PICTURE COURTESY OF OPPORTUNITIES 4 KIDS
BY SAVANNAH KEYSER
Across Broward, hardworking kids don’t have access to the resources they need. Local organization Opportunities 4 Kids is trying to fix that.
The club was founded by Cooper City High School Junior Jared Ally. Not only did Ally found the Opportunities 4 Kids chapter at Cooper City High, he actually founded the organization as a whole. After he visited his father’s high school in South America and saw how unfortunate the students were, he knew he wanted to make a difference. When Ally returned to Cooper, he saw the same types of problems here as he did there. He knew that if he wanted to make a difference he had to start locally.
“I saw the kids of South Florida, especially Broward, who didn’t have the resources or school supplies to succeed educationally,” Ally said. “That’s why I started Opportunities 4 Kids.”
Ally knew that he would need a strong group of people behind him to help the organization grow and felt confident that the students of Cooper would be the best people for the job. Once he gathered a few students and had a plan of action in view, Ally started the process of establishing an official Non-Profit Organization. After he did this, Ally and his team were ready to begin making a difference in the world.
“It’s really cool for a bunch of friends to get together and do something good,” Historian Jessica Less said. “It just feels amazing to know you’re the reason for making someone smile.”
Soon after becoming official, Ally brought the organization to Cooper City High and opened it up for people to join and help to fundraise for children in need. In their 2015-2016 season, Opportunities 4 Kids raised about 2,000 dollars to buy supplies for those who couldn’t afford it themselves. The supplies that these students received included a backpack, pencil box, notebooks, folders, pens and pencils, a geometry set, a scientific calculator, and even a Kindle Fire. Opportunities 4 Kids works with the Florida Guardian ad Litem program to be able to matchup with kids in foster care who are in need of school supplies. These kids are then presented with their new backpacks full of school supplies at a ceremony in their honor. This year the ceremony was held in early August and the organization was able to give 15 kids everything they need to be successful in the 2016-2017 school year.
This coming summer, Ally and his crew are planning to take a trip to the Guiana and establish a program to help the indigenous children at the very same high school that his father attended as a teenager. Ally plans to help at least 15 kids in Guiana get the school supplies that he or she is in need of to be able to be successful in the next two years of their academic career. Here, they hope to expand their impact and make a difference in many other kids’ lives.
“Start local and go global, that’s our motto,” Ally said.
The organization welcomes anyone who wants to make this trip with them to contact either President Jared Ally or Vice President Andrew Hausdorf. Because this trip is international, it will not be going through Cooper City High School’s chapter of Opportunities 4 Kids but through the actual organization itself.
Any other donations and all new member are also welcome. The club meets after school on the first Wednesday of every month in classroom 4123. For more information on Opportunities 4 Kids, visit their site at http://opportunities4kids.wixsite.com/broward.
