Founding Story (and how we got our funny name)

It all started with a love story. Once upon a time, Charlotte Kirchgessner and Eric White were students at Phillips Junior High School in Chapel Hill, NC. They soon graduated from what was the only high school in town – Chapel Hill High. Years later, they met (again), fell in love (again), married (yay!) and had two children (awwww!).

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Fast forward to 2007, on Kim’s Birthday (Kim is Eric’s sister). Instead of asking for gifts, Kim gave each of her family members a gift of $100. (Pretty generous!) The catch? She asked all of them to "pay it forward" and use the money to do something kind for someone else. 

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One month later, the family came together to share how each of them allocated their $100. The Whites’ children (Aja & Kai) joyfully shared how they donated their money. Aja donated art supplies to her school and Kai provided a soccer scholarship so another kid could play soccer, like him. The White kids were active, busy, and loved their extracurricular learning and experiences. 

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Moved by the impact of Kim’s experiment and their own children’s response to it, the Whites decided to do more. So they created a nonprofit organization. They called it SKJAJA. The mission? Remove financial barriers and provide scholarships so all kids in Chapel Hill-Carrboro could enjoy extracurricular activities. And inspired by Kim’s Birthday experiment and the joy and lessons of “paying it forward,” they added to that mission service-learning opportunities so that all young people could enjoy the benefits of service in community. 

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Then the Whites invited everyone they knew to join the effort. (If you’re one of those people, THANK YOU)! Yes, it all started with a love story – and it continues with one, thanks to the love and support of countless community members like you who have helped SKJAJA grow, year after year. 
 
As for the funny name? Birthday Kim has always used “SKJAJA” to refer to the people in her family:

Scott  • Kim  •  Josh  •  Ashley  •  Jessica  •  Adam

by the way, it's SKAH -JAH -JAH. Don’t worry. It took us a while, too.

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The end. (And just the beginning!) Wanna keep the love going? Support SKJAJA today.