Teen Helps Those In Need

Katelyn Wienbarg decided she was going to volunteer at for her senior project.

But once she got there and saw the need for more clothes and more food at the non-profit, she decided she had to do something to help.

In September, the senior at , set out to do just that with a clothing and food drive.

"When we were filling orders, we'd run out of food," said Wienbarg, who plans to attend the College of Coastal Georgia on a volleyball scholarship next fall.

"It was really touching to see how grateful some of them were."

She first went to her friends, the volleyball team. The girls raided their closets. Too small or haven't worn it in a year. All got tossed in bags.

Katelyn put a box on her front porch in the Middlebrooke neighborhood of Canton after putting a blurb on the community's Facebook page that she needed help.

That help arrived in bags of clothes left on her driveway and loads of canned goods on her porch.

"It was great to see how our neighborhood turned out," said Katelyn's mother, Lori, as she started a meal in the family's spacious kitchen Wednesday.

Bentley, Katelyn's dog, barked in another room, angry she'd been put away.

Katelyn's dad's company, Uline, donated big black bags for the clothes as they began to pile up in the dining room.

And last week, using two cars, Katelyn and her mom took 20 bags of clothes and 15 boxes of canned food to MUST.

"They were excited to see how much I had," said Katelyn, as she twisted her blong hair and talked with a stranger Wednesday. "The coats were taken immediately. People were grabbing them."

Terri Shields, the Thanksgiving coordinator at MUST, said it is very unusual to see someone so young pull off such a sucessful drive.

"You just don't see that," she said.

Come April, Katelyn will have to present her project at school. She's been keeping a blog and taking pictures at MUST.

Thanksgiving dinner was handed out Wednesday — 967 families — at the ministry. Katelyn can enjoy her holiday knowing she helped provide a lot of the food that was given.