was donated to the toy drive.
“It was good because if one person was helping out one customer, the other person could be helping with the thing they ordered or something,” Kovach said of working with Wixted and Degener.
“Once we had a line, we took two people at once,” Degener noted.
“Me and Beau took the customers, and we told Ryan what we needed,” Wixted recalled.
Hamlin created The Chasing M’s Foundation as a vehicle to bring lasting impact to his community. The foundation supports toy drives, back-to-school drives, kids camps and more.
“It’s really important, because some kids don’t have toys and they need toys,” Wixted explained of raising money for the toy drive, and he, Kovach and Degener look forward to a similar project in the future.
“It would probably be fun, and it would probably be helpful for everybody else,” Degener observed.
He and Wixted shared what they learned from helping others.
“One thing that I learned was, it’s really important to help people as much as you can, because some people need things more than you do,” Wixted said.
“We have a lot of toys, and we probably need to donate some to other people that don’t have toys,” Degener said.
The three youths’ love of football inspired them to help raise money for the toy drive.
“We all play football, and then when we watched the (Bills’) game and we saw that, we really wanted to donate to The Chasing M’s Foundation,” Kovach said. “The whole thing is, (you’re) just chasing a million dreams. That’s what the name stands for, so why not do it?”
“Some people just need stuff more than you do,” Wixted added. “ … If you donate a cent, you’re still helping.”
“Every cent counts.”
