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Anchor Intro: One Kent State student is looking to give back to children who are currently in foster care. TV2’s Jarrod Evangelist has the story.

Meet Keri Richmond, a Sophomore Public Relations major at Kent State. As a young child, Keri was in foster care until she was 5 years old and knows the difficulties it brings. While looking for an internship this past November, Keri learned of an opportunity to become an advocate for kids who shared the problems she once had.

” Last semester , I began interning with a non-profit group called ‘Together We Rise.’ They’re based out of California and it started out as a social media internship and they asked us to sponsor or put out a fundraiser. I decided to do a Sweetcase fundraiser.”

At “Together We Rise”, the Sweetcases are one of the many ways to help foster kids. The Sweetcases are duffle bags full of items to make the child feel more at ease and carry hope, hence the name of her campaign.

“I called my fundraiser “Carry Hope by Kari Hope” because these duffle bags are a way for them to carry hope from home to home .

As an member of “Together We Rise”, you can start your very own campaign with a variety of options. Keri started small, but her fundraising numbers  have reached over $4,000 and that is enough to produce 160 Sweetcases.

“They’ll be sent here to Kent State and I’m working to put on an event with The Office of Experience and Education.  We will replace a Super Supper Saturday with a Sweetcase build and we will distribute them to local foster children.”

Keri will do whatever it takes to give foster children a better life and says just four percent go on to attend college and wants to change that. She hopes to have a non-profit organization of her own someday.

For TV2 KSU, I’m Jarrod Evangelist.