Oakland Township Teen Helps 'Fill a Bag' for the Hungry

While some people are out this weekend stocking up on turkey and stuffing for Thanksgiving, one Oakland Township teenager will be collecting food for those who otherwise might have nothing to eat.

William Kolpasky, a senior, will collect donations for his "Fill a Bag" campaign in Oakland Township's Deer Point subdivision near Rochester and Gunn roads. Last weekend, Kolpasky stuffed more than 60 brown paper bags into mailboxes in the subdivision, each with a list of needed items attached.

"We ask for raisins, applesauce, chips or cookies," said Kolpasky, 17. "We ask based on what she (Sister JudieAnne of the Sisters of Christian Love) specifically needs.”

The Sisters of Christian Love is a nonprofit organization that provides food for homeless individuals in Detroit. Donations to the "Fill a Bag" campaign will be assembled into sack lunches containing a sandwich, fruit, snack and water, which are then distributed to homeless individuals near the Eastern Market in Detroit with help from the Sisters of Christian Love, Kolpasky said.

So far, he has organized almost half a dozen "Fill-a-Bag" campaigns and collected "almost $2,000 worth of food and donations" since starting the project more than two years ago, he said. A recent campaign he organized through the Andrea Redman Dance Academy of Shelby Township collected enough food to make more than 1,400 sandwiches.

"I went down on one of my off days at school and saw what those people lived in and how they lived," Kolpasky said, "and it made me want to help."

Kolpasky, a member of the National Honor Society who said he would like to major in economics in college, also volunteers at the Boys & Girls Club in Auburn Hills and at 's B.A.S.E.S. program.