Teens who turned Thanksgiving into $30,600 for food and water

Four Thanksgivings running, from 2022 to 2025, PEER Teens USA has held a Turkey Trot fundraiser, and she is organising the fifth for this November. The four events drew 300 attendees in total and raised $30,600 for global food and water security causes, among them nutrition packs in Guatemala and water wells in South Sudan.

Kripa Cherian, a student at Lexington High School, is president of PEER Teens USA, or PT USA, the youth-led arm of the PEER Servants global nonprofit. She has formed a teen leadership team, and leads teen volunteers across 5 US states. All of its outreach is led by teens, she says. Members manage budgets, design social media campaigns, and organize events from start to finish.

“Age is not a barrier to making real world impact”

Kripa Cherian

Thanksgiving Day is associated with abundance, she says, and many families cannot experience this. "I aimed to turn a day centered on gratitude into one rooted in giving."

"For a long time, I assumed making a real difference was only achievable when you were older," she says. Her involvement with PT USA changed that. "It revealed that teens don't have to wait for permission to lead. If we’re willing to step up, people will come alongside us."

Economic inequality persists locally and globally, and holidays in particular shed light on those disparities for her. By addressing essential needs and moments of community, she wants people to experience hope and dignity.

Closer to home, PT USA partners with the Place of Promise nonprofit on an annual Easter Egg Hunt, three so far, for an estimated 55 children in under-resourced neighborhoods. She says that "through this event, we create moments where kids feel seen and valued." Its teens have also volunteered at the Justice Health Initiative, giving support and companionship to patients and families at Boston Children’s Hospital, and at the Bread of Life food bank.

She is a 2026 National Carson Scholar, recognised for her outreach and leadership work within PT USA. She has also spoken as a guest panelist at the Mothers Without Borders Colloquium at the Gutman Library of Harvard University about her outreach work.

As part of the global PEER Teens network, the team attends the annual AKT conference, collaborating with youth leaders from eight other country affiliates, among them the Philippines, Uganda and Peru. "These experiences continually remind me that, regardless of background, young people share the ability to inspire change through compassion, collaboration, and service," she says.