ALTON - Thirteen-year-old Alana Jausel's infectious smile and T-shirt: "Love God, Love People" on Friday afternoon said it all when she delivered 210 donated bookbags to the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Kids in Care foster children.
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Jausel touched a lot of hearts when she donated the immense amount of bookbags to the foster children.
Instead of birthday presents, Alana Jausel, daughter of Jessica Riney and Bryan Jausel, asked for backpacks for other children for her 13th birthday this year. Alana set a goal for the program she calls “Alana’s Birthday Backpacks for Kids” to donate 50 backpacks to kids in need. Alana's birthday was on Sept. 11. And, her backpack collection swelled to 210 backpacks on Friday.
“I've always wanted to help my country, and I know as a kid I can't really do that like serving my country," Alana, who dreams one day of attending the United States Military at West Point, New York, said. "So I know if I could help kids then that is giving back to my country. It took about three or four weeks to collect all the bookbags. Right before we came we went to my church and blessed all the backpacks for the kids."
DCFS Acting Administrator of Investigations Tawnya Hooper summed Jausel's heroic act appropriately: "This is just a selfless gift to the Kids in Care. They have a personal item that someone thought about giving them such a generous donation, especially another youth a 13-year-old. She didn't want anything for her own birthday but wanted to give the opportunity to others. These bookbags will go to three DCFS sites in Madison County they will then be passed out to the kids."
Swiss Army donated 24 backpacks to the cause. She received $1,900 in donations and purchased the remaining backpacks, Bibles, journals, multi-colored pens, and stuffed animals for younger kids. Another person donated more blankets and Laurel Hollister donated stuffed animals and golden children's reading books. Her Aunt Becky donated a bunch of blankets in the backpacks.
Alana attends Evangelical School in Godfrey and is in seventh grade.
Junior League of Greater Alton (JLGA) donated 26 total backpacks to aid in Alana's mission.
Alana’s mom said the project started when Alana asked her what kids in foster care do with their belongings when they move. She had heard about some children only having trash bags to move their belongings.
“After having explained to her the harsh reality of this situation, she asked if we could buy backpacks for them. She then decided for her birthday she would see how many backpacks she could get, instead of getting gifts for herself," her mom said.
Jessica continued and Sam Riney, Alana's stepdad, then reached out to a friend who works with DCFS to coordinate the items being directly given to children in need.
Rather than accepting birthday presents as typical children do, Alana has touched hearts and displayed a somewhat magical talent to help others transition more easily into foster care.
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Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
