Seniors Kaitlyn Little, Kortney Buresh, and junior Allena Down will be hosting a 5K race for their DECA project, “Kits for Kids.”

Little, Buresh, and Down are fundraising to fill fifty backpacks with necessities for kids that are abruptly removed from their homes. In these cases children are taken out of their homes because it is unsafe for them, and they don’t always get the chance to bring things with them. The bags will contain products ranging from toiletries to school supplies to stuffed animals.

“I hope that we can really shed a light on local issues and band members of the community together in order to combat this issue,” Little said.

The 5K will supply Little, Buresh, and Down with the necessary funds to distribute the backpacks to children. This correlates with their DECA project, “Kits for Kids.”

“I’ve always had a passion for kids so I knew I wanted my DECA project to incorporate that,” Little said. “The project itself was essentially a mix of both Kortney and I’s ideas for where we wanted to go with this project.”

In addition to organizing the run Little, Buresh, and Down are responsible for marketing the event to ensure that the whole community can be involved.

“They’re in charge of everything from the promotion, to the sponsorships, to collecting money from the runners, to the social media part of it,” DECA adviser David Shillinglaw said. “Each and every step about this project is basically in their hands and I just kind of oversee the process and give them help where they need it.”

A DECA tradition is for a junior student to work on a project with two seniors. In this case, Down is assisting Little and Buresh with their project.

“It’s kind of like having a junior varsity if you will, so getting the junior students ready for their senior years when they end up doing their own projects,” Shillinglaw said. “Every senior project needs to have at least one junior on it.”

Down’s contributions to the project will add to both the project’s success and her future.

“Working with Kaitlyn and Kortney is honestly a great opportunity for me,” Down said. “I want to be able to take what I learned from them into my senior year so I can be just as successful.”

The 5K will take place at the Lied Activity Center on Nov. 19, at 3 P.M.