Junior Hayden Linn owns and founded the candle business WildWicksbyHayden where a portion of her revenue is donated back to the community. She founded this company when she was in 7th grade in 2017. In previous years, she gifted the money to lunch accounts for kids in need so that they were able to get whatever lunch they wanted. However, this year Forsyth County Schools provided free meals to every student via funds from the United States Department of Agriculture. Thus, she had to decipher a new way to give back to the community. 

“I decided to donate some of the money to The Pantry by going out and buying a lot of groceries,” said Linn. North honored Linn for her charitable acts by awarding her the Rise Up Raider Award. “The award meant a lot to me [be]cause I didn’t think out of all the 11th graders I would be the one chosen. I’m really happy that I got the award and that others see me as a leader,” explained Linn on the topic of the Rise Up Raider Award.

While only in 7th grade, Linn had a big heart and a dream. “I got the idea of donating to the school when I was in 7th grade one day. I saw a boy next to me in line get told he couldn’t buy lunch because he didn’t have enough money. I leaned in and told [the lunch lady] that I would buy it for him,” said Linn. 

Although she wished she could do the same for every kid in need at her school, she understood that, realistically, she couldn’t. “Knowing I couldn’t do that for everyone, I decided to turn my hobby into a career and donate the money back to help people. Since then, I have always donated back to the school I go to,” said Linn. 

Whether or not Forsyth County Schools receives more funding to provide free meals to kids impacts where Linn will donate next. “Next year, I plan to continue to donate to North Forsyth whether it [will] be The Pantry or a different organization,” revealed Linn. 

Anyone interested in buying a candle to support Linn and the community can find her shop on her Facebook page WildWicksbyHayden.