State Honoree

Matthew Draeger, 15, of Paris, Texas, a sophomore at Paris High School, leads a student team that has secured donations of nearly 20,000 household and personal items including furniture, clothing, bedding and toiletries and distributed them to needy families in his area. For as long as Matthew can recall, he has loved volunteering. "Volunteering is the one thing that I can understand in this complicated world," he said. While working on a school service project dealing with disaster preparedness, Matthew discovered how many people in his town lacked basic necessities. "Twenty-four percent of Paris citizens are considered indigent," he said. "I knew we had to do something for these people." Matthew recruited a few friends from school to launch an initiative called "Operation Second Chance." The team decided to take up collections of basic items to distribute to needy families, but first they needed a place to store the donations. A local organization came to the rescue with two apartments and garages, which Matthew's team spent months renovating. They then produced a brochure, began speaking to business and civic groups about their mission, organized fundraisers and applied for grants. Before long, donations began flowing in from churches, businesses, local organizations and school districts. When "Operation Second Chance" ran low on storage space, its members talked to the owner of an abandoned factory, who agreed to let them occupy half of the building. As of last fall, Matthew's group had collected 19,884 items including $1.3 million worth of new items, and assisted 1,264 families with essential supplies.