By Sam Clark

Boyle County High School

Most teenagers think of a weekend in Lexington as an opportunity to shop at the mall, eat at nice restaurants, or attend concerts or ball games. However, one community minded student in particular at Boyle County High School looks beyond the personal satisfaction in the city and instead seeks to find opportunities to help the people that live there.
This is just one example of how senior Anela Kinkade always finds a way to show her love for people. At a young age, Kinkade was encouraged by her parents to learn how to give to others. “When I was little, I was really involved in church so we did a lot of community service projects. I was in girl scouts and we did a lot with the Salvation Army and I really liked it,” shared Kinkade.
Later in middle school, a project Kinkade participated in at Centre College impacted her on a much more personal level. “It was for St. Baldrick’s, a pediatric cancer research foundation. People shave their heads and raise money for it (the foundation). I raised over one thousand dollars and now I enjoy more individualized projects due to this one event in particular.”
While serving as a peer tutor in her junior year of high school, Kinkade befriended a student who was coping with Rett syndrome. Kinkade felt compelled to raise awareness and funding for this cause after she lost her friend to this severe disorder.

“I made and sold bracelets in her honor and donated the money ($375) to the Rett Syndrome Foundation.”
Kinkade’s most recent venture is her largest undertaking to date. While attending a medical camp in Lexington, Kinkade met a Henry Clay student who was actively involved in community service in Lexington through the Hope Center.
Together, they began to think creatively about how to help the homeless in Lexington. The result of the brainstorming became an initiative called Pockets of Hope. Their ambition was constructing bags or pockets out of old blue jeans and filling them with hygiene products to give to people in need. “We knew this would be a good way to be able to recycle jeans and help fulfill (some basic) needs of the homeless.”

The original goal for the project was to put together fifty pockets to donate. However, the quantity changed when Kinkade realized she could generate more financial resources to impact a much larger population. One of these resources included a grant that Kinkade received from her church, Trinity Episcopal in Danville. After meeting with Reverend Amy Meaux to discuss ways to help, the church donated $250 to Pockets of Hope.
Another source of funding for Pockets of Hope comes from the selling of homemade jewelry on one of her Instagram pages pohbracelets. In addition, Kinkade also has a GoFundMe account titled Pockets of Hope with a goal of $1,000.
In addition to securing financial resources, Kinkade must also focus on tangible items. “The thing right now is jeans. We thought the jeans would be good because we would be recycling them, because many times old jeans don’t go to good use. The Boyle County Y-Club and National Honor Society will be hosting future jean drives for anyone to donate to.”
Anela Kinkade has always been one to address the needs of others before the wants of her own. This kind hearted individual could certainly adopt the Gandhi pseudo tag of “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

It goes without saying that Kinkade’s love for others is truly making a difference as she continues to spread hope…one pocket at a time.