Heritage Hall 1st Grader Leading The Charge For Change

For years the elementary students at Heritage Hall have done a food drive. But this year things were a little different, thanks to a first grader with a big heart.

In many ways Sawyer McDavid is like any other first grade kid. “I was six but now I’m seven,” said Heritage Hall first grader Sawyer McDavid.

He loves playing with his friends and just being a kid, but it is helping others that makes Sawyer pretty special. “I just want to be kind to other people and be nice,” said Sawyer.

“Each year, fourth grade does a service project, and we go to the regional food bank,” said Heritage Hall fourth grade teacher Sally Leonard. But Sawyer is just in the first grade. “We did the service project, and we challenged each grade level to bring in as many can as they could,” said Leonard.

That was a challenge that Sawyer took personally. “I had some money, I wasted it from my own piggy bank, and I used it for all those pieces of food to help other people,” said Sawyer. Of his own merit he took the money out of his piggy bank, that he had been saving for years. “I think three years,” said Sawyer.

He gave the money to his mom to buy can goods for the food drive. “My mom went to the store, she spent that money on can boxes and then we just had a big wall of cans,” said Sawyer. It didn’t take long for other students to notice the big wall of cans. “They were all so surprised, they were just like wow, I wonder who brought all those cans, and I’m just like, yeah, it was me,” said Sawyer.

It wasn’t long before his actions inspired others. “They wanted to start spending their money on cans too. So, I just set a big example for everybody to use their money, to help other people get food,” said Sawyer. “Bringing in case load after case load of cans. It was very exciting because we had never got this many cans before,” said Leonard.

For Sawyer it was simply about following the school’s Charger code. “It’s living with honor and helping people and being kind and nice,” said Sawyer. His motivation for helping so many families have something as simple as food. “I want to just help the world and the environment of people,” said Sawyer.  

He is already saving up his money for next year’s food drive, in hopes of having an even bigger impact.