Volunteers lend a hand to help feed children in Africa, Haiti

Ryan Bieber's Wild Rose Boy Scout Troop 56 in St. Charles tries to promote teamwork skills, often combining it with a bit of philanthropy.

That was the case Saturday, when 25 members packed bags of food for starving children around the world.

"It's sad because we have a lot of food," said Ryan, 14, the assistant troop leader. "We need to disperse it more evenly to the people that don't get any of it."

The scouts were among more than 1,000 volunteers in seven sessions to help the Feed My Starving Children group, based out of Aurora, on Friday and Saturday at Christ Community Church in St. Charles.

Volunteers packed six-serving bags with rice, soy, chicken and vegetables. The charity will send the boxed bags to missionaries who work with starving children in Zimbabwe and Haiti.

Volunteers in Saturday's morning session packed 155 boxes of food, which amounts to more than 33,000 meals. In total, the groups packed 228,000 meals.

Geno Calcagno's 12-and-under Wasco Warriors baseball players -- several wearing their uniforms -- helped prior to their game Saturday.

"It was just a great idea for our kids to help other kids at need," said Calcagno, one of the coaches.

He said the coaches try to teach the kids life lessons on top of any baseball or sports skills they teach. The volunteer work helped serve that purpose.

"When children can see other children in need and help them, I think that's only going to make them grow as young men, which is our first goal as coaches," Calcagno said. "Children helping children, there's nothing better than that."

Youths weren't the only volunteers at the event. One of them was Donna Jaffke, 75.

"The cause of life isn't about me," she said. "It's about others. It's about thinking more highly of the rest of the world than just our needs."

The church holds service projects on the second Saturday of each month. Saturday was the church's 5th Annual Great Day of Serving, a day that sent more than 1,800 volunteers throughout the area in 79 service projects.

All the events can serve to introduce philanthropy to younger people, Ryan said.

"The younger you start getting kids involved in charity work, the more they will probably want to do when they grow up," he said. "That will help the community even more."