Championing Children

RazorFest all about awareness

On Saturday, thousands of families from across Arkansas will converge on the football stadium at the University of Arkansas.

Many of them will be in town for the Red-White spring football game at 1 p.m. But Rick Schaeffer is hoping that they'll come early for the 10th annual RazorFest starting at 10 a.m. -- with games, inflatables, concerts, autographs, mascots, healthy tips, giveaways and more -- and learn something in the process.

FAQ

RazorFest

WHEN — 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday

WHERE — Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville

COST — Participants are asked to bring a canned good or other nonperishable food item (such as peanut butter) to

donate to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and UA Full Circle Pantry

INFO — championsforkids.org

The event is sponsored by Champions for Kids, and it's not really a fundraiser, cofounder Schaeffer says, but more an opportunity to bring awareness to the plight children face in Arkansas and around the nation.

"People in Northwest Arkansas would be shocked if they understood the poverty numbers," says Schaeffer, who is communications director for the Springdale School District. "Sixty-six percent of students in the Springdale School District get free or reduced lunch. If these families are struggling to put food on the table, are they able to get their children eye care? Buy toothpaste? Buy shoes? It's not because they don't want to. But Washington County has the second highest poverty rate of any county in Arkansas. People don't know."

Schaeffer said he and wife Adelaide, now executive director of Champions for Kids, didn't know either, until they started taking homeless teenagers into their home more than a decade ago. They were inspired to start the charitable organization to help in direct ways -- by providing toothpaste and raising money for needs such as eye care. Through a partnership with Walmart and projects undertaken with its vendors, shoppers can buy products like toothpaste and drop them in a bin to go straight to the school district in that community. And funds raised through events like RazorFest go toward those direct services.

"What we eventually hope is to put funds into grants for public schools to be used for the needs they see," he says. "The thing I've learned working in Springdale is there's great need in the public schools."

RazorFest participants are asked to bring a canned good or other nonperishable food item (such as peanut butter) to donate to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and UA Full Circle Pantry. Champions for Kids hopes to collect enough food to help 3,000 children in Northwest Arkansas.

-- Becca Martin-Brown

[email protected]

NAN What's Up on 04/25/2014

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