The 2022 Honorees

Claire Becker has a big heart. How big? Big enough to learn about the conflict happening in Ukraine and wanting to do something about it.

Claire was already a big fan of making rubber band bracelets, but the idea to sell them and donate the money to Ukraine came later when she learned about all of the suffering that was happening on Youtube.

She called up her friend and they decided to sell blue and yellow rubber band bracelets together. They started selling the bracelets at school and around their neighborhood, but it became much larger when their teacher learned about what they were doing and wanted to help.

At first, he just wanted to buy some, but he was so moved by their kindness that he enlisted the rest of her class to help. Since Claire and her friend were the original bracelet makers, they got to teach their classmates how to make them and work together as a team. “When we learned we had made our first $100, we were all really excited,” Claire said.

Claire and her class were able to raise nearly $1,000 to donate to UNICEF. “It made me feel really good that so many other people wanted to get involved with it,” Claire said.

“I didn’t want it to just be a ‘me’ thing because I wanted everyone to be included in it. Plus, making all those bracelets by myself would have been too hard because at one point we had an order for 25 bracelets.”

In the future, Claire and her friends may choose other charities to donate to so they can spread the happiness.

Lights, camera, August! In just seven years of life, August Anderson has accomplished — and continues to do — many great things.

Auggie has been learning to play the violin for the past two years and loves to play for others. In fact, he has played his violin at the Chetek Scholarship Fundraiser and the Rice Lake Public Library Fundraiser — where he received a standing ovation.

His favorite song to play on the violin is “Maple Leaf Reel”. Not only does he like performing music, but he also enjoys being on stage.

He has been in a performance of Winnie the Pooh and Newsies but plans to do a lot more now that theater shows are starting back up again.

Auggie is also currently looking to publish his own children’s book about a unicorn (previously a narwhal) named Smash and a dragon named Steven team up on an adventure into the Forbidden Forest. “There is sports, marshmallows, and adventure,” Auggie said.

Illustrations for the book are happening right now and then publishing is not far in the future. The idea for his story came from some playtime with his stuffed animals while he was in the hospital.

Auggie has a very rare form of cancer called N-TRK Rearranged Neoplasma which mostly affects young children. Since it is so rare, Auggie is one of 11 people in a clinical trial to try and find a cure and to help any other children who may be diagnosed in the future.

Calling all sweet tooths! Adrianna Martin has started her own stand to sell yummy treats to the area.

The best part? Her stand, Adrianna’s Sweet Tooth Stand, is right outside of her parent’s dentist’s office, Martin Dental, so you can get your teeth cleaned right after you enjoy your tasty treat.

Adrianna’s specialty is her homemade brownies, but the goodies don’t stop there. She also sells ice cream bars, lemonade, homemade Rice Krispie treats, and even homemade dog treats if you decide to bring your furry friend! Adrianna’s favorite part so far has been getting to work on the stand with her friends and the experience of running her own business.

Adrianna purchased 2/3 of the stand herself with a small loan from her parents that she was able to pay back in full. She said that when she grows up she wants to own her own business again — though she hasn’t decided what kind of business.

When she’s not single-handedly running her own business, Adrianna likes to volunteer with her mom at the Community Table, a local non-profit dedicated to feeding the community. “I like helping people in need and making the food for them,” Adrianna said.

Though Adrianna’s Sweet Tooth Stand doesn’t have set business hours, that is something she is hoping to have really soon!

Benjamin knows all the buzz. We don’t mean gossip, but honey bees! Benjamin watched his grandpa’s house and take care of bees in his backyard and knew he wanted to help.

For the past two summers, Benjamin has helped his grandpa with his bees and the collecting of honey while also learning about how important bees are to the environment. “Without these pollinators, the world would have no flowers or anything,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin’s favorite bee fact is that there can be 50,000 bees in a hive. Why so many? Because each bee produces 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime.

When collecting the honey, Benjamin explained a little bit of the process like using a hot knife to cut the initial wax layer that protects the honey, then putting the honeycomb into a honey extractor — which spins really fast — to separate the honey and the wax. After the honey is in jars, Benjamin said he likes to give people honey as a birthday present or sell it to people — which is his goal.

Benjamin’s favorite part about the whole process is being able to taste the honey because there is nothing better than fresh honey after all that hard work. He plans to continue beekeeping as a side hobby when he is older to keep helping the bees collect the delicious honey.

Duh nuh… duh nuh… duh nuh duh nuh! Sharks are pretty cool, and Oliver Newton is too. Oliver’s favorite animals are sharks and he really enjoys painting and drawing them.

So many people liked Oliver’s shark paintings and coloring pages that he started selling them to friends, family, and some people on Instagram.

Oliver’s art got a shoutout from the Youtube Channel @SomeGoodNews, hosted by John Krasinski (yes, that John Krasinski). After that, Oliver’s coloring pages were in high demand.

Oliver wanted to donate the money he was making to the Kids N’ Cops Program — a local program that allows underprivileged children in the area to go shopping with a police officer and other volunteers to pick out clothes and presents around Christmas time.

Oliver said he chose this nonprofit to donate to the Kids N’ Cops Program because he wanted to help other kids get presents around Christmas time and to make other people happy.

Oliver created around 50 different shark paintings and coloring pages and sold them to raise money and he ended up raising almost $300 for the program. “I like to paint sharks because they’re endangered,” Oliver said.

Being a huge animal lover, Oliver said he wants to be a vet when he grows up. People can check out Oliver’s artwork on Instagram (@ArtworkByOllie).