Strangers in greater Los Angeles may owe thanks to a Sandy sixth grader who cared enough to take action.

Madeline Archuleta, a Mt. Jordan Middle School student, was moved by the devastation caused by the LA fires. Wanting to help, she approached her school’s PTSA and student council with a three-page plan to support affected communities.

“It mattered to me because if you see a problem in the world, you should take accountability to go fix it,” she said. “I could get the support to help those people so that they can renew their lives.”

After reading Madeline’s three-page proposal to help the LA fire victims, PTSA president Heather Huish, who also works for Stand4Kind, helped involve both groups in a project to provide seed pods for replanting. Stand4Kind covered supplies and shipping, while 80 students created seed balls by mixing clay, compost, water and wildflower seeds.

After the pods arrived in LA, Huish joined 500 California youth, who planted them. Splash Media documented the entire service project to share messages of hope and impact.

“These are going to regreen LA to make the landscape be a lot more vibrant and hopefully reinstall some hope in the people by the fire,” Madeline said. “It’s neat that kids in Utah care and can help other kids in California. We can make a difference, I want to leave my mark on the world, and this is my first step in doing that.”

Sixth-grader Boston Smith joined in: “It’s not fair there are people affected by this without homes, foods, resources so if we can help give them a better environment, we’re showing kindness.”

Huish said through this project students learned lessons in developing leadership and student empowerment, kindness and emotional wellness.

“Not only are our students doing a hands-on service project to help with environmental renewal, but they’re also learning the importance of their actions and how they can bring hope and healing to these impacted families,” said Huish, adding the PTSA actively performs community service projects every other month.

Seventh-grader Mikaela Brun was glad she could help.

“It's cool to do something that's going to affect places that aren't in Utah and we make it a beautiful place for them,” she said. “We can make other people happy; it’s the right thing to do.”λ