When pastry chefs don’t have access to their preferred whisk, that’s an inconvenience. But when firefighters don’t have access to proper safety equipment, that’s a considerable problem. And that’s exactly what the volunteer fire department in rural Maywood, Nebraska was up against—right up until 17 enterprising middle-school students decided to do something about it.
In January 2024, a group of 7th and 8th graders learned the Maywood-Wellfleet Volunteer Fire Department was in dire need of headlamps and turnout gear, specialized equipment that has to be replaced every 10 years. The deadline had community leaders concerned, but their hands were tied: In their small, rural community there simply wasn’t enough funding to purchase the gear.
That’s when a group of teens, calling themselves The Breakfast Club, stepped in and decided to tackle a problem adults hadn’t yet solved. They would simply raise the needed funds themselves through a community Pancake Supper.
The students got to work creating a menu and grocery list. They raided their home kitchens for mixing bowls, griddles, and spatulas. They sweet-talked themselves into a venue, put together a marketing plan, and got the word out to every member of their community. (Twice, thanks to a weather delay!) The night of the event, they did all the heavy-lifting, too, from selling raffle tickets to flipping pancakes and scrambling eggs.
The Breakfast Club’s Pancake Supper raised significant awareness for the fire department’s needs and collected nearly $1,400 in donations through the event.
From idea to implementation, these students were able to leverage new leadership skills they developed through a program called Lead4Change. Lead4Change offers a small grant program to help students make a difference in their schools and communities. Through their grant proposal, The Breakfast Club earned over $8,000 to cover the cost of the rest of the equipment.
The students reflected, “It turned out to be a huge success…it was worth getting that much money to donate. It was worth all the planning and the resources that it took. Firefighters risk their lives every time they go out to fight a fire.”
To learn how you can inspire your students to create impact like the Breakfast Club did, visit Lead4Change.org.