Due to the hard work of three freshman, many less fortunate areas in the Greater Houston area were able to receive much needed donations. A fundraiser called Thrive4Youth has raised over $2000 in revenue by through fundraisers and canned food drives.

“We started through FBLA and through that we decided there are [many less fortunate] people living in the greater Houston area, and we wanted to help them.” Lehkana Kothuri ’27 said.

Their journey began when Afreen Jahnigir, Lekhana Kothuri and Rithvika Kolli had started a GoFundMe that had raised $1,500 in donations as well as hosting fundraisers at local businesses, such as Tea House. They spread the word through platforms such as Instagram, where they gained a following of over a thousand.

Not only do they generate income with the GoFundMe, they also host events and collect canned goods to donate to the greater parts of Houston.

Their first fundraiser was known as “Handmade Happiness” which had people going to decorate bags for kids in shelters.

“Our very first event we raised like $400 and we made homemade bags. We were at pine park with an activity where [attendees] could draw on paper bags and we donated it to a shelter.” Ritvha Koli ’27 said.

They have done many collaborative projects with many other Non-Profit organizations.

“We’ve partnered with Give Her a Hand, they are also a project at Jordan High School and we did a bake sale with them. And we’ve partnered with Natalie [Chen]. She’s a sophomore at Jordan High School and she helps refugee kids play the piano and we gave her money on our behalf to raise money for her” said freshman Ritvha Koli.

Since the beginning of this project, they have maintained multiple honorable achievements, such as placing state in FBLA, and raising thousands of dollars towards donations.

Thrive4Youth has more planned for their future.

“We want to register as a NPO because right now we’re just a project, so we want to file to be a non profit organization and another goal is to place at nationals,” Ritvha Koli said.