What started as a conversation during a family car trip has turned into an international project helping children in need. It's called Tune It Forward and it was the brainchild of four brothers and sisters here in Northwest Ohio.
This all started with a question from the youngest member of the family. 7-year-old Annie Klepper is a second grader. She was listening to a hand me down iPod from her three older brothers. She wondered where it would go next and the answer they all came up with is helping orphans in Haiti.
Shannon Klepper has been hands off as she watched her young children come up with the project, "What I love about this is that the kids took it and ran with it, and that's the best part about this, kids helping kids."
Like many of us the Kleppers had a lot of older technology sitting around the house and they decided that old technology could change lives. Little Annie sums up the plan best, "To always help other people and to think about what other people feel like, not just what you feel like."
The Klepper kids collect everything from mp3 players and iPods to iPads and headphones to chargers. It's all sent to an orphanage in Haiti where many of the children aren't able to attend school.
Robert Klepper is a freshman in high school and proud of the project they have all worked hard to get off the ground, "I know food is critical, water is critical, medicine is critical for the people of Haiti, but we thought, we're kids we want to help make a difference in our own way."
Will Klepper is just 11 years old,"They don't have school so they can listen to some pod casts and learn about science and math, and listen to a couple cool tunes too? Yeah!"
Shannon says that old technology will create a lot of new learning opportunities for the children in Haiti, "Educational pod casts audio books, videos, the possibilities are endless. Think of all the things we get from the internet that they can download into these and they'll now have access to."
Annie says they packed up their first box full of technology for the orphanage this summer, "We're sending headphones, iPods and chargers."
13 year old Ben Klepper is excited to know that what is old to him will be priceless to the children, "It's amazing to think that these kids have never have never seen technology like this and then to open up an iPad with the ability to learn and to listen to music, that is so cool."
Another shipment is going out soon and as they watch their children change other children's lives, Shannon and Chris Klepper can't help but smile, "It is fun seeing this through our kids eyes. This is not a ton of effort, it is a very simple concept. It's cool to be part of such a simple thing that can have such a huge impact."
If you'd like to help these amazing children, you can donate iPods, iPads, iPhones, mp3 players, headphones, chargers and iTune gift cards to: Tune it Forward PO Box 160, McCutcheonville, Ohio 44844.
There is also a Facebook page for Tune it Forward and they've gotten likes from all over the United States and as far away as Spain and Switzerland.
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