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NILES — A local high schooler partnered with a local nonprofit to make sure area youth have a happy holiday season.

Niles High School senior Stuart Lundberg dropped off a dozen Christmas break care packages to Eastside Connections School on Friday, Dec. 17.

Lundberg, the president and founder of the Lundberg Project For Community Service, said he secured donations from the Niles District Library and Harding’s to assemble winter break packages — consisting of books and candy — for children in the Salvation Army’s Feeding Our Sheep red backpack program, which provides balanced, nutritional meals to school children in our area over the weekends.

He also purchased socks to be included in the packages.
“Christmas is a time to do nice things for others and I am always eager to help families in need and hope these packages will make someone smile,” Lundberg said. “A big thanks to Harding’s Friendly Market and the Niles District Library for being so generous in donating items.”

The winter break packages were just the latest operation for Lundberg, whose first act after creating the Lundberg Project was raising 400 toothbrushes and 70 first aid kids to be delivered to a school in Puerto Rico following a deadly hurricane season in 2020. He also donated 100 tree saplings to Eastside Connections School and St. Mary’s Catholic School.

For Lundberg, the desire to give back to his community is why he founded the Lundberg Project.

“It feels good to give back and do kind things for others,” he said. “That’s what fuels the project right now.”

Helping others is a trait that seems to run in Lundberg’s family. His brother, Niles sophomore Sawyer Lundberg, delivered more than 400 holiday cards created by Sawyer and his classmates to the local Marine recruitment center, where the cards will be mailed to Marines around the world.

As for future plans, Lundberg said he has been accepted into Cornell University, where he plans to study finance.