Kids Helping Kids Planning Big Gala Return

Sacramento County, CA (MPG) -Tickets are on sale for the upcoming Kids Helping Kids Sacramento (KHK) 6^th Annual Benefit Gala, the seminal event for the nonprofit, which is comprised of and operated by 11^th- and 12^th-grade students at Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks.

The KHK gala is slated for Thursday, Jan. 11 at Harris Center For the Arts in Folsom.  The gala will kick off with a silent auction at 6 p.m., followed by food, drinks, stellar musical entertainment at 7 p.m., featuring a return headlining performance by the Charleston, South Carolina-based pop sensation, NEEDTOBREATHE.  The band’s 2016 release, H A R D L O V E (Atlantic Records) debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Albums, Top Current Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Album charts, and took the number two spot on the Billboard 200.

Launched in 2012, Kids Helping Kids Sacramento is a 100 percent student run nonprofit service organization modeled after the Kids Helping Kids Santa Barbara.  The KHK class and nonprofit is open to seniors and juniors at Del Campo, who must apply to serve as a volunteer in class, or for a seat on the senior management team each year.  Service positions on the KHK senior management team rotate out upon graduation.  The management team is overseen by a board of volunteer business advisors from across the Sacramento Business community.

The KHK’s mission is two-fold: empower students with the tools they need to make a difference in the classroom, the community and the world at large, while learning the ins and outs of running a nonprofit.  Secondly, be of service to those less fortunate. 

To date, KHK Sacramento has raised roughly $500,000 for individuals and families within its four core areas of service, according to Lindsey Terra, the nonprofit’s director of marketing, currently a senior at Del Campo.  Those include a tutoring and mentoring program for youth; the College Bound program, which offers foster and at-risk youth support with the transition from high school to college; financial aid for families with children fighting cancer through a new partnership the Roseville-based Keaton’s Child Cancer Alliance launched this year; and, on a global scale, funds to support the Love, Light + Melody Foundation, which works with underserved children in Nicaragua.

“This is our signature event and it is going to be amazing,” Terra said.  “We start planning this just about as quickly as we wrap up the previous gala, so a lot of work goes into it.  And although we do have mentors in the community, it is primarily executed from top to bottom by the KHK team of students.”

Proceeds from the KHK annual gala represent the largest chunk of funding for the nonprofit each year.  The 2017 gala generated roughly $146,000, Terra said. 

The KHK gala’s silent auction will offer opportunities to bid on a range of high-end gift baskets, donations from local restaurants and retail shops and several big-ticket items, including Napa Valley wine tours, passes to big sporting events and other “vacation experiences.”

The gala is a fundraiser, to be sure, but it’s also the organization’s annual recognition event, spotlighting the teens behind the scenes who put time and effort into the operation and management of its core programs, as well as KHK’s sponsors, mentors and supporters. 

“This is truly our largest fundraiser of the year,” said Terra.  “But it is also our annual party to recognize all of the great people who work to put everything together, as well as our generous supporters.  We couldn’t do it without them.  It’s the one place we can get everyone in one room to say ‘Thank You.”’