Colton Brady

BY SARAH MATARELLA

PHOTO BY JOHN A. SECOGES, SECOGES PHOTOGRAPHICS

Colton Brady, 8, of Mohnton, won the 2nd Annual Sun-Maid Raisin National Contest earning him a seat on Sun-Maid’s Board of Imagination alongside five other students across the U.S., but that’s not all. It is his priority to share his success with others through Raisin Kindness.

Q: What was applying to the competition like? What did you have to do to win?

I had to write a story about a raisin, a mango and a prune because those are all Sun-Maid products. I wrote about a dragon and a catapult made out of Sun-Maid boxes that catapulted the raisins, mangoes and prunes at the dragon. They all became friends after.

Q:When you got through the essay, the two interviews and national voting, what was the grand prize?

Sun-Maid provided a bottomless raisin snack locker for [Brecknock Elementary School] so that anyone who doesn’t have a snack can grab one from the locker. I have so many other friends at Cumru and Mifflin Park. I wanted to share the snacks with them so they could also get snacks, too, because they all voted me for the second round… I also had to speak in front of my entire school in the gym with a Sun-Maid employee to talk about the contest. I was nervous.

Q:How did winning the Sun-Maid contest snowball into other opportunities?

“We started the Raisin Kindness project so that Colton’s friends and students at other Elementary Schools received free snacks as well and then our project spread throughout the whole Governor Mifflin School District,” says Heather Brady, Colton’s mom. “The word got out to local donors and other school districts, and they wanted to get involved… Now we have snack boxes with all of Sun-Maid’s flavored raisins, Goldfish and Milano cookies in about 30 different classrooms in 14 school districts.”

Q: What else did you work on during your position over the 2022-2023 school year? On Zoom, we talked with Chef Duff [Goldman] about making his Truce Cookie recipe, half oatmeal raisin and half chocolate chip, to leave them out for Santa. We had to send a video to Sun-Maid when we were making them. Then they made a cool video with all of [the Board of Imagination members'] videos.

Q:What do you like to do when you are not spreading kindness and snacks through Raisin Kindness?

I like playing basketball with my team at school and outside with my neighbor, Tyson. I want to be in the NBA when I grow up…or be the CEO of Sun-Maid. I also like playing board games and going to amusement parks

Q:What is next for Raisin Kindness?

“We came up with the idea to make postcards filled with acts of kindness for the school districts to complete in order to receive the snack boxes in February,” says Heather. “Now that this project is established, our goal is to do this every February, but as more school districts want to get involved, it becomes harder to take on the task ourselves. It would be awesome to have more businesses sponsor a snack bin to help bring them into as many classrooms as we can to reach our goal.”

Q:Why do you think it's important to spread kindness to others? Well, if you are not kind, then what would the world be?

Learn More

Show Support. Sponsor your very own Raisin Kindness snack box by contacting Heather Brady at heather@ doitlocalfundraising.com

So Many Raisins.

While in his role, Colton learned the Sun-Maid factory makes a billion raisins per day.

Pair it with…

Shirley’s Calamari! Crispy Mediterranean seasoned rings and tentacles are tossed with fried onions, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes and spinach and served with a fresh lemon wedge and chipotle tomato sauce.

Have A Drink With Kyle Riggs

Riggs is the proud owner of three awesome Berks County restaurants: Shirley’s Cafe, the Pike Cafe and Paradise By The Slice. He says, “Growing up in Exeter Township and working with my mentor showed me that I love creating an atmosphere for people to come together and