From Iowa with love

KEYSTONE - Raegan Junge wants to buy a motel and turn it into temporary housing for the homeless.

“She told me she wants to have a place where homeless veterans, or people who lose their home in a fire, can stay until they have new housing,” Raegan's mother, Crystal Junge, says.

Raegan, 8, offered up her savings - $200 - to fund her efforts. She was told it wasn't enough, so she asked her father, Jerry Junge, if he could build her a motel.

“He didn't know what to say,” Crystal Junge says. “You don't want to tell her no for having an idea that could help people.”

In some ways, though, it was that word - no - that first inspired Raegan to help others several years ago.

Watching news footage of the aftermath of the earthquake that struck Japan in March 2011, Raegan told her parents she wanted to aid the victims. Her parents applauded her sentiment, but said the distance and language barriers would make her efforts difficult.

“I was a little upset that I couldn't help,” Raegan says.

A month later, Raegan found a way to help, closer to home.

Following the aftermath of the tornadoes in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Ala., Raegan crafted beaded bracelets, which she sold around her community for a freewill donation. Her efforts netted $450, which she donated to Project Blessings in Tuscaloosa. When a tornado struck Joplin, Mo., in May that same year, Raegan decided to adopt an elderly couple she saw featured on The Weather Channel. She made more bracelets and auctioned off a horse, raising nearly $1,600 for Don and Helen Capps.

“She started giving in kindergarten and she hasn't stopped,” Crystal says.

“You guys thought I was just going to have one project and change my mind,” says Raegan, who will start third grade this year in the Benton Community School District.

A map of the United States hanging on the wall of the spare room Raegan calls her office shows how far her goodwill has reached. Pushpins note the cities and states devastated by natural disasters that Reagan has helped in some way. This includes sending baby items to a shelter in New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy to her current project: Collecting school supplies for students in Moore, Okla., which was hit by an EF-5 tornado in May.

“I'm going to buy crayons, pencils and glue and mail it to my contact,” Raegan says as she sits on the floor, stringing a bracelet for her father.

Boxes of beads surround her. A storage bin filled with brand-new toys sits across the room. Baby items, including lotion and diaper wipes, are sorted in one corner of the room, next to a rack of new children's clothing. A small dresser holds supplies for another one of Raegan's projects - giving personal care items to homeless veterans in Eastern Iowa.

Framed photos of the places Raegan has visited and some of the people she's helped decorate the walls, as do multiple certificates that honor her philanthropic efforts. The latest is a $1,000 scholarship from the Kohl's Cares Scholarship Program. Raegan was also a semifinalist in the 2013 Build-A-Bear Workshop Huggable Heroes program. She's won several awards - local and national - through her membership with the American Legion Auxiliary.

In 2011, Raegan was named Viewer's Favorite in The Weather Channel's Epic Christmas contest, receiving $5,000 for a non-profit of her choice. She used the money to create a scholarship in her name, awarding $500 annually to a Benton Community Schools graduate.

A self-made philanthropist, Raegan funds her efforts selling her bracelets and homemade lip balm. She also hosts a large-scale garage sale every spring in Tama. The only project she's solicited funds for was the Christmas Goody Bag projects for homeless veterans she organized in December.

Raegan hopes to do that again, as well as continue to help natural disaster victims.

And she hasn't forgotten about her plans for a motel.

“I'll make it happen someday,” Raegan says.