Fifth-Grader's Creativity Nets $100 for Valerie Fund

According to Green Brook fifth-grader Megan Camp's mother, she gets a lot of ideas—and one of them recently netted more than $100 for The Valerie Fund.

Inspiration came to Megan after she heard Warren resident Dominic DiBari speaking during a Mass at Our Lady of the Mount Church.

After doing a bit of "market research," Megan launched her project with the help of friends Kyra Anthony and Meri Hurley. First, they ordered friendship bracelets through Oriental Trading Company and arranged for permission to sell them during lunch periods at Green Brook Middle School from May 4 to May 11.

That proved to be very successful, and the girls sold out quickly.

"I thought we were only going to make, like, $50 or $60," Megan said—but when the total was closer to $100, they decided to keep going.

So the girls took stock of the skills they had, which turned out to be crafting wallets and decorative flower tops for pencils out of duct tape. They also weaved plastic bracelets and keychains, and again, the girls quickly found donors for the fund.

So they've vowed to keep going—they plan to offer their crafts to donors over the summer at the Warren municipal playground and other places they can find potential donors.