When 11-year-old Simon Northrip began a food drive in his neighborhood to assist a Bolingbrook pantry, he never imagined he would be able to almost single-handedly help feed about 30 local families who need a little extra help.
With the assistance of his parents and his neighborhood near Wipfler Park on the village’s east side, Northrip was able to collect about 60 bags of noodles, green beans, toilet paper and other items for clients of Bolingbrook’s FISH Food Pantry.
It only takes one person to change the world, Simon said.
Simon, a sixth-grader at Humphrey Middle School, and his mom, Libby Northrip, passed out paper bags donated from Meijer with fliers asking for donations to nearly all of his 230-house subdivision. When the pair returned later in the month to pick up the collection, they were overwhelmed.
“We thought we might be able to collect 20 bags or so,” she said. “We never expected this kind of response.”
All the items, which filled up 60 brown bags, were taken to their church, Friendship United Methodist, and later transferred to FISH – a small organization run mostly out of volunteers’ homes.
The group serves about 200 Bolingbrook families each year and relies on donations from local churches to assist its clients, said pantry co-chair Linda Salazar.
Salazar said the donation of 60 bags was an unexpected contribution, and it will help about 30 families in the area.
“Usually that would be one or two churches that would donate the amount that he collected,” she said.
Simon said he was moved to pursue the collection after a Dec. 5 program at his church at which he spoke with a food pantry volunteer who told him about the pantry’s need and waiting list.
He said the collection is one of his many altruistic pursuits. He also regularly assists at a homeless shelter in Joliet and sponsors a child in Africa through the Compassion Foundation.
“I worked at a homeless shelter and everyone liked me and it was awesome helping out people,” he said.
Simon, who also enjoys swimming and chess and plays clarinet in the school band, sets a good example for other Boy Scouts, said his troop leader Tom Pawlowicz.
“It’s fairly easy through Scouts to show up and do something, but to plan something on your own and carry it out, it really goes above and beyond,” he said.
