Elementary school student receives FOX 35 Care Force award for backpack service project

FOX 35 Care Force: Honoring 8-year-old Gracie Decelles

The FOX 35 Care Force is recognizing its youngest recipient yet who is making a difference in her community by raising funds to buy backpacks and school supplies for families in need. FOX 35's Amanda McKenzie heads over to Geneva Elementary School to present the award to third-grader Gracie Decelles.

GENEVA, Fla. - FOX 35 Care Force is recognizing our youngest recipient who is making a difference in her community by raising funds to buy backpacks and school supplies for families in need.

FOX 35 News visited her third grade classroom at Geneva Elementary School to present the award to Gracie Decelles. She has been selling eggs from her family’s chickens since she was six years old.

Now, two years later she has helped a lot of people from the proceeds of those sales.

"I wanted to help people who need stuff like backpacks and toys because I wanted to help people and I just wanted to be kind because some people don’t have this stuff," she said.

It’s not just eggs that she sells at her roadside stand or at the local feed store.

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"Necklaces, bracelet, keychains, soap," she said.

All of those sales really added up.

"Everybody was coming," said her mom, Elizabeth Decelles. "Everybody was grabbing eggs. And then she had all this money, and she said she wanted to help other people, and we said, ‘OK, let’s do it!’"

It’s a family project. Her mom, grandma, brother and cousins all pitched in to make a big difference.

"We did 267 backpacks — 45 of those backpacks went to Belize, and then the rest was in the community here," her mom said. "And then we sent some to the Boys and Girls club in Titusville.

"Gracie loves to take care of her family’s chickens and share what she can with others.

"Because I want to help people," she said.

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