Key2Finesse Youth Group Raises $75,000 For Gift Of Life Michigan

(CBS DETROIT)- 15 year old Krish Ghosalkar and 17 year old Kanal Patel are not your average teenagers.

"We're basically a go that strives to obviously make an impact in the community by supporting different non-profits but also building up the youth," said Krish Ghosalkar a board member for the Key2Finesse Youth non-profit.

The two are apart of an organization called Key2Finesse, a non-profit started by and ran by teenagers ranging from 7th to 12 graders. Every year the group raise funds for different charities such as Gleaners, THAW and Easter Seals, but in 2020 they chose a charity that they hope can someday save a life.

"We reached out to representatives from gift of life learned more about the organ donation process in depth and the dire need of it within the youth in our community," said Key2Finesse Youth non-profit board member Kanal Patel.

After choosing Gift of Life the pandemic hit, making raising funds for the charity a bit more challenging.

"This is something nobody had dealt with before so everything was put on hold we weren't even sure if we should continue," Ghosalkar said.

Realizing the importance of supporting the organization they did continue, and like most pivoted to virtual fundraising. The outcome, was much more than they expected.

"We were able to raise $75,000," Ghosalkar said.

Also through they're efforts, they encouraged 114 people to sign up on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. They were recognized earlier this month at the Gift of Life Champions Gala.

"We couldn't believe that they did that it's amazing for anyone, but it's especially amazing for young people doing this during a pandemic," said Gift of Like Community Outreach Coordinator Shalonda Griffin.

The funds raised will go toward the Gift of Life, All of Us youth program which teaches students about organ, tissue   and eye donation.

"Raising $75,000 if wasn't just more wow we achieved this, it was more of thinking about the impact that we made," Ghosalkar said.

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