By Andrea McBride
Staff Writer
CARO — Sixth grader Madolin White didn’t see her required school community service project as just another assignment.
The Caro Middle School student is required to complete one community service project during the school year for her social studies class. Her goal was not only to collect canned goods, but also to find a unique way to do it.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22 the Strand Theatre in Caro will play “Free Birds”, a movie chosen by White in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. She set admission cost as one non-perishable food item for children and two items for adults.
White’s mother, Erinelizabeth Wilding, said she is happy about her daughter’s persistence with the project.
“I’m very proud of her,” Wilding said. “We talked about doing something like this in the past, but we never really went through with it. … A year or two ago they did something like this in Bay City. When she had to do her community service project this is what she decided to do.”
Wilding said White contacted theater owner Rick Farris a few weeks ago to start planning the project.
“She went in and asked him how much it would cost for her to rent the theater,” Wilding said. “I’ve rented the theater in the past for birthdays parties. We knew there was a cost there. We had it planned how she was going to pay … to rent it out, and Rick said he’s going to go ahead and donate the space.”
Farris said he told White to donate the money she’d set aside for renting the theater.
“That’s going to be my donation for whatever group is getting the canned food,” Farris said. “Hopefully we have a good turnout. It’s for a good cause.” The canned goods will be donated to local food banks. White said she is excited about the opportunity to help people in the area and hopes attendees understand the impact they can make.
“They can help … people who can’t pay for stuff to eat,” White said. “They’d be helping those people who can’t afford things.”
White will be at the theater Saturday to accept the canned good donations and she also recruited the help of her mother and grandparents.
She will need to complete two more community service projects as a seventh grader, and Wilding said her daughter is already thinking ahead.
“She told me that she hopes (this project) works so maybe they can do it again next year,” Wilding said.
Doors open at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Find Madolin’s Movie Project on Facebook for more information.