Senior Julia Meyer has helped the family of English teacher Casey Solgos recently by raising funds through her projects ‘Change for Carter’ and ‘Cookies for Carter.’ She’s hosting these projects to help Solgos’ son, Carter, who was diagnosed with Noonan Syndrome, which often includes congenital heart defects. Carter has gone through 11 major heart procedures and three open heart surgeries, so Meyer decided to fundraise to help the family to make sure that Carter fully heals.

What did you do to fundraise for the Solgos family?
Every year at my dance studio we do a ‘penny wars’ type thing, so I asked if this year we could give the money to the Solgos family. From that I raised $750. Then I sold bags of cookies at my dance recital that we have every summer, and I made $750 from that also. Then I kept selling cookies to neighbors and friends, and I also got a donation from someone at my dance studio who donated $500. Overall, I made about $2,500.

Why did you decide to do this fundraising?
I had Mr. Solgos my sophomore year, and I saw them selling t-shirts last year, and I was just touched by Carter and the fact that Mr. Solgos has two adopted kids, so when I saw that they were selling those t-shirts, I wanted to help out.

How did it impact you?
I feel good about doing it, and I really respect him as a teacher, so now I think we have a really good relationship which is really nice.

Did anyone help you?
Definitely my dance team who helped get the word out for the fundraiser, and my mom who helped me bake the cookies and hand them out.

Do you have any advice for kids who want to do something to help out?
It’s harder than it looks, I originally thought that I could make $5,000 but that was much harder than it seemed, so make sure to have a realistic goal. But I also recommend it because it was really fun, and it helped one of my favorite teachers and his family, which felt really nice.