When seven-year-old Mihali Siderias came home on the last day of school with a bag full of crayons, he quickly realized he wanted to spend the summer building a crayon up-cycling business. He worked with his parents and sister, Amalia (age 9), to peel and melt crayons, create a name and logo, and package his goods for sale. "Amahali’s Upcycled Crayons" has a simple business strategy: collect unwanted used crayons, up-cycle them into fun shapes kids would love, and sell them around Wyckoff. In addition to selling door to door on his block and setting up at local lemonade stands, Mihali wanted to market his crayons on the Wyckoff Moms Facebook group. Mihali says he knew "the moms would help", but his own mom insisted that he offer a portion of proceeds to a charity if he was going to ask the community for support. Without hesitation, Mihali said he wanted half of his earnings to go to Families for Families. Over the winter, Mihali’s family participated in the adopt-a-family program and attended the holiday party. When asked why he chose Families for Families, Mihali said, “I was inspired by the party. I want to go back again next year.” Thanks to the generosity to his clientele, which consists primarily of Wyckoff moms, Mihali has been very busy making crayons. He’s also begun re-investing some of his earnings for additional molds and packaging in hopes of expanding to making party favors and personalized name crayons. Most of his earnings, though, have gone to Families for Families. On July 17, he stopped by the office with his mother and sister to meet with Executive Director, Cristyn Madley, and make his first donation of $113. After a meaningful tour and asking plenty of questions, the Siderias kids had new ideas for how they could continue to support the organization. In addition to continuing to donate earnings from his crayon business and participating in the various Families for Families programs with his family, Mihali plans to make special winter-themed crayons to give out as favors for the holiday party this year.