T1L1 mentor Joe Rudy with some of the 122 Hamilton Heights Middle School students who took part in packing food for Haiti and Ghana. (Photo provided)
Posted By: The Reporter October 13, 2025
By KEVIN YANEY
For The Reporter
On Thursday, Oct. 9, Teach One to Lead One (T1L1) students at Hamilton Heights Middle School took part in a food packing service project. In one and a half hours, the students, teachers and mentors packaged enough food to provide 9,282 meals to people living in poverty in Haiti and Ghana, West Africa through the International Disaster Emergency Service (IDES).
T1L1 is a community mentoring program that meets weekly with 122 fifth- and eighth-grade students at Hamilton Heights Middle School. These students meet with a team of adult mentors who teach them about the 10 Universal Principles everyone needs to be a successful leader. These principles include showing respect, integrity, self-control, courage, excellence, humility, enthusiasm, compassion, teamwork and honor.
Beyond learning about these Universal Principles, the students are challenged to put them to work in a service project. That’s why the students were packing food for impoverished people around the world.
“These kids are amazing,” said Gabby Pinkston, T1L1 Program Coordinator for Central Indiana. “They really worked hard and had a lot of enthusiasm for what they were doing. When they realized how many people they were feeding, you could see them work harder and encourage others to do the same.”
IDES provides disaster response in the form of food, shelter, medical supplies and other necessary items worldwide. Based in Noblesville, IDES has been a key partner with T1L1 to help provide students with unique opportunities to fight hunger in some of the most impoverished places in the world.
T1L1 has been mentoring Hamilton Heights students since 2019. If you are interested in being a mentor in central Indiana, and have a flexible schedule, contact T1L1 at T1L1.org/mentors.
